Hi All! Hope you are all good!

After reading my previous post about not changing anything, I had to chuckle as my habit of not making regular posts on my blog is obviously FIRMLY still in place. I guess some things never change.

After actually posting on my friend & colleagues Blog – Randy Smith – I guess I thought there really is no excuse for not posting on mine now!

Well the word has to be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!! And in true MiniSite-Wizard style, has to be “All Over The Place” as well.

I’m afraid the way I approach my internet goings on is very much like the way I cook. – I love “one pot” recipes. By that I mean time and care taken into what actually goes into the pot, but nevertheless all ending up in a single pot I can watch over with much care and attention.
Now give me a meal that requires the frying pan going, 2 saucepans on the boil and a few things in the oven, then I’m pretty sure I can tell you the outcome – One or more of the results being raw/overcooked/ON FIRE! (Delete as appropriate – depending on number of pots!)
I suppose the key word here is “prioritising” something which has never been a strong point of mine, but one I’ve found it more and more necessary to do. And I don’t think it’s that easy – Do you?

How do you use your time online to its maximum? Ensuring all your various projects and sites get enough of your attention to ensure they stay on track? Do you get sidetracked easily? If so, how do you avoid this happening?

I really would be interested to hear your ideas – Anything to give me a hand in that area would be fantastic!

Well, that’s long enough on this Blog Post – Else I’ll be neglecting other commitments!

(See? I’m getting better already!)

Till next time Guys,

I suppose I really have to start this blog Post with an apology. It’s been almost 3 full calendar months since my last blog post and I can’t use the excuse that I have been rushed off my feet, because it’s just not true!

If I’m completely honest I’ve not really been on the PC that much recently. What with one thing and another I’ve had other commitments that I needed to fulfil.

Firstly, there is the new day job! This involves a huge amount of travelling and staying away from home for extended periods, which I must admit, caused havoc with my graphics business initially. After all, it’s not like you can go around with your desktop PC in the back of your car constantly. However, after treating myself to a new top of the range laptop and a pretty decent hard drive, I am now able to complete any graphic orders whilst on the road. I guess I’ve gone mobile!!

But it wasn’t the new job alone that reduced the number of hours I was spending online: It was a personal choice too.

I’m sure most of you have heard of Randy Smith. Randy’s my business partner in our joint venture: Wizardresponder.com. And for those of you who are regular readers of Randy’s blog, will know he’s been going through a bit of an emotional roller-coaster at the moment in his personal life. Without going into detail, he’s had a chance to evaluate what’s important to him in his life, specifically around achieving a better balance in his work and personal life.

As the old saying goes: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

There is nothing quite like watching someone you know going through a tough time, to make you stop and look at what you’ve got yourself and whether you give it the time and attention it deserves. Thinking about it, it could quite easily have been me going through a similar upheaval to Randy’s.

So that’s what I’ve been doing, taking stock of my life as a whole but more importantly, re-evaluating where my graphics and Internet marketing business fit into it.

And as far as I can see, It’s all about learning to work smarter.

I truly believe it’s something that everyone can benefit from doing. Especially anyone looking to create an online income. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’ve often glanced at the clock to discover Id been on the PC all night and was due to leave for work in a few hours. No exaggeration.

So Here’s a little test for you to help you decide if you need to work a little smarter:

The next time you switch on your PC, just make a note of the time. Then go ahead and just do what you would normally do: It may be checking out someone’s blog, seeing what’s new in your favourite forum, or even continuing work on your first ever eBook masterpiece!

When you’re finally ready to log off your PC again, just make a note of the time. Now just take 5 minutes to ask yourself ‘what have I achieved today?’And be really honest with yourself! That’s why it’s important to note the time you’ve spent on the PC. Do the results you’ve achieved today seem appropriate to the time you spent achieving them?

Only you can answer this question. What could you have done differently that could have achieved today’s results in less time?

Remember it’s not about cutting corners, or sacrificing the quality of your results through rushing.

It’s simply asking yourself “What else could I have used that time for?”

So that’s me right now: Still here, still designing, still with ideas floating around my head for new ventures, but also using the time I DO spend online in a far more structured way. Leaving more time for my babe n me!

Hope you have a wonderful New Year Guys,

Pete

OK, so I know I’ve been even quieter than usual on here, but for once I think I’ve got a pretty good excuse!

After more blood, sweat, tears and cash than I care to mention, finally WizardResponder is ready to launch!

It’s been more than 5 months in its designing and construction, but finally Randy Smith and I are ready to launch our very own Autoresponder service, designed especially with the “Newbie” marketer in mind and with a price tag to match. So why not go take a look at the WizardResponder site?

I think everyone knows the importance of building your own mailing list, and after a lengthy chat with Randy, we both agreed there was certainly a gap in the market. Especially so for an Autoresponder service aimed at anyone just starting out on the Internet Marketing road.

Anyone who’s anybody in marketing online seems to quote of two statements as ‘The Gospel’ of making a regular income -

“The Money Is In The List”

OR

“The Money Is In Your Relationship With Your List”

There’s also been a lot of discussion recently over Awebers pricing restructure and how it affects those who are just starting to build their lists. The other think we discovered when researching the market, was the high amount of newbie’s who found Aweber confusing, and difficult to navigate.

In fact there were many who had an account with Aweber, but had given up trying to use it!

Hence we’ve made WizardResponder both affordable and newbie friendly, whilst ensuring it has contains all the facilities you’d expect from a fully featured Autoresponder service.

So now, after dedicated servers….ISP whitelist’s…FBL-Email addresses… and a million other things we didn’t know we’d have to deal with, It’s ready to launch!

So why not go grab yourself a WizardResponder account now?

I can highly recommend it…!!

No I don’t think it can only be me, but I must ask you: Have you ever managed to “Quickly” launch a product..?

Now forget product creation for a moment, let’s say your product/report is finished and ready for your customers. How quickly can you be ready to launch? I ask because I was totally amazed how much there is to prepare and do: Even on something like a simple freebie giveaway!

I’m sure you will have heard of  Omar Martin and his new product which is due to launch 2:00 PM (EST) 7:00 PM (UK) On FRIDAY July 25th 2008.

There’s only a couple of big launches like this per year and you definitely don’t want to miss this one!

Omar Martin, one of the best sales experts in internet marketing today, has put together a product that will truly ‘level the playing field’ in internet selling.

We’re talking about the guy that brought us “High Performance Sales Secrets” and “Winning The Sale” so I know we can expect a top quality product here.

Omar has managed to convince 9 of the most prominent and successful internet marketers on the web today to reveal their sales secrets to him!

And guess what….   Omar is going to be exposing them to us all in a product called “Kick Ass Sales Pages!”

The build up to this launch has been phenomenal and I have no doubt we’re looking at one of the biggest success stories of 2008. This guys forgotten more than I’ll ever learn on Internet Marketing, and his products always pack a “punch.”

Well I was lucky enough to be asked by Omar, if I would like to submit a “Freebie” to be made available to anyone who purchases “Kick Ass Sales pages” and I obviously jumped at the chance!

I wouldn’t like to even hazard a guess how many copies Omar will sell of his latest product, but I know that it will be more than a few thousand! Then of course, there’s the fact I’m actually featured on his sales page. I dread to think how many hits that page will receive in the first 24hrs alone!

So we’re talking big league here OK? Exposure that I even dreamed of. So obviously, I want to get it right!

Now  I’m not that big on reselling. I generate my income offering a service to people, but obviously that’s not appropriate in this case. So if I was going to be promoting another product, I wanted it to be a GOOD one.

I had a pack of Web 2.0 style icons I owned the PLR to, so the free package wasn’t a problem, it was deciding what my One Time Offer (OTO) was going to be..??

Luckily, I’m a member of GraphicsClubMonthly a membership site run by Max Rylski a fellow designer, who produces some real High – End graphic packages, which are popular with other designers as well as marketers in general. Max recently had considerable success with Covers 2.0 a fantastic package that enables you to create, high quality e covers without the need of Photoshop. (A pretty massive achievement.) As I have PLR membership to his site and blog, I jumped at the chance to promote this as a One Time Offer (OTO) so I designed a page that visitors would see before they received their download link to the free icons, offering Covers 2.0 at an amazingly low price, hoping a few would choose to buy.

I must say, I have made it a GENUINE OTO: That is, if you go to the page, you will not be allowed back to the offer again. EVER! If you’d like to check out my OTO for Omar’s Product launch, checkout the OTO link to the right of the page.  (Feel free to grab it if you want, but REMEMBER! You won’t be able to go back later if you change your mind!

So this brings me back to my original question: Can you launch a product or freebie fairly quickly and easily? My answer is a definite: NO! I’ve been shocked how many things there are to consider: page layouts, digital delivery options, opt in boxes at every turn, ensuring all links work: To and from your Autoresponder, between sales pages, download links functioning correctly, etc..etc. Oh and of course, my all time favorite: Making sure pages appear the same in IE and FF!!

I truly have learnt to appreciate how every step of the process needs to be 100% correct, even the smallest error could prove disastrous: Imagine a few hundred irate people contacting you due to a broken download link!!

But I’m pleased (and greatly relieved!) to report, everything is working and ready to go!

So watch this space…..!

I think I said in my last post something about being so busy that my feet hadn’t touched the ground..? Well how wrong was I..!?! I had no idea just how busy things were going to get from there on in. I seriously haven’t stopped working, either on my PC, or at my day job.

I don’t mind admitting, I’m completely shattered! But it’s a good shattered; the type of shattered that when I actually look at what I’ve achieved, makes all the effort worth it.

I’m beginning to understand why “Automation” is so important to successful marketers, because the intensity of visitors, customers (and income!) varies pretty violently and you have to be prepared when good fortune decides to look your way, cause if you’re not ready for her, she’ll soon get bored and go away again.

It certainly seems that people are becoming more interested in me and my work, with more orders flowing through than I’ve ever seen before. Now, I don’t want to appear ungrateful (I can’t think of anything more amazing than getting paid for doing something you truly love,) but I can’t help wondering to myself…Why?

Why, all of a sudden has my business picked up? And I have to be honest, its certainly not down to anything I’ve consciously done, in fact, if I’m truthful, Ive been somewhat neglecting MiniSite-Wizard after I relaunched last month, so I should really be counting my blessings!

I have to agree with Daniel Flowers comment on my previous post regarding the huge earning potential of membership sites, after all, a recurring income is the “jewel” in the Crown for every Marketer, certainly coming a near second to “Building Your List” as the most important task in front of any one looking for success.

As Daniel says, it’s all so well and good coming up with these sites, but do you REALLY believe you will be able to provide enough quality content EVERY month to justify this charge to your members?? A tricky one to answer I think. What have you got that people are willing to pay a recurring fee each month to get from you? Something that will take some careful consideration BEFORE you go launching an amazing, all singing, all dancing members site, only to discover after a few months, you’ve said everything you wanted to and fresh new content becomes harder to supply…

A few people have been quietly nagging me to set up a members area for a Graphic design support website, with it being a pretty huge, all encompassing subject and actually whilst it seems a good business idea, I’m really taking my time over deciding exactly WHO will I be pitching the site for?

Other Designers do just that… Design their own graphics, therefore have little or no use of a site like this (They probably know it far better than me!) Which leads on to the “Newbie” The question being: Just how New??

Virtually no one wanting to start out in this field will own Photoshop for example. Its a massive piece of software with a price tag to match And unfortunately that’s all I use when I’m designing. I’ve heard some good things about the open sourced “GIMP” but have never used it personally, so I can hardly claim to be an expert there. Even so, the opportunity to create a site around this theme is certainly worth exploring deeper than I have done so far…

BUT… Everything is on hold pretty much right now, as I have a MASSIVE product launch coming up and that’s taking up ALL (and a bit more) of my time. I’m not saying much on that right now, but I think you’ll be hearing about it in a few weeks time… Providing I get it finished that is!

Back to the grindstone now.. Take Care,

Pete

Have you noticed how membership sites seem to be all the

rage this year?

The few I’ve had access to made me wonder why so these sites are membership sites. Most seemed to me to be a product with a download area and a means of capturing our e-mails to continue to try and sell things.

Don’t get me wrong.  There are some membership sites that do provide ongoing useful information, especially in specific niches. I’m a member of a graphics club for example. But it’s a pretty hefty subscription fee and unless you’re in that business I reckon the average user would struggle to get real value from its content.

Another type of site that really annoys me are the ones where they offer a free membership, then low and behold, as soon as you have registered your free membership, you discover that the “Free Members” area consists of a single page and a couple of download links (one of which will of course be broken) and there’s an upgrade available if you want the real juice, but your going to have to pay the monthly fees!

 I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but that’s where MoreMonthly.com is totally different.

 There is no free membership, If you want access then you have to pay. End of story.

I Like that. It means the site is full of premium content, aimed at ALL users. And of course it means you’re not constantly getting harangued to sign up for this and that extra.

If your there, you’ve got access. It’s NOT a try before you buy type of thing.

There seems to be three aspects to the membership.

 The first is saving.

Every month, members get the download a minimum of 10 products that would normally cost on average.  Somewhere between two and $400, depending on the rights purchased with products.

 So the savings for people like me, who are addicted to buying anything that might be useful at some point, especially videos that show me how to do stuff, can seriously add up!

 Secondly, the making more aspect.

The vast majority of downloads that are added each month, come with rights.  Either master resale  rights or in many cases private label rights.

When weighed up against the cost of membership – It really starts to offset the cost.

 The number of useful products that are added monthly to the membership easily justify the small cost involved.  Having said that, I find the most useful part of this particular membership is the community.

 Within the membership there is a community forum. Now I don’t need to tell you, Forums are pretty powerful places. Over the months I’ve lost count the cash I’ve saved just through reading reviews, advice given and even just from general comments.

Well the MoreMonthly.com forum’s a place where members genuinely help other members, not only in terms of the wealth of advice, but also in the setting up of a Joint Venture opportunities, advertising opportunities and member to member special offers and discounts.

 Given the sheer volume of video tutorials, scripts, software, e-book’s and reports in the membership.  Add to that the help and support from within the community forum, and finish it off with the opportunities to build relationships with other marketer’s for everyone’s long-term benefit.

It’s a pretty hot package!

 Now price it at less than you would pay for one product per month, and I’m talking about the product of less than $20, not your $97 or higher product.

Pretty much your “One-Stop-Shop sort of thing. 

(And all this is covered with a 100% money back guarantee!)

 And yeah I’m a moderator in the forum, so does that make me biased on how I rate it?

 Of course! Do you think I’d even consider putting my name against something if I thought it was a bit of a dud?

No way!

I’ve SEEN the content… I’ve SEEN what’s coming, and I suggest you grab it now before the membership price increases (Which it will. I know.)

So head over to MoreMonthly.com and make your life a lot easier (and cheaper!)

Have you ever had that feeling, that for every job you complete, another two appear out of nowhere? Yep? Well that me over the last few weeks!

  Now please don’t misunderstand me, when I say I’ve been busy it’s true. I have been insanely busy, doing the things I love.

Designing graphics for people.  Actually quite a lot of people.

Today’s only the 13th of June and I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve designed more graphics for more people so far this month them probably the last four months combined!

It’s been a real experience for me. For the first time I’ve really had to plan my workload, manage my time on my PC far more efficiently. And probably the biggest change of all, delivering to deadlines.

I suppose this is the time it becomes really obvious how graphic designing differs from most other Internet Marketing niches:

 The process cannot be automated.

Not that I would ever want to automate it!

There is no better feeling than getting an order from a customer, normally with a very rough outline of the graphics they’re looking for, and then settling down in front of Photoshop with a blank canvas and seeing where my fingers and an imagination can take me…  With the amount of work I’ve had on recently, thank goodness I haven’t been suffering from designers block!  No time for that!

As well as general graphic orders from customers, I have also been involved in a new project.  A fellow  Marketer approached me with a suggestion for a JV which I believe has real potential for success. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about it soon.  Like most new projects, it’s a tip top secret at the moment. I will tell you is I think I’ve produced some of my best work for it.

I’ve  also been allowed to flex my “techie” muscles too recently.  I’ve always enjoyed messing about with the odd script or two, so when Randy Smith asked me if I would help him install and moderate a new forum that he’s just launched as part of his moremonthly.com membership website, I jumped at the chance.

Just another thing to try and slot into my ever increasing schedule!  But hey, it keeps me off the streets I suppose!

If you haven’t done so already, I strongly recommend you take a trip over to Randys new site and give it the once over.  I know Randy pretty well and he’s always been extremely generous with any product he’s ever launched, but there is no way he can maintain the low price he’s currently offering on the subscription to MoreMonthly and from what I’ve seen of the content, you should get your money’s back in, ooh I reckon,  about 25 minutes!

Oh, and don’t forget it’s got a fantastic forum, so someone told me….

So, I’ve been busy, stressed, working to unbelievably tight deadlines and not had much in the way of sleep.  So why do I do it?

Because when someone tells you that something you created, from inside your own head, has made a difference to their business and received comments from visitors; It makes every single second worthwhile.

Time for me to sign off now.  And I’m determined it won’t be so long until my next post. (especially now people are actually visiting my blog!  I’d best make sure there’s something to read when they get here!)

Stay happy!

A reply to my first blog!  Well that’s it then, I guess I can’t avoid writing posts any more, especially now I know someone is actually reading them!

Thanks for the feedback Randy, I may find it easy creating graphics and web pages, but its  totally different thing when it comes to building words in the same way.  Except thats really no excuse for not making sure I update this blog on a regular basis.

though I do have to say, in my defence I have been really busy with customers design requests.  However a blog filled with excuses for why it’s not been updated is hardly going to interest anyone, or motivate me to keep it updated and actually theres quite a lot to update you on!

A massive thank you to Randy for organizing what was a really great day a couple of weeks ago, when a number of marketers came together to share our thoughts and discuss possible ideas.  It’s actually quite strange to meet people in the flesh, who are interested in the same things as you and who quite possibly you have spoken to in the past on various forums.  Or as Randy puts it:  ‘at least it get you away from a computer screen for a couple of hours’

This is so true.  Designing graphics can often be an time consuming process, and as I am the type of person who does not like to leave things unfinished, I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve looked at the clock to discover it was 3am and I only had a few hours left before I had to leave for work.

So as I mentioned, Ive been really busy with design projects receienty, not to mention helping people install various scripts on their websites.  I also request from a customer asking if I could design a template she could use on ebay.  Now almost every one has listed something on ebay, and they have fantastic tools to help you design your listing and make it look as professional as possible.

However, using custom graphics or a template that matches your website for example, can be practically impossible unless you know how ebay operates especially when it comes to graphics and how to link to them from your listing. So it took me a while to get it behaving as I wanted it to!

But hey, I managed it, and managed to update this blog… and for me; thats pretty darn impressive! 

Well here we go then!

My first entry into my new blog! I suppose the fist thing to do is say hello and thanks for joining me.
I suppose I should also be totally honest and tell you this whole “Blog” thing is relatively new to me… Yes, I can hear most of you saying: “Where has this guy been the last few years? Under a rock!?”

Not quite. Maybe I should fill in some background about me:

My names Pete Crossman and I live in Manchester, England. And for any “international” visitors here, the answer is I can see Manchester United’s Football ground from the lounge window, and during big matches I can hear the crowd about 5 seconds before you do if your watching it on a live sports channel…. So there!
I work full time for Boots The Chemists, which is the biggest drugstore chain in the UK as a Store Manager, and have been with Boots all my working life… Not too adventurous I’ll agree, but hey, it keeps a roof over my head.

And this blog? Well its really about my “online capers” shall we say. I don’t want to use the term “business” yet, but who knows..? So that’s it really. Its about making money online. One hell of a broad subject!
I suppose I discovered the world of internet marketing, or “IM” as it is more often referred to, about 18 months ago. Like most people, EBay was the gateway that lead me to this amazing world of online income. A lot of you will have probably seen the huge number of people who sell information products, or E-Books as they are more often called, on EBay. its certainly an interesting idea; create something about a subject that people are interested in and sell it. Made even more interesting by the fact that almost always the item does not consist of an actual “Physical” product. Moreover its a digital document that the buyer downloads to their PC after purchase. You see the attraction: no fear of ever running out of stock or overhead expenses. Couple this with the fact that the whole delivery process can be automated, so a customer pays you for a product on the other side of the world, and your PC automatically delivers it to them. All this time your tucked up asleep in your bed! Another option is to create a “membership” site. A Site which is regularly updated with new and relevant content, which the subscriber pays a monthly fee to access, thereby generating a recurring income rather than just a one off payment.

Sounds great doesn’t it? And it is when you get it right. Of course the real challenge is getting it right. You only need to think about the concept of creating your own E-book or membership site briefly before you realise that this subject throws up a lot of possibilities and also a lot of questions.
“How do I…?”
“What’s the best way of….?”
“Should I…?”
“What should…?”
You will find yourself asking these questions more times than you care to mention. For every idea you may have, comes loaded with numerous questions and possibilities. The key is of course finding the answers.
Do I have them? No.

Am I rich? Ha!

I created a successful E-book (by my standards anyway) earlier this year and enjoyed a steady income generated by it. What I enjoyed far more was creating the “sales page” for it. You’ve probably seen hundreds of these sales pages online; all tempting you with various products or information covering just about any subject or “niche” that you could imagine. Well obviously my E-book had one too.

What was quite unusual in my case was I decided I wanted to create the sales page; graphics and all, from scratch. No page templates, no “generic” graphics that you simply add some text to in order to personalize, no nothing. I wanted to design & build it myself.
So I did.

This choice was a bit strange due to the fact I had ZERO experience in designing these type of graphics and about the same in building WebPages. Why then? Simply because it interested me. I realized I was far more interested in the sales pages themselves rather than the actual product they were designed to sell.

I mean, have you ever heard of someone completing a sales page, graphics and all, BEFORE finishing the product its supposed to sell….?!?! Ill say no more….
Suffice to say I decided to learn how to do it. Not by enrolling in a graphic design course to obtain an official qualification, but by playing. Playing and learning from others. The reason I chose to learn what I could from others, again had a simple reason behind it: Its only CERTAIN aspects of graphic design that interest me. Knowing the sort of person I am, if I was being shown something that wasn’t of particular interest to me, id get bored and end up quitting.

Sorry but that’s the kind of person I am!

The flip side of this rather shallow trait is if something interests me, I won’t stop till I find out how its done. Ask my partner, They’re what you might call a designers widow! Ha!
My blog is not only about my attempts to achieve an online income, but also a chance to tell you about anything I discover in the IM world that might be worth looking at. Oh and I won’t be trying to sell you the latest release from whoever, just because I’m signed up to their affiliate programme.
At this moment in time I achieve ZERO income from ANY affiliate program.
Why? Because Im not in any!
I don’t even have my own affiliate scheme! (Laziness on my part!)
A sure fire way of getting my interest in something is the magic word: FREE! And I’ll be sure to pass on any little gems I discover on the way!

So here I am. Ready to see if anything is round the corner.
And if it is, I’ll tell you about it right here!

Till next time,

Pete