Day 32: Incubator – The Last Lesson

The last lesson. Ross Goldberg closes the Incubator Lessons by giving final tips on what to do with what was given in the lessons and what to do next now that the lessons are over.

Now that the lessons are over, Days 33 up to Day 90 are all on me now. A Newbie no longer, I am a Rookie in Internet Marketing now. This blog will keep going till Day 90. Beginning tomorrow, this blog will have a running total of how much I have made starting at zero dollars. Hmmm… I’ll even include what and how much I spend. I will try to chronicle every step I take, every mistake I make and every success I get on my way to meeting my goal of getting a new cashflow stream. Wish me luck.

Day 31: Incubator – System Basics

Melanie Benson Strick identifies 5 must-have systems in order for you to grow quickly. Earlier, Melanie gave a lesson on Outsourcing which I was not able to review in an unbiased fashion. This is because I have almost the same expertise previously. Make no mistake though. This lady’s idea of fun is to go around and transform 6-digit earners into 7 and 8-digit earners.  I see her hold these special sessions with StomperNet Charter members thus, I look at her as a teacher of teachers. So it was with great excitement that I clicked on the play button of her video lesson.

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Day 30: Incubator – Mistakes

Today’s review will be very short. Ross Goldberg admits to and shares the mistakes he had made over the course of his Internet Marketing Career. This is a video that is deeply personal and very much appreciated. Few men ever man up to their mistakes in public. It opened my eyes to be more alert to the pitfalls that will become part and parcel of the world I want to go into. In honor of Ross’ request not to write too much about it, this review will only be a couple of paragraphs long.

Ross supplemented this lesson with a more detailed PDF file that lists down the Do’s and Don’ts on a personal level to the Internet Marketing Business. @Ross – Thanks dude. It wasn’t easy what you did online. Maybe one day, we’ll be doing business together and watch each others backs.

Day 29: Incubator – Sell More Stuff

Day 29 finds me paying attention to Ross Goldberg on the fine art of cross-selling, up-selling and down-selling without being annoying about it. Ross can’t emphasize perfecting this skill enough as you are interacting with your customer at the point where they have their credit cards out.

Ross further highlights this point by stating two supporting facts. One. It costs a lot less to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. And two. You only need to setup a system for this one-time upfront. It can then run with minimal supervision afterwards.

Ross then tackles something commonly seen with E-Commerce stores that are a big no-no with Internet Marketing. He drives the point home by asking you how you would feel if this was done to you in a real life store like say, McDonalds. Point well said and well taken.

Ross then gives a visual path to take to doing Up-selling in the Information Market complete with price estimates. He expands this further by adding Down-sells. Prices included as well. He then does the same thing for Products and for Consultancy.

Personally, after the detailed and lengthy videos the past couple of days, this video feels like an introduction to the topic of Up-selling, Cross-selling and Down-selling.

Day 28: Incubator – Twitter Be Nimble, Twitter Be Quick

Ah Twitter – Twitter – Twitter.  Admittedly, I started Tweeting during my first week as an Incubee. But for the life of me, I honestly couldn’t understand it. I don’t get it. I’m even amazed that people can communicate at all on Twitter… let alone make a business out of it. I mean think about it… People can communicate better with either a chat program or a blog. How Twitter got to be so BIG is a mystery to me. But since Twitter is this BIG already, it can’t be ignored.

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Day 27: Incubator – Social Media Basics

Dave Taylor presents a gem of a video lesson on my 27th day as an Incubee. This is probably the longest lesson by far and it gives lots of valuable insights. Watching this video gives you the impression that Dave spent some time preparing for this. The statistics he puts in the video are up to date. And his examples refer to recent events. The man’s intelligence shows in the way he prepares and presents his lesson.

First off, Dave presents what he calls his bullet points. It’s really his checklist on what he will present. I’ll share them with you below:

1. Social Networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)
2. Conversational Publishing (Blogging)
3. Microblogging (Twitter)
4. Social Bookmarks and Voting Sites (Digg, Delicious)
5. Online Videos (YouTube)
6. Reference Sites (Wikipedia, Squidoo, Hub Pages)
7. Creating “Home Run” Social Media Content
8. Tips for Success  & Productivity

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Day 26: Incubator – Attract, Engage, and Convert Customers Using Video

Up close. Facts. Experience, tips and a case study at the end. Again presented in the Sherman Hu style of showing website examples without sounding like a sales pitch for the sample website. This guy can teach. Today, I watched his StomperNet video lesson on using Video to help with the bottom line of your website.

Sherman identified 5 ways of using video to get traffic and to convert that traffic to business. Shermans first way is the Music Video. My first reaction was, “Come on Sherman, I don’t have a budget for that! What are you thinking asking me to make a music video?” Sherman didn’t disappoint though. He proceeded to share the ways and means to do this cheaply and effectively like a pro. One man can do it. Even me, the self-admitted UN-color-coordinated guy with 3 left feet, can do it. Sherman showed samples of the end-result if one applied his tips. They’re no push-overs. I can actually see myself being engaged by these samples.

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Day 25: Incubator – Article Marketing – An Important Key to Gaining Better Positioning in Google

Day 25 finds me checking if what I applied based on the StomperNet lessons a couple of days ago has any effect on my traffic.  So far, none.  Yes, I was told it may be 1 – 4 weeks before I see the results of my actions. But you can’t fault a guy for being excited right?

I got me some nice warm milk tea while I watch and review Ross Goldberg’s tips and lessons on Article Marketing. Ross warms up by giving the reasons why Article Marketing is important over some other types of content. He concludes this intro by stating that Articles have been around since the beginnings of the Internet and they are still around now. It was effective then for SEO and it is still effective today for SEO.

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Day 24: Incubator – Installing a WordPress Blog

Admittedly not too many things to pick up on this lesson for me. This is already a WordPress blog so this review on StomperNet’s video lesson for Installing a Blog will be a short one. I do understand that me and my classmates vary in what we already have at this point. Some have fully developed websites and just need to understand how to convert it. Others need to generate leads. Some want to have more traffic come in. In my case, I went ahead and already built this blog in Incubator’s earliest days just to force myself to go from notes to action. Not to worry. This is a nice problem to have.

Even though this is the second review for the day, I still have some extra StomperNet time so I focused on installing and using one of the tools offered by StomperNet for free to its members. This one is called SEOQast. It is a very straightforward tool. It guided me through making this blog more accessible to the public by submitting to blog engines and directories. The results of which I think I will see within the next 5 days as most of the blog submission engines are manually reviewed. I ran out of time though and will have to continue with another feature of SEOQast called Spinning tomorrow.

Cheers!

Day 24: Incubator – SEO using Press Releases

Wow! Remember Audrey Kerwood? – the teacher from my most liked StomperNet Incubator Day 11 and Day 12 video lessons. Let me be clear at the start of this review. This lesson is right at the Audrey Kerwood level. This is one meaty video lesson augmented by the passionate way Don Crowther speaks. He talks fast where he can talk fast. He slows down and pauses at all the right places. In short, Don Crowther is an Expert, a teacher and a public speaker all rolled into one.

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Day 23: Incubator – Traffic, How to Get It

Ross Goldberg starts off by showing us on-screen what a real traffic strategy looks like… <heart rate goes up and exclaim> Woh! That’s a lot of boxes. You can see what made me react that way because I’m going to include a screen capture of it.

Hi, don’t be fooled by the Day numbering. It really is still Day 23 and this is the third review for the day. This one is on StomperNet Incubator’s video lesson for getting Traffic and is a continuation of the last lesson.

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Day 23: Incubator – Traffic, The Big Picture

Ross Goldberg tackles this introduction to Traffic. And yes, before anyone asks, this is still Day 23. I’m on catch up mode to my classmates on StomperNet Incubator so this is my second review for the day.

If you are a fellow Incubee or classmate and are reading this blog posting and you feel I missed the mark on this one. Let me know by dropping me a comment. Okay, let’s start.

First off, I feel for Ross on this one. He is trying to teach something intangible today. He is trying to get one of the X-factors of Internet Marketing across to the people he is presenting to. This intangible is what separates those who succeeds big-time in Internet Marketing versus those who makes peanuts, just barely breaks even or worse loose money over this endeavor.

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