Day 33: Agonizing Decision

November 19, 2009 · Posted in 90 Days of StomperNet

stompernet-review-decision-agony Yesterday, I attended my first Stompernet Mastermind Group Online meeting. It is a focus group of StomperNet members that help each other out. There were a lot in my group who actually live within a 40-minute drive radius – 25 minutes if I drove like the crazy way I drove back in the Philippines.

They are a lively group. One showed us his website and we entered into a critique of his website on how it can convert visitors to business better. The group is lead by Mary Bowman who may need to move to Vancouver, BC soon so she can be closer to most of the group Seriously, Mary got my vote on Day 1 when a member of the group shared a technique for browsing the StomperNet site. Even though she is the Mastermind, she is humble enough to acknowledge that the technique shared by the Member is new to her too. This one moment encouraged the group to be more sharing of their knowledge and experience. I wish I can acknowledge the person that shared the technique but I was having audio problems on my PC so I wasn’t able to pick up on the name. Lots of ideas were exchanged and I’m positive that this group is going places.

I also got to work on applying the skills I learned from StomperNet Incubator program. First, I tried looking for an affiliate product I can sell. I referred to Erik Stafford’s Day 13 video lesson for this. I agree with Erik that Affiliate Marketing is the best way to start if you don’t have a lot of capital to work with. Admittedly, I fall under this category.

I did find several products that give good commissions and scores pretty well from the Keyword Research taught to me by Sherman Hu’s Incubator Day 4 lesson. But for the life of me. I can’t bring myself to endorse something that I haven’t tried myself. In addition, I can’t bring myself to endorse a store or vendor that I haven’t bought from at all. What if that store gives bad after sales service or has a lousy return policy? I don’t want to endorse something like that. It just didn’t sit well with my gut.

The only way around, I can think of, is to buy the product myself and try them out first. But it becomes a catch 22 as I don’t have the capital for that. Admittedly, I agonized over this the whole day: in the car, while having a meal, in the washroom… you get the idea.

Sorry, I’m rambling again. To endorse or to not endorse. Being able to make money for almost free is very tempting. In the end, my hate for a used car salesman that sold me that Buick Rendezvous tipped the balance. I do not want to do the same thing just to close a sale.

So as Day 33 ends, I’ve come to the decision to sell my own product. It is going to cost me some time and the revival of some Jurassic skills. Yes, I’ve been called old school by some. But at least my gut is not tied up in knots about it. Ultimately, I can come back to Affiliate Marketing when I have the capital to buy and try products out first.

Finally, I’ve added a page to this blog titled, Income Statement. Here I will show how and where I am spending my meager resources to meet my 90-day goal of an extra $800 recurring monthly income.

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