This entry is a “Blogicide Resurrection” post. It appeared on my original blog and is good enough to post on my “resurrected” blog. If you want to know more about my “blogicide”, check out the first post on this blog.
As I looked over this post to prepare it for publication, I have to admit that I am extremely embarrassed because I haven’t followed my own advice. I have the information available to earn my freedom from a J.O.B. and haven’t done anything with it! Why? Because while I’ve taken action in the form of websites, autoresponders, screen capture videos, and even some ebooks, I haven’t seen a single project through to completion. To fix this, I’ve retained the services of a mentor and I fully expect that mentor to keep me focused until I earn my Freedom. I’ve also decided to simply obey (read more about obedience on James Brausch’s blog if you don’t understand why I would say such a thing).
So with only minor editing, here is the original post, which first appeared on January 28, 2007:
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Back in December 2006, I posted about Christmas gifts from Internet Marketers and what I basically thought about them. I pretty much didn’t think much of anybody’s gifts — except for Ryan Deiss and James Brausch. When I made that post, I promised to do a quick review of James’ products.
He has a lot of them, so be ready…
But before I get there, let me go back to something I mentioned in that previous post about a little incident I had with James. I had purchased a special course from James on February 26, 2006. I received the welcome email on February 27. In that email, I was told to reply and send my desired login and password to the site.
On March 1 — two days later — my money was refunded and my membership cancelled. When I asked why, I was told that I had promised to do what I was told to do but had not even bothered to send the required information.
I say this to warn you: if you want to do business with Internet Marketers who will bend over backwards to try to keep you happy, then don’t do business with James Brausch. He expects his clients and customers to take action and keep their promises. (NOTE: He also expects customers — and students / interns — to follow instructions EXACTLY. –Tom) And buying a $10 product from him does not give you unlimited access to him, and if you choose to get rude and nasty in a support request email, chances are good that you’ll find your money refunded and a request to take your business elsewhere.
He explains a lot of this on his blog (here’s the link to James Brausch’s blog) and after spending several months hanging out over there (and picking up some pretty good deals on his product releases as a newsletter subscriber) I’ve come to appreciate his way of doing business. First, his products are about processes. He doesn’t go deeply into the “why”; instead, his products are pretty much “what” and “do this and then that”. (NOTE: I later learned that, in many cases, even James does not know the “why” because his methods are based on the results of statistical analysis — and statistics simply tell you “what”, not “why” — and “what” is usually enough. –Tom) You aren’t going to get rich quick off of his stuff; some of it takes a long time to kick in (but slow growth can mean long-term profits). And just like buying a book at your local bookstore doesn’t give you access to the author, neither does buying a product give you access to James.
Having said that, I think that there is a lot that any aspiring businessperson can learn there. First, create processes for everything. Second, protect your time (you are selling products, not yourself). And third, keep your promises — even if it means issuing refunds, like James did to me.
So what is James all about? He creates and sell products and business processes that will help you establish an Internet business. The basic formula is find a niche, create a product for that niche, drive traffic to the site, lather, rinse, repeat as desired.
So here’s the order I recommend for his products:
1. Start by performing some five minute marketing research (just click on the hyperlink to see how he does this). (NOTE: I was using Overture / Yahoo’s tools to do this research when I originally wrote this post. The keyword search count tool has not been updated in almost a year and the bid search tool is gone. I now use Wordtracker’s free keyword research tool for search counts. I get my bid amounts from Google’s “external” AdSense tool — just search for the one exact term and don’t ask for related terms. I also type my primary search term at Google — if I don’t see at least 8-10 paid search results and AdWords ads displayed, then I don’t consider it to be a worthwhile market. James also readdresses the 5 Minute Marketing Research question in Answer #7 to post 737 on his blog. — Tom)
2. Create a video product using the steps outlined in the Product Creation Home Study Course.
3. Next, learn how to write a salesletter by going through the Statistical Copywriting Course. Then write it (while this may seem to be an obvious step, many people are not successful because they don’t take action on what they learn).
4. After that, install MuVar on your website (by this point, you will already have your website — trust me on this) and set up your sales letter for automated multivariate testing.
5. Install the Munius Article Directory Script on your website so that you can start an article exchange.
6. Install Hermusa link-building software on your website so that you can start a link exchange.
7. Install SuFaq customer support software on your website to handle routine customer support requests.
8. Get Artemis Pro article submission software, write 5-10 articles about your product (one per day), and release them using the Artemis Pro software. Artemis Pro will help you avoid the dreaded duplicate content penalty.
(NOTE: Just this past week, after reading James “The Internet Marketing Book, Volume 1″ — which is available on Amazon — I have added an additional step to the mix. After I have six successful products in a market, I would build 18 content sites to drive traffic to that sales page. I would take my top six keywords for the product and build three different sites for each keyword, one for each of the major search engines. The whole process is explained on James’ blog — and in the book. –Tom)
By this time, you should be seeing some sales.
As an alternative (and I strongly recommend this), request to become a volunteer intern for James. You won’t get paid, but you will learn a lot about marketing and running an Internet business. You can learn more about it by visiting his intern website (NOTE: Don’t sign up unless you have a high speed Internet connection and at least three hours a day to commit to the project for at least one month. He will unceremoniously drop you from the program if you fall behind).
So if you think you can handle it, I recommend that you check out James Brausch.
Thanks for listening,
Tom
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