So in the spirit of Christmas and giving… I've decided to publish this interview here for you. Read and reread this interview. There is a ton of gold spelled out — and sprinkled in between the lines.

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2009 — Enjoy!

Andre: Hey Brent!

Thanks for agreeing to do this interview mate. For the benefit of my readers — briefly tell me about you and how you got started marketing online.

Brent: There is no amazing story for me dude.

I started a small offline niche magazine in the 90's while attending college in New York. It started as a class project and took on a life of its own because the reader base loved the content, and they loved being associated with the "crowd".

I learned a lot about branding and creating a community from that.

There were 5,000 paying subscribers by 2000. We took it online after I discovered Pay Per Click advertising that year. That didn't work so well because it lost its edge, so we resumed publishing it offline.

My first successful online venture came after I read Jeff Paul's course. That gave me the idea of creating niche info products.

I started with one and added several over the years. This works well for me because I apply everything that works offline to the Internet.

Andre: Tell me — which marketers, or marketing icons, helped shape your current understanding of marketing?

Are there certain print books you've read that really helped shape you as the killer marketer you are today?

Brent: Eugene Schwartz, Gary Halbert, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Corey Rudl.

The two best books I've read are "Breakthrough Advertising" and "Tested Advertising Methods."

"E-Myth", "Blue Ocean Strategy" and Robert Cialdini's "Influence" are also important books.

I must say that I learned most of what I know through experience and by observing the way other people market and sell their stuff.

Lots of direct marketers are closed minded (or ignorant) to branding and anything that is NOT direct marketing. They are missing out.

It's also pretty awesome to be in the environment I'm in at the moment. Lots of people here are in survival mode — especially the street vendors.

So you see really innovative stuff. I carry a little blackbook with me and make notes whenever I see or hear something interesting.

You get to see killer selling and persuasion in action. Most westerners wouldn't know what hit them if they were exposed to this stuff. It's brilliant.

Andre: I'd probably add Seth Godin to your list, for myself. He's always been way ahead of the curve with what he says. I've read almost everything he's put out.

That's a great idea with the notepad to jot down ideas as you see them. I think everyone should have a little notebook in their pocket. I simply cannot rely on my memory to recall stuff hours later. lol.

I'd have to agree with your assessment of most direct marketers. Even now when you browse the ClickBank marketplace, for example –- you essentially see nothing new — in terms of how marketers "market" their stuff.

It's unchanged from a couple of years ago — yet it needn't be like that.

Now, you are what I would call an "info marketer" specialist. You seem to stick to what you know. In other words — you don't promote consumer products per say. You stick to digital information.

Would you say that is accurate?

Tell us a little about your core/primary business model. Is it similar to the "Underachiever" system, made famous by Frank Kern?

Brent: I forgot about Seth Godin. Yeah, add him to my list.

As you said, I only promote "info products". Not necessarily all on the Internet. I sell stuff offline as well. I don't promote stuff like shoes, furniture, mortgages, ring tones etc.

The business model is very basic. Sell low ticket items to generate leads, and then promote higher ticket stuff on the backend.

Traffic comes from a combination of my own lists, PPC traffic, JV's/affiliates and offline ads.

Andre: Gotcha!

You know — so many people (novice/intermediate marketers) miss the fact that the basics of selling information products online is pretty simple.

Yet they buy up every new "magic-bullet" product that comes out (virtually monthly) in the hopes of discovering something new.

It's kinda crazy really.

Although, on the flip side, framing your solution as a type of "magic-bullet" is really powerful. Maybe we'll address that later.

For now — let's break down the core elements of your model to help folks understand and digest this stuff.

Let's hit "market research" first. I know a lot of people get stuck right here in the beginning.

Tell me briefly how you go about scanning to identify a potential niche market.

Brent: I always frame my offers around "One Amazing Outcome"… I guess that is right in line with "magic bullets".

Ok, market research…

Step 1 The first step is to look at this page on EzineArticles…

http://ezinearticles.com/category-guidelines-printable.html

Step 2. Randomly choose a broad topic.

Let's go with the "Arts-and-Entertainment" category for this example.

Step 3. Select a subtopic

"Arts-and-Entertainment: Photography" looks like a good one.

Step 4. You will find a few gems by simply browsing through the titles under these subtopics. For example…

• Digital Photo Manipulation

  • Potential Info Products: "Photoshop Secrets", "How to restore old photos", etc.

• Freelance Photography

  • i.e. "How to make money with your camera"

• How To Buy A Digital Camera

• Portrait Photography

  • "How to use a hand held flash"
  • "How to use natural light"
  • "How to photograph babies"
  • "Pet photography secrets"

• Underwater Photography

Step 5. Pick ONE (or all… individually) and go to the ClickBank Marketplace to find info products in that market.

Step 6. Check out the ads that are running on AdWords, YSM, and MSN AdCenter for the main keywords for that product.

Step 7. Copy the ads to a basic text document.

Step 8. Paste the URLs of the ads into SPYFU to steal their keywords and to get an idea of how much they are spending on AdWords.

Step 9. Join their affiliate program.

Step 10. Create a presell website for the product.

Step 11. Send traffic to that website using the main keywords.

I.E. The short tail keywords. (Narrow your selections to the most searched for 2 or 3-word search phrases.)

Don't waste time targeting those obscure long tail keywords. It sounds good in theory to have thousands of keywords, but in reality, those obscure keywords don't convert to sales as frequently as the main ones.

Step 12. Track conversions.

Step 13. Analyze the results.

Step 14. Repeat steps 1 through 13 over and over.

Step 15. Create your own products in the best performing markets and recruit hundreds of affiliates to promote your websites (see the Multiplier Method book.)

Andre: Before we put "finding a niche" to bed, let me ask. Do you tend to avoid hyper competitive markets — or are you attracted to them?

Non-competitive niches (Example: teach your parrot to talk) have the potential of being void of many "cash in hand" customers. But at the same time — advertising is going to be a lot less expensive — and competition less cutthroat.

More competitive markets (Example: weight loss) are guaranteed cash cows — but inexperienced marketers can easy lose their shirt in these sometimes ruthless environments.

What tends to be your methodology here — and what would your advice be to others?

Brent: The niches I go for have between 50k and 100k searches per month for the main keywords (combined).

I'm not doing anything in highly competitive markets, and I don't do "teach your parrot to talk" type markets.

Niches within broad markets… Sit-n-Go strategy and Low Limit Holdem tactics (within the POKER market) are two examples.

The people who use those terms know what they are looking for, and there is enough action to hit my goal, which is 3000 uniques per month per product.

Andre: Ok, now our market research is done. We've located a "potential" hot sub-niche within a lively broader market. Where do you go from here?

Would you go-ahead and create a product at this early stage — or do you move in as an affiliate to "test" the water first?

What's your strategy at this point — and why?

Brent: Sometimes I will create a product if there are other products that have been around for a long time. Most times I will scope the market out and promote stuff as an affiliate for a few weeks.

I do that because I'm looking for stats. How much does it cost to drive traffic, how competitive are these markets, are people buying stuff, how often are they buying, what ticket prices are they comfortable with, how many affiliates are there etc.

I have set criteria. There needs to be at least 50,000 searches per month that could potentially lead to sales. So I'm looking to get 150 to 300 unique visitors per week as an affiliate. My goal changes to 3,000 uniques per month when I become a vendor.

That data gives me an idea if it is worthwhile creating a product.

Andre: Yeah, exactly. Affiliate marketing is a great "quick and cheap" way to extract metrics from a niche… and also observe how the people in that niche "behave".

Right — so you've tested a niche using affiliate marketing. You've generated a couple of sales — and the numbers stack up. So the next step for you is to create a product. Let's talk about that next.

What is your strategy for creating a product? Do you create the product yourself — or do you tend to get that outsourced?

Also — are your products mainly pure ebooks — or do you use audio/video as the product?

Brent: There is a mixture. I use short ebooks as a front end, and then sell DVD's or CD's on the backend. I always want to ship something… it's an important element in my model.

Regarding how the work is done, I "outsource" some of the work, and others I do myself.

The "clip job" method I talk about in the original Multiplier Method book is exactly what I do if I need to write something quickly.

It takes about 5 hours to write something from scratch to completion.

I also get experts or people who know what they are talking about to do a quick interview with me. You can find these people on forums, blogs, or on Guru.com.

Or in the yellow pages. Jay Abraham does this, so I copied him.

I owned a phone that could record calls in America, but didn't bring it with me. So now I use a teleconference service and they record the call for me.

Software products are outsourced. I don't want to look at code.

Andre: I love the "short" ebooks idea.

Today I purchased 3 products within a particular niche. They were all the same.

100+ pages for the main guide. Each bonus was also 50-100 pages — with an average of 2 bonuses per product. That's 200+ pages of content per product. It's crazy!

I know I can easily compete in that market with a 20 page guide — and probably charge more for it if I wanted to.

Ok…

Before we move onto PPC… let's talk about your keyword strategy. In particular — how you build your initial main keyword list that you'll end up using in AdWords.

Do you try and mine for long tail search phrases (4-8 keyword phrases) from the get go — or do you go for the broader 2-3 word terms that carry the majority of search volumes… and why?

Is there one keyword tool/service that you always use or turn to when building your keyword list?

Brent: Who ACTUALLY reads a 300 page ebook? It is utter madness to take the effort to do that because nobody will read it.

People are looking for a solution. It's simple. Give them what they want.

(Who cares about the history of poker? Or the history of AdWords? Or an extensive introduction to the Forex markets?)

Regarding my PPC keywords…

I start with the most obvious ones. I arrange the keywords into broad categories. And then from there, I divide those into "sets". I call them keyword channels. These are "ad groups" in AdWords.

I don't look for those long tail keywords.

I use ThemeZoom and Wordtracker. ThemeZoom is the worst software on the planet… but it is the only thing that does what it does. There is a steep learning curve, but it's worth it.

Andre (Dec08 Update): Since doing this interview back in January 2008, Google have enhanced their own public keyword tool portfolio.

• Google Keyword Tool
• Google Search-based Keyword Tool (live example here »)

Andre: Excellent. I'm glad you mentioned "keyword channels", or the containers in which you group "like" keyword phrases.

I see many people mess this part up. They either lump too many keywords into each keyword group — or end up lumping non-similar keywords together. I see a huge lack of understanding here.

Can you explain for me "why" it's so important to effectively group like keyword together? Also tell me what happens "after" the click. Where do you send that traffic?

Brent: Doing it this way allows you to build ad groups that are more targeted.

So the search term, the ad, and the landing page all work together. Your ad groups are "tighter" if you use this method.

It's important to monitor keywords and performance. I use Perry Marshall's "peel and stick" technique to break ad groups into smaller groups, with their own ads and landing pages.

After the click… it really depends. You have two goals.

The primary objective is to get people to send you money — the secondary objective is to get people to stick!

You do that by demonstrating the potential for value and the potential for results…

AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!

Lots of marketers get this wrong.

I read their sales letters and have no idea what their product does, or what result I will get if I use it.

Other marketers have a clear value statement, but it's hidden deep in the text, and you have to be really bored or interested in the product to read all the way through their sales letters.

Silly.

Big companies that spend loads of money get it. (Even though guru's like to knock them at every opportunity.)

Look at their ads. The value statement is very clear, right up front so you know right away what you are going to get.

Check out the ads for B and H photo or adorama. They know that their customers want a deal (i.e. a discount) on equipment. So the price and bonuses they are offering is made clear.

Because that is what their people are looking for. People who are looking for that can't miss it. And then they "build value" with customer service, extra goodies, super fast shipping, etc.

For info products, I say exactly what results my customers will get as soon as possible, and then use supporting documentation or case studies to prove that the product delivers results.

It starts by having a clear idea of who's going to land on your sites, and having a clear idea of what they want to see when they get here.

Andre: That's killer advice.

Quick story — I have a friend, Mark, that I've been helping promote his very FIRST product (see Marketing Bully for the full scoop on this!). Last night I helped him setup a couple of AdWords campaigns (he's never used AdWords before).

Each ad group has only got three keywords (one keyword with the three bidding options) — a very focused ad, and a landing page that continues the story.

The guy could hardly sleep. He was afraid that Google would empty his bank account come the morning. I had set his daily budget to $500… but when I had left, he lowered it to $100 because he couldn't take the pressure. lol

This morning we met for breakfast. I asked him what had happened over night. He was totally pumped. He had ended up spending $60 on advertising… and had generated 3 sales — totaling $130.

$70 net within a few hours — and this was his first attempt at selling stuff online. He's sold!

Right - let's move on…

Tell me about your bidding strategy.

Is there a bid position you always aim for first? Do you bid high early on to get a good CTR — then lower your CPC later?

Do you look at ROI from the get-go… or is that something you only focus on a little later — as the campaign matures?

Also — what are you views on the "content network" (the one which you can enable/disable in the search network)? Do you leave that turned on when you launch a new campaign?

Brent: My strategy is to go for position — #1, 2 or 3. I'm willing to break-even on the first sale because my backend system is pretty effective.

That means letting the campaign run for a few days then getting the conversion rates and the value of each click before committing any significant resources to a product or campaign.

Your readers should try the following strategy if what I just said is confusing, or if they are paranoid about losing money.

They should start by setting the initial maximum bid price to 1% of the per sale revenue.

So if they are earning $50 per sale, they should set the max price to $0.50 per click. (1% of $50 is $0.50)

Or if they are making $97 per sale, they should set the max bid to $0.97.

You pretty much can't lose money doing that… as long as the conversion rate is above 1%.

You can then adjust it over time depending on the conversion rate of the front end product.

This is a "fool proof" method for figuring out your starting bid. I used that method when AdWords first came out. It works.

Conversion rates dip over time, some keywords become more expensive and all of that can make certain campaigns ineffective.

This is an on going process. They should be checking conversion rates down the keywords at least once a week.

Regarding the content network — I have only played with the content network so can't give you a definitive answer.

So far the results have been pretty disappointing… the CTR is pretty low and the conversions are even lower.

Ryan Deiss has a system for getting traffic from the content network and your readers should probably go to him if they are interested in using the content network.

Andre: Yeah, I too see far lower conversions from the content network. I have a kinda love/hate relationship with it.

Every now and then Google will syndicate you to a content partner that converts like gang-busters… but its almost pure luck stumbling upon situations like that.

Other times you pay for 300+ clicks and get nothing for it. It's something you just have to test on a per niche/product basis.

As an affiliate, there are tool like Affiliate Prophet or Xtreme Conversions that allow one to track sales conversions on a per keyword phrase level.

Do you use any of these when competing as an affiliate?

Brent: I've got Keyword XRay. Never use it. I know I should because it will really streamline my process and it will definitely increase my immediate profits, but I'm really just interested in making sales up front. I find it time consuming and confusing.

Andre: As a vendor, what analytics/conversion tracking tools do you use — if any? Do you use any 3rd party stuff — or do you just use the built-in conversion tracking option within AdWords?

Brent: I use all of Google's tools.

• The built in ad split tester works beautifully and is very easy. You simply add two ads and turn off the "optimization" feature. Find the control ad and then test variations.

• Sometimes I A/B split test landing pages with AdTrackz. Other times I use multivariate software such as KaizenTrack or Armand's software.

They do the same thing. Armand's is easier to use — I actually prefer it, but I ran out of licenses and can't justify paying 500 bucks for five sites.

KaizenTrack is unlimited. It just takes a little longer to setup.

Andre (Dec08 Update): Google Website Optimizer is another option. It's also free.

• I'm using Google Analytics on ALL of my sites. Every single page through to the "thank you" page.

Takes no more than 10 seconds to add it to all of the pages on a site with XSitePro or WordPress and it gives great data. It's perfect for my content style sales sites.

Andre: End of the day — whether you're an affiliate or vendor, you need to know what keywords are working for you and which just aren't.

Brent: Yeah, I agree. It's counter-intuitive, but many times having 10 focused ad groups with 3 or 4 keywords can make you more money than a shotgun campaign with thousands of keywords.

My AdSense Empire site did around five grand per month with 2 keywords. "adsense" and "google adsense" (with the quotes.) It was in profit for 18 months. I decided to pull it after the first Google Slap.

(BTW: If someone knows what they are doing, that is a highly lucrative market… just be prepared for a "different" kind of customer.)

I've got another site in a consumer niche market that has been grossing $100 to $200 per day with ONE keyword… since 2003.

Every time I read an AdWords book that says you should have loads of keywords, I add more keywords and my profits fall almost immediately.

I KNOW that only that one keyword converts because I've tracked it and tested other keywords for years.

It's easy for me because I own the sites and have access to all of the data.

I suppose it's relative. That's my experience with info products.

I'm sure it's different with physical products like chairs and hairdryers and iPod cases.

What's your experience with affiliate campaigns?

Andre: I use Xtreme Conversions (XC). I still think it's the best thing since sliced bread. lol. I've tried other solution — but for me, XC is King.

Andre (Dec08 Update): I don't use Xtreme Conversions anymore. I use Affiliate Prophet now. It was released after Xtreme Conversions. It's really a very slick tool.

It even has a Taguchi component built right into the tool for advanced users (a pro version feature).

Brent: How do you track individual keywords?

Andre: XC tracks that very effectively. I bid on relatively broad (although still targeted) keyword phrases… and then XC will track and display in a report form the "actual" long tail derivatives that generate sales.

I then create specific AdWords ad groups for those proven long tail converters (which are not always long tail in nature).

Brent: Interesting strategy mate. It's like Perry Marshall's peel and stick tactic, but more aggressive.

Have you tried a shot gun approach?

Andre: Yes… and I found it as targeted as a Muslim shopping in a "pork" butchery. It just didn't work.

Brent: lol.

Andre: Lastly — let's chat about "conversion tactics" for a bit.

I love what you write about this stuff… about the psychology (human behavior) of this stuff. How to determine the "hot buttons" of your prospect? (So that you can then push them relentlessly.)

Brent: Everything changes when you realize and accept that you cannot MAKE people buy stuff. You can't even make people read your content.

Lots of newbies think it's the words they say. In reality, you can write crap copy and outsell the highest paid copywriters in the world.

I can write a 300 word description of a product and outsell a 24 page sales letter.

Anybody can get spectacular results. They only need to do three things:

1. Identify a universal hot button.
2. Identify how that universal hot button affects your market.
3. Create your message around that.

That's your start.

This is where the subtle dynamics of social relationships comes in. Stuff like…

• Polarization

• Internal scarcity (scarcity in the reader's mind)

• External scarcity (social pressure)

• Fractionation *(a hypnosis term — it's a wave-like progression of involvement)**

• Ratification (another hypnosis term — getting someone to affirm their agreement… in their own minds.)

I hate to use this example, but it explains this concept clearly.

We spoke about this in London. Think back and recall the example of the chick sitting on some dude's lap.

She's sitting on his lap, her subconscious tells her that there's a girl sitting on his lap, therefore he must be attractive to women, so he instantly becomes more attractive to her.

In business, or Internet marketing, the effect is ghetto Branding. ("Branding" here refers to how the customer perceives your company.)

Andre: I know many people will totally miss (don't understand — or don't care to understand) a LOT of this stuff that you write about. That's their loss.

At the same time I know that there are a few people will take the time to "get" what you are trying to explain — and use it — and they end up making a killing.

Brent: This stuff is crucial. A lot of it is deliberate.

Andre: Loosely — what is your "strategy" for converting prospects into customers or clients?

Brent: Let's remember what I sell. "info products".

My first main objective is to suck my prospects into a "different" world and give them a new experience.

There are different ways to do that. You can be controversial.

But that's a temporary solution and most people go overboard. People are turned off quickly because it gets tedious, boring and it creates too much tension.

There should be a delicate balance between the amount of tension and resolution. AS I mentioned earlier, you'd see a wave-like movement if you were looking at a visual representation of that.

The correct way to get this same EFFECT (in my opinion and experience) is this idea of giving glimpses for the potential for massive value.

It's the opposite of what everyone else is doing. People are resistant to you telling them stuff. It's a survival mechanism.

I don't read sales letters anymore. Do you? I don't listen to 90% of the gurus out there because they haven't proven that they can give me something that I don't already have. Do you?

If you're like me, we are aware of what's going on, but it takes a lot more than a sales letter to get us excited enough to buy stuff.

Most people have that mindset.

It becomes harder and harder to sell stuff because people are jaded. That's why it's crucial to SHOW value up front, get them involved, and then slowly allow them to make their own decision to come into your little world.

We have spoken about creating barriers and then making loopholes for people to put themselves into your sales funnel.

Like charging a price for people to get onto your list. How do you do that? You have to implement whatever ideas you can come up with that will make people WANT to get onto your list.

I have several strategies and tactics, but it's better if people stop and think about it and come up with their own ideas.

Just keep the end result in mind. You want people to WANT to get on your list… they must want it enough to part with a few dollars or go through a screening process to get on your list.

How would you do that? What can you do or show people to make them want to get on your list?

Make sense?

Probably not, but it works if you actually do it. It's counter intuitive.

I will cover this concept in detail in 2008/2009… for people who are genuinely interested in using it in their businesses.

It's kinda weird to write about this stuff and it can be confusing without the full details, so I'll stop here for now.

Andre: A few years ago you introduced me to Jay Abraham's Advanced Strategy of Preeminence. It was confusing at first for me — then over time — I "got it"… and it was amazing.

How has that influenced how you "convert" prospects… how you treat customers?

Brent: It's an important concept.

Preeminence is all about your relationship with your customers.

You forget about your marketing, your traffic, your list building projects, and your products. Instead, you focus on the customers.

Your focus becomes helping the people who listen to you.

You focus on providing the best result you can so that people actually, genuinely come away better off from being in your circle. Just doing that almost naturally makes you more money.

It does NOT mean that you give everything away for nothing. You make sure that you provide value and put a price on it.

You owe it to your customers to give them an opportunity to reciprocate. If you don't, your product loses value (in the customer's mind), and they won't end up using the product and getting results because they perceive it as crap.

Price is a non-issue anyway because value is relative. The idea is to provide something that is more valuable than the amount of money you are charging.

So you concentrate on GIVING PEOPLE A RESULT… and you making more and more money is almost a side effect.

Does that make sense?

Andre: Absolutely!

Your Action Plan

Step 1. Find a niche and locate a product to promote.

Step 2. Use my lightweight Mini-Income System to promote the product as an affiliate. (Or opt-in to see my advanced method of promoting products as an affiliate or a vendor.)

Step 3. Rinse and repeat.

Step 4. Create your own products and become the vendor in the best performing markets. Get affiliates. Train them to sell your stuff. This is the ultimate form of leverage.

Be bold, take action!

Cheers,
Andre

I've just noticed today that Leo Babauta is about to release a book — The Power of LESS.

I've already pre-ordered my copy at Amazon.

I've been a reader of his Zen Habits blog for the past few months. It's a blog all about "productivity" (getting shit done)… and he has over 81,000 subscribers.

His content totally rocks. You should check it out.

… and I have no doubt that his book is going to be brilliant too.

My goal has always been to use as few tools as possible to maintain optimum productivity.

The feature list of so many tools overlap — so it's quite a challenge to find a core set of productivity tools that can pretty much do everything.

Requirements

• To use as few tools as possible. (Minimal feature overlapping. In other works — a tool must specialize in doing ONE THING well!)
• I ideally prefer an online tool to a desktop one. (Although in some cases a desktop version is better — but more on this in a bit.)
• I need to be able to access the data from multiple computers without the need to manually copy files. So if it's a desktop tool, syncing is an essential requirement.
• Simplicity is key! Of course, this rules out all Microsoft products. The best example of simple and focused tools is the product range from 37Signals.

Websites/Blogs

• Thesis Developer (I use Thesis for all my web properties. It's a theme/framework that works on top of WordPress.)

Project Management

• Basecamp from 37Signals (online tool)

Information Organization

• Backpack from 37Signals (online tool)
• VoodooPad Pro (desktop tool)

Is this probably the only time two tools really overlap. But because VoodooPad is a desktop tool, I can access it even if I have no Internet connectivity.

Backpack has a brilliant calender which I use and a simple reminder feature that I love.

More about how I automatically synchronize VoodooPad with all of my computers in another post. The hack requires another tool.

Web Links and Clippings

• Evernote (online tool with a desktop client)

Yojimbo is another brilliant tool — but I prefer Evernote simply because it automatically syncs online between multiple devices.

So basically I can "clip" something with Evernote on my desktop computer, and that clipping will be available and searchable from both my laptop and iPhone — almost instantly.

Mind Mapping

• MindJet MindManager (desktop tool)

Flowchart & Diagramming

• OmniGraffle (desktop tool)

Contact Manager/CRM

• Highrise from 37Signals

Email Management

Google Apps Business Edition backend. Then access mail via IMAP using an Apple Mail client. (from desktop, laptops and iPhone)

Password Management

• 1Password (My most used an invaluable tool. Without it I'd be… err… screwed. RoboForm is a "Windows" equivalent solution.)

What do you use?

That's was until I heard Tony Schwartz (author of The Power of Full Engagement) speak at Eben Pagan's Altitude seminar.

The key is to create a "ritual"… a schedule that then removes the need to think (err… procrastinate) about whether you should do exercise or not.

However, the beginning is the hardest part — creating that ritual and sticking to it come rain or shine — until a "habit" is born.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. — Jim Ryun

When I first did this I was amazed (a few months ago). After about 4 weeks my ritual become a habit… and doing daily running — dare I say it — become an easy task.

It become a part of my day. Just like eating. It become almost automatic.

Like I said — starting the ritual is the hard part.

Here's a tip…

• Find something in the beginning that will motivate you to take action — on the consistent basis.

For me, it's this view when I go for my 8:30AM morning run…

This morning it was particularly amazing as the fog had settled in the valley below where I live (above).

By the time I had returned about 30 minutes later, the fog had gone and was replaced with a big blue sky and the morning sunrise.

That's my motivation.

Habit comes next. :-)

Here a cool video of Tony Schwartz talking at Google. It's about sustaining high performance.

It's brilliant. Simple as that.

If you sell anything online — you need to do yourself a massive favor and read Bullet #29 right now.

In the article Gary talks about an unpublished gem written years ago by one of the most brilliant salespeople and writers of all time, Harry Browne.

This undiscovered treasure is called…

The Secret of Selling Anything: A road map to success for the salesman who is not aggressive, who is not a "smooth talker" and who is not an extrovert.

The "secret" to selling anything?

"The one rule that sums up the job to be done, the one formula that is fully in harmony with the real world, the secret of success is: Find out what people want and help them get it!

"This is the way you separate yourself from the mass of people who just 'get by.' This is how you make sure that your services are always in demand. This is how you command a high price in the market­place, by making sure that what you're offering is what people really want…" — Harry Browne

Yup. Simple as that.

Find out what others want and help them get it.

But the article goes deeper than that. About how to write your copy so that is does not try and sell to the unmotivated… but rather, find an audience where that motivation is ALREADY there.

Don't "assume" anything with your marketing.

The basic rule is — don't start selling until you know what the buyer wants to buy. (What motivates them to buy? What hot buttons trigger a response?)

Otherwise you could start selling benefit A — which is of little interest to your prospect — while they would have jumped all over benefit B that you never even thought to mention.

You should discover what most of the buyers want to buy before you start to sell.

Here's that I do…

Every so often I'll email every person that has requested a refund from a product I'm promoting/selling.

ClickBank makes this very easy. They give you the name/email of every person that purchases… even if you're just an affiliate.

I then "ASK" the person (it's a personal email, not through an autoresponder) WHY they didn't like the product.

Sometimes I'll even offer a "bribe" for a thorough, no holes barred, reason.

Many times this feedback is eye opening.

You get to see and understand more about why the product fell short of their expectations. Like what was missing.

If this is your own product, add this missing stuff in. If you're just an affiliate the "missing stuff" becomes the basis of your bonus. (Hint!) ;-)

Now go read that article:
http://www.marketingbullets.com/bullet29.htm

http://www.google.com/sktool

It works like this. Instead of trying to "guess" what keywords your potential customers are typing into Google — which is the traditional way of doing keyword research — you can use this tool to "reverse engineer" the process.

So you start from the landing page and work backwards.

Like this…

Google has just "suggested" a whole bunch of keywords for me to target based on the content of my landing page… as well as the keyword/phrase I gave it. (Which is an optional parameter.)

Pretty cool, eh?

I'm no crazy health-nut. Promise. But you should try this recipe for breakfast. You'll feel amazing afterwards. It totally sets you up for the day. Try it. :-)

Ingredients Required

• 1 Large Apple (or 2 medium apples)
• 1 Banana (optional)
• Protein Powder (any low fat, low carbohydrate version will do)
• Omega 3 Oil (Or an omega 3/6/9 blend. Use about 13 blanched almonds if you don't have omega 3 oil)
• Instant Coffee (optional)
• Cold Water (I like to throw in two ice blocks too)

Preparation

• Chop the apples up and put into a blender. (I use a Braun Multiquick MR 6000 hand blender)
• Add a scoop of protein powder.
• Add a tablespoon of omega 3 oil.
• Add coffee.
• Add about 500ml water. (No milk!)
• Now blend the lot.

Done!

I'm at it again.

A few years ago I used to "blog" on my name domain. I eventually stopped. To be honest… I just didn't want to write about stuff on a regular basis anymore.

But I feel like writing again… I think. So fingers crossed… I'll stick at it this time.