The Trickery of the Gurus

The Trickery of the Gurus

A common ploy in online sales techniques is the Upsell on resell rights. You buy a product, pay for it, and before you’re given access to the download, you’re offered the resell rights at a low, low price that’ll never, EVER be repeated. (Unless of course, they relent, and email you that they’ve decided to give you a break… !)

The benevolent gurus are so concerned for you (as an upcoming affiliate internet marketer) to make a profit that they’ll encourage you to spend money on resell rights to a product you haven’t seen!

Wait a moment… think about the implications. To conduct business ethically, an internet marketer is expected to promote a product in which he believes. He is, after all, recommending it. This being the case, why would anyone consider purchasing resell rights to a product unseen? More to the point, what are the ethics of the guru urging you to commit your capital to this kind of venture?

The very first thing all the gurus warn against is selecting a product to sell before identifying its market, instead of identifying a market and then selecting a product to satisfy that market’s needs.

This hypocrisy casts serious doubts on the integrity of any guru, and makes total nonsense of all their claims to have ‘our’ best interests at heart. (Maybe they have, but only AFTER their own profits!)

Nobody should ask you to promote a product you’ve never seen. It’s really that simple.

I don’t mean to sound like a guru-basher! Think before you spend on products and resell rights. Don’t allow the pressure applied in the sales copy to influence you to ‘buy now and save money’, because it’s just encouraging you to part with what you already have.

Welcome to the adventure,

Reward Rebel

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Focus versus Multi-tasking

Focus versus Multi-tasking

As the term has become more and more entrenched in our language, multi-tasking has become a familiar companion in our everyday lives. It is assumed that by multi-tasking, we are living more efficient and productive lives. And don’t we feel terribly smug about how organised we are?

Unfortunately, multi-tasking is NOT always the most effective strategy, indeed, it can undermine our efforts to the point of permanent erosion!

Whether one or the other technique is most effective or efficient is about what type of task requires action. Without a doubt, if you are undertaking any kind of creative work, you need to focus 100%, which means NO distractions.

FOCUS is a deadly accurate tool, and an essential one if you are to succeed. Laser target your mind and hold it steady on the task at hand NOW!

Turn off the radio, disable your PC’s new email notification, flick your phone onto voicemail, prohibit all possible distractions or interruptions and FOCUS… TOTALLY.

In short… TERMINATE DISTRACTIONS WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!

If your work environment is shared with colleagues, ensure they are aware of times when you require absolute concentration, after all, they should be doing the same for their own work. Utilise visual reminders, for instance, you could wear a highly visible hat, or erect a banner or flag that warns people to keep away!

Work in uninterrupted blocks of time of at least 90 minutes, better still 2 hours. If you can make it half to an entire day is best of all. Your results will be exponentially greater in relation to the time you spend focused on the task.

It may sound crazy but you’ll find the opposite true of multi-tasking (when you should be focused). A task that should take 5 days to complete when focused, will be completed in 5 days, but if you take on a second project that also takes 5 days and work on the two projects in tandem, you’ll find that they each take 9 or 10 days to complete. Factor in a third job and… well, you get the picture… basically, you’ll never finish!

Always enjoy the adventure.

Reward Rebel

Brainstorming to Creativity

Brainstorming to Creativity

As you ponder your goal and determine the best course to achieve it, you will need some creative ways of thinking and facing challenges that will arise. The most creative-thinkers out there will encourage you to think outside the box, and to consider even the wildest of ideas.

One way to do this is to “Brainstorm.” Brainstorming is done by having a piece of paper, or use your PC or IPOD, and record EVERY idea that occurs to you about the situation you’re facing. Do NOT evaluate your ideas—just make a note of them. Do NOT consider something “ too silly” or “too dumb” to write down—just write it down!

Evaluate your ideas in a few days, but not when you’re writing them down. Consider these ideas much like a newborn baby. You must cradle that baby and hold it lovingly and help it grow to a responsible adult.

The same goes for your new ideas. You might find that one idea you would consider to be the “silliest” turns out to be your key for unlocking the door you’re facing.

Remember the guy who came up with the idea for Post-It Notes? The adhesive was discovered long before they found a use for it—and the person who said, “Let’s make some note pads that are small and can be easily removed,” was laughed at. But now—do you even see ONE office without Post-Its around? I have at least 6 pads of Post-Its in my desk drawer alone. There’s one in the kitchen, and one in the car.

Another way to increase your creativity is to be around others who are creative. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other.” If you hobnob with those who are known for creativity, it will wear off on you. And you will find new ways of looking at things and thinking about situations, as well. You can find audio-books and speeches that will stir up your creative juices as well.

Professional speakers and those who have “been there, done that” often hit the speaking-circuit and can pump fresh ideas and life in your goal and the ways you attain those goals.

I prefer removing myself from the goal-achieving mode and moving to a truly creative outlet—the arts. You may not consider yourself artsy or think you have any ability in this realm, but it’s worth taking a lump of clay (or Play-Doh) and working with it. You may find, as I do, that when I’m working on a hobby that I truly love, I free up a portion of my brain that was engaged in my problem-solving. When that happens, I typically find a potential solution to my dilemma.

Artistic creativity often sparks other forms of creative-thinking, as it engages a different area of the brain than what we’re used to using. Pick up a paintbrush, a pencil, arrange some flowers, or begin a needlework project. You may find in colour and artistry you have a new lease on what you’re doing!

Welcome to the adventure,

Reward Rebel

Gurus Mutual Appreciation Society

Gurus Mutual Appreciation Society

Do not believe everything you read in testimonials on sales pages for internet marketing products? I’m not so familiar with the culture of niche marketing testimonials, but in the world of internet marketing per se, it’s very much an Internet Marketing Gurus Mutual Appreciation Society.

If you don’t believe me, go take a look at, say, a dozen internet marketing sales pages, and you’ll find the same names cropping up time and time again. Actually, what surprises me is that they find any time to manage their own internet marketing ventures! LOL.

Many of the products they are providing a testimonial for will be fine packages, I’m sure. But they all joint venture together, they are all busy scratching each other’s back. Is anyone really likely to bad-mouth a semi colleague’s product, and anyway if they did, we’d hardly get to see the evidence, would we?

Guess I’m busy guru bashing again, sheesh, I don’t mean to, but get kinda wound up as the writing progresses!

Truth is, I’m just trying to alert you to the fact that all is not what it may appear to be, and on this topic, don’t allow yourself to feel pressured to buy immediately, rather than fully considering a product’s worth and whether or not it will enhance your own internet marketing projects, and whether it’s something that you need right now.

Perhaps it’s a good product, but do you need it now? If not, wait. For one thing, by the time you do need it, the price may have dropped. Also, there will be numerous promotions from affiliate marketers competing to make money online promoting the product via their affiliate link or reseller’s sales page. They’ll be offering all kinds of additional bonuses in return for your business. Overall, you’ll very likely come away with a great deal more for your bucks, if you do NOT rush in.

So, don’t hurry your decision to buy or not. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating procrastination — that wicked lil ol’ thief of time — but simply weigh up ALL the options.

Oh, and if the ad advises that the price is due to increase at midnight (on the day you’re reading about it… funny how often that’s the case, isn’t it [LOL]), let it. Cos it’s very unlikely that it actually will increase… ever, never mind midnight!

Don’t be bullied, these threats are usually nothing more than a bluff to put the frighteners on YOU. To nurture your fear that might miss out on something valuable. If an internet marketing product has true value, the vendor does not need to apply underhand tactics to sell it. It’s that simple.

But whatever you do… ENJOY yourself, it’s an adventure!

Reward Rebel

A Moral Dilemma

A Moral Dilemma

During the past 8 months I’ve promoted numerous salespages of my own and one time offers, all of which have followed the ‘traditional’ format for internet marketing’s ‘hyped-up’ style of selling.

Now I have none ‘live’.

I’ve been studying the whole web 2.0 phenomenon that’s snowballed recently and is still gaining momentum. This is with a view to creating income from optimizing the marriage of blog technology and social bookmarking.

I’ve now abandoned the ‘old style’ promotional sales pages, they make me bristle. So sugary and brimming over with blatant lies and deceptions.

My intention and objective is to earn my entire income from online marketing, also utilising offline promotional techniques, but this will be accomplished without betraying my personal ethics or moral standards.

If I circulate a newsletter, it will have been either written by me or edited by me, whichever it is will be clearly stated. It’s the hypocrisy preached by the internet marketing gurus that I loathe. Stuff along the lines of…. offer your website visitors an optin to your newsletter…. use the newsletter mailing to build trust, and to get to know one another.

Can’t write a newsletter? Don’t worry, you can outsource it. But hang on, if I write my clients telling them I’m writing a newsletter and then send them newsletter that’s ostensibly written by me, but is in fact written by some stranger they’ve never heard of, how is that nurturing a healthy relationship?

There is a sickness about internet marketing, which has seeped into almost every ‘niche’, and it needs to be ‘tagged’ and ‘deleted’.

Reward Rebel’s Revenge

A Gift For You

Internet Marketing | This is Daylight Robbery… And You Keep The BOOTY!

I’ve just finished putting together a collection of products as a gesture of appreciation for my customers and readers.

To alert Santa to add you to his delivery round, just point your browser to http://rewardrebel.com/BOOTY and claim your gift. Simple.

Have fun playing with your new toys, and enjoy the adventure,

Reward Rebel

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first and most common way to turn a blog into a profit making machine is to sell advertising to different companies and brands who want to reach that blog’s readers.

The second kind of money making blog is one that helps a single brand improve its image by creating positive associations between the blog and the product in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising, there are two basic ways that you can go about recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site; you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue.

Within the first group, many people make money blogging by selling space through Google’s AdSense program. The advantages of this program are numerous, as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger or webmaster to begin raking in profits.

However, most people discover that they make less money through this method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.

People who have a strong background in sales and are experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit of money by renting blog space to interested companies.

The most serious problem with this model is that you often have to build quite a sizable readership before you can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to do several months of work before you start to make money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative business, a lot of established companies are considering how they can get into the action.

One way that companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for their corporation. Often, a company will employ an established blogger to create a weblog designed specifically to appeal to that company’s customers and to create positive associations with the brand in consumers’ minds.

More than one writer who never even dreamed that he or she could make money blogging has been approached by a company and offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.

Enjoy the adventure,

Reward Rebel