Archive for Web 2 Mayhem
Outsourcing Tears and Fears and Meeting the Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s hard to believe it’s almost 2 weeks since I last posted. But it’s been a real “head down” time for me. I’ve had my son to get sorted for the new term and his Woodcraft camp, wedding dressings to peruse with my daughter, friends and relatives staying and re-engagement with the whole oustourcing thing.
So, here I am again in my favourite cafe, skinny cappuccinno and ham and mozorella panini ordered, ready to write. If I’d stayed at home the tasks of the day would have taken over and it would have been an even longer gap between posts.
So, where did I leave off?
. . . I was off to find 20 likely candidates to email.
This time I foccused most on English language skills. I sent 20 emails and received 11 responses, 2 of which were to say they were no employed elsewhere. After some emails back and forth where I was looking primarily for examples of content they’d written, I chose 2 people from the remaining 9 to take on on a trial basis. John Jonas of Replace Myself recommends taking on 3 to 4 with a view to finding 1 good candiate. But I’m glad I only chose 2. Even that was a lot to manage.
One was primarily a writer (I’ll call her Elaine) and I had most hopes for her. The second (I’ll call her Ann) had some SEO experience as well so I set her off with a 5 Day Traffic Blitz project from Web2Mayhem.
After 2 days I could see that that Ann was going to be a better choice. They were both very keen and both worked hard but Ann followed directions more precisely and actually had a better standard of English. To be fair, Elaine’s English was very good compared to other writers I have tried over the years but I found myself editing more of it.
I’m the first to admit that my standards are very high and I was tempted to go with “good enough” and keep Elaine on but my gut was telling me not to. That opened a whole ‘nother can of worms.
I felt really, really bad telling Elaine I didn’t want to keep her on when I knew she was desparate for the job and had tried her best.
I normally deal with this type of situation by coming up with a load of rational reasons as to why I should keep her on and then doing so. This just makes matters worse as I’m really just delaying the inevitable.
This is an old pattern of behaviour that doesn’t work.
I could see the most likely result of ignoring my feelings now would be that I would have to tell her later, anyway, that I didn’t want to employ her. And it would feel even worse, having raised her hopes and I would have grown more and more frustrated.
I was surprised how hard this was for me and ended up becoming very tearful over the whole thing. But, better out than in!
The next time I have to do this it will be less emotional and the time after that, easier again. So I feel I’ve made a big step forward with this.
I’m never going to have a successful business if I can’t make the hard decisions. And, of course, that is also true for you.
Although, what’s hard for me may be easy for you, whatever your personal challenges are, they will need to be faced and taken on.
But, ultimately, this is good. This is what makes us feel alive. It’s a bit scarey at first but there’s such a sense of achievement and movement that it’s well worth doing.
So, if anyone needs a bit of a support with a challenge they’re feeling stuck with, please feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help you tackle it.
Internet Marketing Memberships Sites Reviews
Posted by: | CommentsSince starting this website and my mentoring with Ed Dale I have tried 3 different internet marketing membership sites.
The first was Michelle McPherson’s Crowd Mountain
I joined this membership site after downloading a couple of Michelle’s free tools that were made available joing the launch. My primary interest was to try out her promotion tools but once inside I discovered, that despite the sales pitch saying otherwise, not all the tools were available before the trail period ran out which defeated the object somewhat.
That, together with pretty confusing website usability led me to ditch that subscription. There are different levels of membership and since I was on the basic level I kept clicking on links to end up on a page that said I didn’t have permission to visit that part of the site. I found that very frustrating since it was like have a carrot dangled in front of you and then snatched away again.
However, her training is very comprehensive and, if you’re a newbie looking for clear and easy to follow training, then Michelle McPherson is worth checking out. She certainly knows her stuff and it’s refreshing to have a woman at the helm for a change and a rest from the surfer dude hype that permeates a number of internet marketing products.
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The Immediate Edge
This is Dan Raine’s and Ed Dale’s membership site. I took advantage of the $1, 7 days trial offered earlier this month and was very impressed with what I saw inside. I simply don’t have time at the moment to take advantage of all that was in there but I would definitely consider signing up again, once I have more of a regular system going.
This is cutting edge stuff most suited, in my opinion, to marketers with some experience and success who want to take their business to the next level.
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Jason Katzenback and Jason Potash are the people behind this one. They were offering a $1, 14 day trial which I signed up to because I’ve had dealings with them in the past and like their products and their customer service. My intention was a sneak peak inside to see what they were doing with the possibility of signing up again once I was making more money from the internet marketing business.
However, I was so impressed with the way their training is organised and the very fast and excellent reponses you get to questions in the forum that I decided to stay in for another month. Also, there was a promise of the 5 Day Traffic Blitz which is a fast way to familiarise yourself with the promotion tools and, hopefully, a way to make some quick cash.
I decided a while back not to join any more monthly subscription sites until I had the money upfront to do so but I thought it was worth the risk with this one since I might make the money back through the traffic blitz. Alas, that was not to be. At least not so far anyway. But I did win $25 for a forum post so it’s not all bad.
Not to mention I was inspired to get all poetic. Since my win was announced in rhyme I thought I should respond in kind. You can read my efforts in my next post.
Bet you can hardly contain your excitement in anticipation . . .
5 Day Traffic Blitz
Posted by: | CommentsAs if I didn’t have enough on my plate with managing this website, bringing back to life a couple of old sites, doing the 2010 Challenge, taking part in the mentoring and starting to do more internet marketing coaching I started another mini challenge yesterday called the 5 day traffic blitz. But, although there’s a danger of creating some internet marketing overwhelm again I not too worried about it as it’s only 5 days and it is related to what I’m already doing. It’s more of a strategy experiment than a wandering off in a new direction.
All my sites need traffic and I’m still working on nailing down the approach that works best for me. I have my article marketing ticking over nicely and my bookmarking by hand so now I’m looking for other things to add to the mix.
My taking part in the blitz came about because Jasons Katzenback and Potash opened up their Web 2 Mayhem membership for a 14 day $1 trial. I joined because I was curious to see what their strategy is, fully expecting to leave after 14 days. It’s a monthly subscription and I didn’t want to take on another one of those but I was so impressed with their product, support and expertise and with the community in general, that I decided to stay on for another month. Especially as the 5 Day Traffic Blitz was looming.
Apparently, when Jason K asked the people who were not renewing after the 14 days why they weren’t doing so, the number one reason given was that they wanted faster results. Nothing new there then! 
As a result they put together a “quick-start training designed specifically to get results within a few short days”. Since I was already using the tools and was very impressed with them I decided it was worth risking one month’s membership to see what I could achieve with the blitz.
Yesterday we got an introduction video which brought out 2 key points:
- You need to already have a web site or page such as a Hub page, Squidoo lens, or Ezine article to promote. So it’s not for total newbies.
- You need to allow 2 hours a day to work on this.
After watching the video I did some keyword and market research to determine which site/page I would be promoting, as from past results, the choice isn’t obvious.
I have chosen to promote a new affiliate product within a niche that I’ve had some success with in the past but I don’t, as yet, have a page up for it. So that will be the next thing to get done before the blitz proper begins later today. And, yes, before you ask I’ve already done my CFT blocks for today so this isn’t a diversion.
I will have to fit in today’s 2010 challenge lesson though.
