But, of course, I must look in the mirror. As I used to use GoDaddy for my domains. Well, not anymore.

Like many who’ve been in online business for awhile, I owned a lot of domains. Close to 90 of them, actually. I have been meaning to ditch some of them that I realized I’d never use. But, in the process, I’ve decided to transfer the ones I’m keeping away from GoDaddy.

I’m switching everything to Namecheap. In fact, I’ve been slowly working on this for many months now. But, recently, decided to speed it up and officially walk away. Last night, I transferred 17 domains over to NameCheap. Now, I have almost 30 of them with NameCheap. And I turned OFF auto-renewal on everything which is left in my GoDaddy account.

Here’s why:

1. Their upsells – for the stupidest crap – are excessive and insane. I have to click “No” a ton of times just to buy a domain.
2. Their interface sucks. Tons of clicks to do the stupidest things.
3. They’ve been known to simply disable domains for stupid reasons, as they did to John Chow.
4. There have been many, many cases of GoDaddy simply holding your domain hostage for various reasons. A search for “godaddy hostage” on Google returns almost 2 million results. Take your pick.
5. I like good looking women as much as the next guy, but their commercials are still stupid. If somebody honestly thinks you’re going to see T&A when you visit GoDaddy.com from the Super Bowl commercial, you deserve the service you get.
6. A few months ago, they mysteriously – and without me asking – enabled “Premium CashParking” on my account and started billing me $9.99/month without my permission. When I called support about it, they said it was included in their “domain club” (which I used to be in), but when I canceled that, I started getting billed for CashParking. Well, gee, thanks for making that clear at the time. :-/
7. The CEO of GoDaddy is a pompous ass who apparently enjoys killing elephants for sport.
8. They supported SOPA, until it pissed off enough people and they changed their mind.

It was #6 that was the final nail in the coffin and provoked a final mass transfer of my domains to Namecheap. I’ve had  it.

GoDaddy is, from my observation, a company that likes to skate on the edge and create conflict for the purposes of publicity. And, as for customers, turn them upside down and shake until all the money falls out of our pockets. Perhaps they live by the “any press is good press” mentality, but I don’t believe that’s true. A quick comment about this last night on Twitter and Facebook sparked all kinds of responses from friends of mine in the business. Here’s a sample:

So, the question one has to ask is…. if the people who are IN THE BUSINESS and deal with websites all the time are saying not to use GoDaddy, then what’s wrong here? If you’re not an expert on this stuff, don’t default to GoDaddy just because they advertise alot and use pretty women to do it.

Oh, and as for their hosting – they’re horrible. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard horror stories about their hosting accounts. Sure, there are those who’ve done just fine with them, but the ratio isn’t great.

Plus, GoDaddy is a domain company who does hosting. It isn’t their specialty. You’d be SOOO much better off getting a hosting account with Hostgator (aff link). I’ve worked with Hostgator, as do many people I know. Their support is excellent. Their servers are solid. And they actually ARE a hosting company, not a registrar posing as one.

In fact, if you want, we’ll even set up your blog FOR YOU if you sign up for Hostgator. We’ve got a deal over at PCMech – Free Website Setup Service. Sign up for Hostgator via us, we’ll set up your blog for you.

I’ll end off with this…

I’m sure GoDaddy has a lot of good people working there. And I also know there are people who have domains or hosting accounts with GoDaddy who have no complaints about their service. And I think that’s awesome. I’m sure the domain registrar business is pretty competitive, and the quest to increase profits can be pretty hard in that environment. However, it appears to me as if GoDaddy has run for the lowest common denominator. Their marketing caters to newbies and people who don’t know any better – and they charge accordingly.

I wrote this as a bit of a rant – but also something that I can refer people to when people ask for my opinion.

And, so it is.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Saving Money With Godaddy Promo Codes
2. PairNIC versus GoDaddy for Domains
3. Screw You, Domain Renewal Group

And some of them just need to go away.

Let me explain…

“Let’s Connect” or “Engage”

We see this one dropped by social media people all the time. We’re told to “engage” with our audiences. To “engage” people on Twitter.

No, I really want to “just connect” with you. “Let’s connect”.

Here’s my problem with it…

It makes simple human relations seem like a tactic. As if communicating to other people and giving a shit is just a marketing tactic you’re doing to grow your following.

I’m a much bigger fan of plain English. There’s no need to invent new definitions of words here just to sound cool.

If you want a following on Twitter, on Facebook, on your blog… just give a shit and treat people like you would want to be treated. You want to feel important, so make THEM feel important. Get talkin’.

Not to mention, every time I hear the word “engage”, I get childhood memories of Captain Picard.

“Driving Traffic”

OK, what is your audience to you? A bunch of cattle?

My problem with this phrase is that it dehumanizes what “traffic” really is. They are REAL people who have a need or want, and they come to your site to solve it. Real, flesh and blood people.

Now, not everybody who uses this phrase has lost sight of that. It is just a phrase which is common jargon in the industry. However, I have been in conversations with many marketers who talk as if they HAVE lost sight of this fact. In their talk about solo ad swaps and PPC, they’ve gotten so focused on the numbers and the conversion rates that it has become a big numbers game to them. Not much different than stock trading. It is a funnel and they’re just trying to jam as many people as they can through it.

You don’t “drive traffic”. You attract it. (tweet this)

“Email Blast”

I don’t like this one because, again, it de-humanizes pretty much the most valuable asset you can have in an online business: the email subscriber.

Those are people on that list, and each and every time you email them, they’re just one click away from unsubscribing from you. Do you really want to BLAST them? Would you BLAST your friends or family?

“Content”

This one cracks me up a bit. This word “content” has become so overused. Especially when a marketer entices you to watch a video or attend a webinar with promises of “100% pure content”.

Gee thanks. Because I was waking up this morning pawing at my eyeballs needing my next hit of content. We’re all just ITCHING for more CONTENT, are we not?

The truth is… there is TOO MUCH content out there. And, everything is content on the Internet. Anything you see, read, watch, tweet, comment on… it is ALL content.

And, even more fun is when people get into this mindset that they just need to create more of it. No thought at all on whether the stuff they create is helpful or really connects with anybody… just create more STUFF. More CONTENT. More the better, too. Because Google said so.

No. Don’t create stuff to feed the mythical content god with your sacrifice. Create really good stuff that actually helps people, stirs an emotion, gets them thinking. In other words, has a POINT.

.

.

Got any others that I forgot about? Comment below and let us know.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Internet Marketing – What’s New?
2. Top 8 Internet Marketing Podcasts
3. Should You Buy That Internet Marketing Product?

Many large websites are going black today in protest of the bill, including Wikipedia, WordPress and Google (in the form of a censored logo).

If I had more time available, I might have set things up to black out DavidRisley.com and PCMech.com. But, I don’t really have the time to set it up in the right way.

I am, though, in full support of the protest.

SOPA is a legislative reaction to a powerful lobbying group who is threatened by the very nature of the Internet. Namely, the likes of the MPAA and RIAA. These groups are feeling their control wither away as a result of the Internet. They have a lot of influence in Washington and they are trying to use that influence to put the power of the government behind achieving their aims. When you combine this with the fact that people in Congress have basically NO understanding of how the Internet works – AT ALL…. we have a dangerous situation where a law which purports to be a measure against piracy could indeed have a widespread and VERY negative effect on the very nature of the world wide web.

Not to mention that there are plenty of people in Washington who would love NOTHING MORE than to be able to censor a website on cue. The world (and history) is rife with government being able to censor the press and free speech. Wherever this happens, human rights have suffered. And, each and every time, the government had an excuse claiming it was better for the public good.

On the surface, it might seem like a decent idea to some. After all, piracy sucks and it is indeed a form of theft. I don’t believe anybody is arguing to the contrary. However, the “solution” is far worse than the problem. And it is being created, as I said, with very little knowledge of how the Internet works. The last thing we need is some group of weirdos who sit in a bubble – who have only a 13% approval rating with the population anyway – creating stupid laws that would cripple the freedom of the major communication medium of our era.

And that’s my position.

I’ll end off with a fantastic video put together by Allison Boyer, over at Blogworld. The video happens to have several of my buddies in it, too.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Iran Bans Google
2. Fairness Doctrine Apply To Bloggers?

There are two different worlds that I straddle – blogging/social and internet marketing.

Internet marketing conferences have little resemblance to the typical social media conference, and the two crowds don’t usually interact. Both crowds dabble in the other, but they have very different outlooks. While most bloggers aren’t making much money while they focus on things like Twitter and branding, internet marketers are usually making some money, but suck at blogging and think things like Twitter are a huge waste of time. While blogging conferences are REALLY active on Twitter, most IM conferences have barely any presence on Twitter at all.

So, I like to attend both kinds. I’m a firm believer that the power is in the middle… that a blogger who understands and applies the principles of internet marketing are the ones who get there.

When I attend an IM conference, there is barely a mention of Twitter. The level of activity on the hashtag (if they even have one) is REALLY low even though there can be several hundred people in the room. For example, in a couple weeks, I’ll be up in Connecticut for Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit and I expect very little in the way of Twitter activity.

Then, there’s Blogworld…

For the blogger side of the conference circuit, Blogworld is and remains my favorite such conference. It is huge (and growing) and I just love watching it develop.

This year was different. Rather than a single conference in Vegas, this year it was broken up into an East and West edition. Blogworld East in New York City, and Blogworld West will be held in Los Angeles in early November.

This year was also different because I found myself in the position of track organizer. So, rather than doing the usual speaker thing, I instead was in charge of organizing all the speakers on the monetization track.

Also different this year…. my wife came with me. She has never come with me on a business trip before, so that was unique in and of itself. She even attended several sessions – and even asked questions! It was quite cool, really. Of course, our kids got sick while we were in New York, so that sucked. (They’re fine now)

We also had an opportunity to see the Spiderman Broadway show, courtesy of InfoLinks. GREAT show. It really is unbelievable to see something like Spiderman brought to the stage as a musical, but it works very well. Incredible production. I heard this was the most expensive Broadway production ever… and it shows.

Blogworld Feedback

Every Blogworld, I like to offer a few bullet points of feedback about the conference. Things I like and things that could be looked at for next time.

• I thought the networking opportunities were better this time around. In Vegas, the official parties were in dance clubs and it was very hard to talk with the music overpowering everything. In New York, the parties were in bars. Now, it was still loud, but not because of music. I didn’t attend every one, but given the crowd size, I think the way it was done in New York was great.
• Next time in New York, it’d be nice to TRY to schedule a conference center with an attached hotel (or at least closer). The Javitz Center isn’t near any Subway stops, so it was either a taxi or a 15 minute walk each way to get to the show. Now, let’s face it…. a lot of bloggers could use the exercise. But, still, we’re all spoiled by Mandalay Bay now. So….
• As a track leader this time around, I paid attention to crowd size in the speaker sessions. And, it really was all over the board and I don’t know why. Some speakers had a full house while others didn’t. Some of these speakers traveled a long way to speak, so I felt bad when the room only had 30 people in there. As I suggested privately, I think having a networking breakfast in the morning would be a good way to get people there in the morning (especially after late nights).
• It at least needs to be considered…. a city on the east coast other than NYC. I like NYC as much as the next person, but it is expensive. VERY expensive. My hotel was $300/night and that’s pretty much average for the area unless you get really creative with your accommodations. With a target audience of bloggers, that’s a lot to bite off. Especially when combined with the ticket price for the conference. I know NYC has a lot of cultural and media connections, so perhaps it is the best venue all things considered. But, it has to be said.
• Keynotes. I think the “talk show” format needs to go. There have been two of them now and I don’t think either one came off as was intended. I think the best keynotes are with a single dynamic speaker. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk for a whole hour. Or Chris Brogan for an hour. But, trying to have them mixed up with a bunch of others just didn’t work, in my opinion. There were some funny moments, but there were also many weird moments.
• Speakers. Awesome. I know the thought process I had with the monetization track, but in checking out the other tracks, I think we had a great speaker list this time. Especially considering it was all hastily arranged in less than 3 months. One idea I did have was perhaps a label on the experience level of the session. For example, beginner or advanced. Not sure how that would work out in practice, but might help the targeting a bit.
• Session titles. Some of the session titles were boring even though the session was quite good. I look at the session title as a blog headline… it has to be enticing, attract attention, and invite the next step (which is to attend). If the speakers themselves don’t do it, then us as track leaders need to rewrite the headlines. Personal note to myself for next time.

And Those Humbling Introductions

John Chow and Robb Sutton already posted the video, but it was pretty funny.

I moderated a panel with John Chow, Syed Balkhi and Zac Johnson. And, let’s just say, the intros they gave me to read were kinda funny. Here’s the vid…

Wrapping Up

So, big thanks to Rick, Dave, Deb… and the rest of the Blogworld team. This thing came off pretty well. 3 months to put it together, too. So, bravo!

For everybody else, expect things to open up very soon for speaker proposals for LA in November. Be on the lookout.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. What’s In Store For The Monetization Track For Blogworld East
2. Post-Blogworld 2010 Brain Dump and Wrap Up
3. Blogworld Discounts Expire 9/14

I’ve been watching the #bwe10 hashtag on Twitter and there appears to be a lot of first-timers to Blogworld this year. And that’s AWESOME. It is great to see so much interest in this.

This will be my third year at Blogworld. Even though there have been a number of posts out there with Blogworld tips, I thought I would offer a few of my own. These are simple, but they will make your trip smoother and more rewarding.

Here we go:

1. Follow the #bwe10 hashtag. Set it up in your Twitter client (I have it in a column in Tweetdeck), and as a saved search on your account so you can easily pull it up from your mobile phone. Being able to tap into the stream will help keep you informed on what’s going on, where people are, and what might be most interesting for you. Many times, you might end the conference for the day and not know what’s going on at night. Twitter can be a handy tool for that.
2. Carry a light load. Whatever you carry into the event, try to keep it light and small. In my case, I’ll be carrying an Ipad rather than my laptop. My Kodak Zi8 makes a nice video camera and fits in my pocket. And I’m either going to bring a small digital camera or just use my phone. Lugging a huge bag full of gizmos gets old. Trust me.
3. Drink water. This is Vegas. It is dry. It might not feel weird, but it can sneak up on you. Keep yourself hydrated otherwise you might come down with some killer headaches.
4. Watch your diet. It is all too easy to eat like HELL in Vegas. Problem is, it can screw up your mojo when you’re in the conference. It just isn’t worth it.
5. Just walk up to people. This one might be difficult, but force yourself to walk up to somebody you want to meet and just say hi. You’ll pat yourself on the back later. Plus, realize that those people came there to meet YOU. Plus, most bloggers (even really successful ones) still feel a little odd when people treat them all special. Trust me, I know from experience. Last year, a lady gave me a cute little gift for my little girl, but before that, she was nervous to walk up to me. Seriously, don’t be.
6. Carry extra batteries, or some other way to keep your gadgets going. Every year, I hear people talking about how their phone is dying, or their laptop is dead. There is NEVER enough electrical outlets. All sessions will find people sitting on the floor charging their laptop. Just plan ahead and think about that beforehand. Count on the fact that you might not get any way to charge your stuff during the day.
7. Sleep. I know this is hard for some, especially being in Vegas and all. But, in my experience, staying up really late does you no favors the next day if you intend to show up in the AM. Just listen to your body.
8. Bring pain-killers. Seriously, there is a decent chance you might get a headache or something. If you eat weird, don’t sleep enough, don’t drink enough… it can hit you. Bring a tiny bottle of Tylenol or something for an emergency. It is MUCH cheaper than buying it in the hotel gift shop.
9. Don’t overplan. I don’t care how many plans you make, they’ll change on the fly. So, don’t stress about it. This year, I’m mostly going to be playing it by ear. Just keep your goals in mind and plan enough to execute those. Don’t worry about running all over the place and trying to catch every little thing.
10. If you collect a business card, make a note on it on WHY you might want to follow up with that person. Something to jog your memory. Otherwise, you get home with this huge pile of cards, with the best intentions, but no idea who those people are. If the other person just thrusts their card into your hand, feel free to throw it away. That’s not networking.

Hope that helps some people. And, I’ll see you there! Be sure to say hey!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. BlogWorld Expo 2009 Report
2. Wanna Meet Up At BlogWorld Expo?
3. The 10 Minute Blog Post

WordPress is also GPL. Thesis (the popular premium theme) is not GPL. Matt Mullenweg thinks it should be. The argument is that, because Thesis is a “derivative work” from WordPress, it is required to also use the GPL. There is a counter-argument, too, which says GPL doesn’t apply.

But, the debate got louder today and now there is even talk of Mullenweg suing over the issue.

Here’s my take…

Oh, GPL. Oh, How Confusing You Can Be.

Simply put, the WordPress platform and community benefits from a community of developers creating add-ons, whether they be free or commercial. The community benefits from having that option. I believe that trying to shame or force a developer to give their work away for free is not only wrong, but will harm WordPress.

There are a number of premium plug-ins that are quite good. I’ve also paid for WordPress themes. I am not a customer of Thesis, but I recognize why so many want to use it. Same goes for Headway. Do we actually want to use a platform where that kind of innovation is met with scorn by people who think everything should be free?

Or is “free” even the issue? I gotta say, it is rather confusing. Is it because Thesis contains some encrypted code? Plus, there is the whole debate about whether a theme is even a derivative work. A theme doesn’t modify anything with WordPress – it simply makes function calls that WordPress put there specifically for themes. If a theme developer extends the capability, using their OWN code, does the whole thing come under GPL just because he may have used these function calls?

Perhaps, ultimately, the GPL itself needs some sort of clarification. That whole “derivative works” clause seems to lead itself to problems. I don’t want to get into the arcane details of open source licensing, but GPL is, in my view, too restrictive. The “copyleft” restrictions are just too much. This is the very reason that PHP itself changed its license away from GPL starting with version 4. Otherwise, development on the PHP platform would be stifled because everything developed with PHP would be subject to these same issues. A BSD-style license just makes so much more sense.

I applaud people who develop on the GPL license. The Internet would be a very different (and worse) place without them. However, this whole idea of using it to force their will on others – that bothers me.

Getting Hostile With Developers?

Here’s what I see, though. I see a guy who put a lot of work into a product (Thesis) and decided he wanted to charge people to use it. To me, that seems like his right. Nobody has to get it if they don’t want to. WordPress provides plenty of hooks for such things. Thesis uses them to meet a strong demand in the marketplace.

And I see Mullenweg (at least judging from his Twitter account) essentially being a passive-aggressive snob, retweeting other people’s attacks on Thesis. What I see is Mullenweg trying to use a mob mentality to shame Chris Pearson into making Thesis GPL. This is not the way a professional acts, IMO.

Mullenweg is making WordPress development look like a pretty bad bet right now. And if this mentality goes so far as to stifle development of commercial add-ons for WordPress, that will be the beginning of the end of the “major platform” status of WordPress. Mark my words.

For people who will claim the GPL promotes freedom of choice, I think trying to shove the GPL down somebody’s throat is about everything BUT choice.

I love WordPress because of its flexibility. I LOVE the fact that there are so many plug-ins and themes available for it. I LOVE the fact that I have options to BUY more premium-level add-ons if I so choose. THAT’S choice.

I want to love WordPress for years to come. Please don’t screw it up.

If you’d like to chime in, I’d love to hear from you. The open source license scene is anything but easy to interpret.

UPDATE:
Not that I’m following this whole thing closely, but I happened upon another post written today by Jane (she works for Automattic) who gives another viewpoint on this, plus some backstory. Worth a read, for sure. I’ve never met Chris Pearson nor Matt Mullenweg. I can only judge what I saw Matt doing on Twitter today, and I thought it was pretty messed up. But, it usually takes two to tango, and apparently Chris is doing the jig, too, at times.

One thing is for sure, this debate comes down to a philosophy difference. Very fundamental. I’m not sure anything except a court case will truly resolve it. That said, I won’t hold my breath on that actually happening. But, if you’re at all thinking about doing non-GPL stuff on WordPress, realize Matt might gang up on you.

One thing seems clear: WordPress isn’t all that inviting to develop for anymore. I learned something about WordPress today, and as of today, I no longer look at the product the same way. Still a fan, but it smells.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Allowing HTML in WordPress Profile Descriptions
2. WordPress Makes a Twitter Clone
3. Mystery WordPress Theme Switch Continues…

In short, I agree with his post. But, I thought I would just offer my viewpoint on this – from the perspective of somebody who clearly blogs about blogging.

Stop, Drop And Think First

If you are brand new to blogging, or even if you have had a little success at it, it doesn’t mean you can enter this niche and cash in.

The blogging niche has gotten pretty saturated, and it is even more so now than when I decided to begin this blog. To stand out today, you’ve got to do a couple of things:

• Have a proven track record of REAL success in a completely different niche that you can then draw from.
• Offer something really unique and not seen before.

I’ve seen people bust into this niche in the last couple years, but they did so because they offered something really, REALLY unique. Also, they had proven success in another market. In all cases. Even then, they’ve got to work their asses off to get off the ground.

To come into this niche and not be able to point at another, completely different blog and show that it makes a big pile of cash or has a huge pile of daily traffic – it is a waste of time. UNLESS you can find a way to completely overpower that drawback by being so interesting and creative in your approach that you make everybody else look bad.

Too often, “newish” bloggers enter the “make money blogging” niche and are completely boring. They were hoping this niche would propel them to the bigtime, but they can’t point at any other experience. And, let’s face it, how many different ways can you tell somebody to write good stuff, build a list, yada yada? I mean, right?

Why Does It Happen?

It is a case of tunnel vision.

Same reason people mistakenly assume the best way to make money online is to talk about making money online. So, they go out there and start offering advice to people on making an income when they themselves can barely afford a six-pack of beer on on their own internet income.

It is tunnel vision. You read certain kinds of blogs because that’s what you’re interested in at that time. And one thinks, “Well, they seem successful in that market, perhaps I can do the same.” It is all you’re exposed to and so you gravitate to it.

Keep this in mind, though…

The niche doesn’t create success. The blogger creates his own success.

The bloggers who’ve succeeded did so with long hours, lots of sweat, lots of creativity, and basically busting ass in every way. Bloggers don’t get to ride their niche selection to the top.

Insider Scoop

As somebody who is in this market and talks to some of the people in it, I can tell you that this niche is getting more saturated every day. Getting attention is getting tougher. Product launches don’t always get the attention they deserve. There are constant launch date conflicts and multiple pulls on the limited attention spans. The audience, quite frankly, gets kinda tired of it.

In other niches, it isn’t always that way. In fact, not in most of them. Every market is different. Every time a product launch occurs in this market, you’re constantly dealing with date conflicts. Just today, in fact, you’ve got Beyond Blogging Project conflicting with Product Launch Formula on launch day. That type of thing happens ALL THE TIME now. And even when things aren’t launching you’ve still got the authority blogs in this niche pulling attention into something.

Another thing: Most people interested in making money as bloggers subscribe to the usual internet marketing guys as well. And those guys are constantly barraging us with stuff to buy. So, once again, if you just look at it from an attention stand point, it is being pulled everywhere constantly.

Coming into this scene as a brand new blogger with no existing footprint online? Ugh. Good luck with that. It can be done, but not by most.

However, you better believe I can do a launch over on PCMech (in the tech niche) and make a lot of money and get a lot of attention. I’ve done it. And it isn’t nearly as much work as doing so in this blogging niche. For one, launch conflicts never happen because pretty much no other tech blogger I know of even knows how to do a product launch. Or promote much of anything, for that matter. They’re very much dependent on banner ads.

Final Word

This post doesn’t have a whole lot of structure to it, but it was something I just decided to write off the cuff.

The theme? If you are relatively new to blogging, don’t go into the blogging niche without some real thought about how you’re going to approach it to stand out. I know it is tempting, but trust me, other niches are easier by far.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Tech Blogging – Too Crowded? Too Hateful? No, Just Changing.
2. Is Blogging Broken? Is The Future of Blogging Paid Access?
3. Remember, Blogging Is A People Business

Back in January of 2009, I was sitting on the balcony of my cabin. Sitting there on the Crown Princess (A Princess Cruise lines ship), my wife and I were relaxing in our cabin. We decided to get away – just after the 1-year birthday of our daughter.

There is no land in sight. Just the blue water of the Caribbean, racing by several decks below at a speed of 20 knots or so.

I pulled out my laptop. Oh, don’t worry, I had no intentions of actually working. Are you kidding me?! No, instead I just wanted to check in on a promotional campaign that I had set in motion before I left Tampa.

The results? Far better than I expected. I had already made several thousand dollars. It made me feel less weird about paying the huge Internet fees on the cruise ship, let me tell you!

That campaign went on to earn over $12,000 during our 1-week cruise. It took place pretty much on automatic (thanks to scheduled emails in Aweber).

I give the entire breakdown of the campaign (and my videos and swipe files) in this post for my Inner Circle members only. But, the underlying foundation of what I did was from the Product Launch Formula.

This was a prime example of using the tactics of PLF to not launch a brand new product, but to simply promote an existing one. In a completely different market – geeks.

The $18,000 Webinar

Fast forward about a year, to my most recent launch of Blog Masters Club. As many of you might remember, I did a webinar after doing about a 10-day prelaunch campaign.

That launch was almost a “by the book” Jeff Walker style product launch. I say “almost”, because, well…. I screwed some things up.

No, seriously. The backstory of the Blog Masters launch was one of hair-pulling, nervousness and, as I later put it…

Running a product launch is like hanging onto the side of a moving car, with one hand, and with your “package” dangling in the wind.

I did some dumb things during that launch, and it still worked out pretty well for me. But, that webinar? The gross sales from that webinar were over $18,000 – all collected before my launch officially started. The launch went on to do much better than that.

Product Launch Formula – Explained

Simply put, Product Launch Formula is probably one of the most foundational courses you could ever get. Many of the other products you’ve heard about were launched using the strategies in PLF.

Both of the stories above, as well as much of the marketing I’ve done since, were very much as a result of the strategies Jeff teaches inside of PLF.

I’ve been a customer of PLF ever since version 1.0. It keeps getting better, and I have no idea (yet) what he has planned for version 3.0. But, this stuff is powerful.

I encourage you to take notes. Have a copy of Evernote open while you watch Jeff’s videos. He does a good job of explaining things, and many of his videos come right out of on-screen mind maps. He gives all of it to you, too, but you’re going to have a lot of “aha moments” while watching his videos, and you’re going to want to record them.

Product Launch Fatigue?

I chimed in on this one not long ago. I talked about the launch “pattern” and how some markets are going to require more creativity. But, let’s make two things clear:

• Product launches are working better than ever. The sizes of launch results are huge. Sure, some of them flop, but they always serve as a lesson for future launches. In fact, Jeff himself tells stories of his many flops before he became known as the “launch guru”. But, don’t mistakenly assume that launches are not working as well because of the number of them. The exact opposite is true.
• The whole “fatigue” issue is really only relevant to the small circle of people who are basically internet marketing addicts. You know, people who keep tabs on all these marketers and “make money” bloggers. The other 99% of the Internet? They have no clue what a product launch is and how it works. Fatigue for those guys? Hogwash.

You want to be doing launches. Trust me.

Watch This Video

Jeff is currently in prelaunch for version 3.0 of Product Launch Formula.

I’m going to cut to the chase and tell you, straight up, that I think you should STRONGLY consider investing in this course. Do not make the mistake of chalking PLF up to “just another internet marketing product”. No, I think PLF is very much foundational. The other courses don’t even make much sense without the stuff inside of PLF.

And trust me, as a blogger, you can CRUSH IT with this. Blogs are a vital tool in a product launch. By learning the real marketing to apply to the platform (your blog), DUUUDDEEE! I’m telling you – big things can happen.

But, enough of that. For now, just watch Jeff’s prelaunch videos. I got goosebumps watching his second one.

The decision, obviously, is your’s to make. But, now you know what I think.

Click Here To Learn More About Product Launch Formula

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Product Launch Formula Review [Video]
2. Oh Sh**, Another Damn Product Launch?!
3. Product Launch Platforms To Make Your Life Easy

In running my online business, I’ve come to rely on a handful of web-based services. For me, these are the most important ones.

Google

Yeah, well, I’m sure this one isn’t any revelation, but have you ever stopped to think just how many services Google offers that many of us rely on every day?

• Gmail. This is where I do all of my email. Even when people send emails to one of my domain-based POP3 accounts, I get them all downloaded into Gmail. Easy email access from anywhere.
• Calendar. My business life doesn’t include very many appointments (thank God). But, I do use GCal to track certain things. The reminder feature is handy, too.
• Reader. Obviously. And now, using the Reeder app on the Ipad, I’ve finally found a decent RSS reader so I can keep track of other blogs in my downtime. I don’t like using office time to read other people’s blogs because I should be working on my own stuff instead.
• Google Voice. My business phone number goes through Voice. Really great service.

Basecamp

Now that I am picking up the pace in my business and working with other people, Basecamp is proving invaluable to me.

Trying to work with others via email is a major pain in the butt. People lose emails, accidently delete them. Or they reply back and forget to quote back the prior message and you lose track of where things stood. Or they change the subject line and break up the threading of messages. Wholly cow.

Basecamp gets rid of all that. It puts all of your projects in one place – on the web. Every person I hire gets a Basecamp account and I manage all my projects in there. I can also track/manage projects via my Ipad, on the go. It works on the Iphone, too, but the screen size is an issue there.

Aweber

Aweber is clearly web-based, and it is for email list management.

Put simply, my monthly Aweber bill is simply the highest ROI bill that I pay. When you consider how important your email list is to your business, trying to skimp on it is suicidal. I spent a lot of time in my past (stupidly) trying to save money by managing my list in-house, sending emails from my own server. It was one of the dumbest things I ever did.

I’m in Aweber many times per week. Used correctly and with good use of your email list, it truly is a money machine.

SurveyMonkey

For web-based surveys, it doesn’t really get much better than SurveyMonkey. I’ve been a subscriber to this service for about 3 years now.

Strategic use of surveys is VITAL for a business. The alternative is to simply guess what people need and want. Too often, we guess wrong.

As bloggers, we could simply use our blog comments for feedback. Yes, that is a mode of feedback and a valuable one. But, using structured surveys changes the game beyond what you can do with just the blog.

The feedback you can gain from surveys can lead you down roads which will easily pay for SurveyMonkey many, MANY times over. It is a no-brainer.

RememberTheMilk

It is a web-based to-do list. I subscribe to the Pro account for $25/year and this gives me ability to sync to my Iphone and use their Iphone app.

I like being able to think of things to do wherever I am and not lose it. I can add it to my list from anywhere, via the Iphone. Then, having it all on the web just makes it easy.

1ShoppingCart

No secret here, this is a web-based shopping cart solution. I use 1ShoppingCart for order processing, affiliate management, customer email lists, etc. Which means I log into 1SC fairly regularly.

1SC is a good solution, but definitely not the only one. It also has drawbacks. For one, I definitely don’t recommend using 1SC as your primary email list manager. You COULD, but their delivery rate isn’t as good as Aweber. Plus, Aweber is much more capable.

I’ve done a lot of looking around at shopping carts. For now, 1SC seems to be the best balance of features, costs, and proven record.

GetClicky

GetClicky is a web-based stat service – similar to Google Analytics.

The obvious question is – why bother with this when you can use Analytics for free, right?

Well, I DO use Analytics. But, I ALSO use GetClicky. For me, I find GetClicky to be more intuitive for some of the stats I want quick access to. Analytics is powerful, but some of the important information is hidden behind several clicks and report running. GetClicky has a dashboard which gives a nice bird’s eye view of your sites from a glance. Plus, it works pretty well on the Iphone.

Add Some Of Your Own…

So, there you have it.

But, what about you? Got any killer web apps you use day-to-day that you want to share? Use that snazzy comment box below and tell me all about it.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. My Favorite Web Services
2. RSS to Email Services – Followup
3. 69 Services & Resources For ProBloggers

Can you blog from this thing?

First, let me talk briefly about the Ipad as a media consumption device, then I’ll talk about blogging from it. Hint: I’m writing this post from my MacBook, if that tells you anything.

Consuming Media On The iPad

The iPad shines as a device for consuming media. I’ve been using it every single day since I got it to do things like:

• Check the news
• Read books.
• Watching videos

The book and magazine capability of the Ipad is really awesome. It renders my Kindle completely redundant. I have access to the iBook library, the entire Amazon library (via the Kindle app), and even Barnes & Noble has gotten onboard with their Ipad app. More and more media will be coming for the Ipad, and being that (as a blogger) I’m in the web media business, this alone is more than enough reason to get an Ipad.

Watching video on it is pretty cool, too. Youtube videos work quite nicely. You can stream Netflix all day long to the device. ABC has a KILLER app which allows you to watch any ABC show for free online. I would imagine the other major networks will soon do something similar. Last night, I even watched a regular MP4 video that I had wanted to watch. I grabbed it during the day from my Mac. Not wanting to watching it right then, I just moved it to my Dropbox. Using the Dropbox app on the Ipad, I pulled the video down and watched it in bed – on the Ipad.

Getting Work Done

I am routinely using the iPad to check my email (with Gmail). I’m checking Twitter using the Twitterific app (the best option so far). I’m checking up on Basecamp to manage business-related projects and their interface works quite well in Safari.

As a quick way to check up on things, the Ipad is nice. I can now carry around a small device anywhere, about the size of a small paper notebook, and pretty much deal with anything. On a decent size screen, too. I have an iPhone, but it feels SO SMALL after using an iPad.

I should also mention that Evernote on the iPad rocks. As a heavy Evernote user, I love having access to it from anywhere – with a decent screen.

Blogging From The iPad

My first instinct was to get the WordPress app for the iPad. So, I set it up and even started typing this very post inside of that app – on the iPad.

First, the WordPress app is extremely limiting. No formatting options. No links (I couldn’t find it anyway). It is about as feature-packed as Notepad is on Windows. In other words – bare minimum. But, here’s the real kicker…

It is UNDEPENDABLE. I had spent about a half hour typing up a blog post. I wanted to draft it online so that I could finish it up there and publish. So, I changed the status to “draft” and hit “Save”. POOF. GONE. The post fricking vanished. It was not online and I could not fetch it from inside the app. So, not only is the WordPress app lacking features, but it eats blog posts.

The good news is that the WordPress control panel works quite well inside of Safari on the iPad. The screen size means the interface is actually usable. If I had typed that blog post there rather than the stupid WordPress app, I’d still have it. The only real limitations I’ve found from the WordPress control panel on the Ipad is:

• The WYSIWYG editor does not work. However, switching to HTML view does. So, if you don’t mind typing your posts in HTML, you’ll be good to go.
• You cannot upload media (like images). Why? Because the iPad really has no file system to speak of, so WordPress simply doesn’t know what to do. You can bring in remote images (by URL), but you cannot upload images from your iPad to your server. For that, you’d need to use the WordPress app and take your chances of it actually working and not lose it.

Obviously, typing on the Ipad takes longer. I find I get faster at it over time, but it is notably slower than using my Macs. There is an external keyboard for it, but I don’t have one and really don’t want one.

All in all, you can blog from the Ipad. It’ll be slower and I recommend you use the WordPress control panel itself – inside of Safari. The multiple-thumbnail way of opening multiple sites in Safari is also probably very close to the way multitasking will work when it comes out in OS 4 for the Ipad. If you need to go look something up online while using the WordPress app, you’d have to close it and go to Safari. By keeping everything in your browser, you can actually mimic a multi-tasking environment, in a weird way.

Iphone OS 4 – with multitasking – is going to make the iPad so much more usable. I’m looking for to it.

Final Thoughts

It is no secret that the iPad isn’t a full computer, nor does it have anywhere near the capability of one. I expect it will get much more useful with the release of OS 4 and a bunch more third-party apps. But, if you’re looking for all the convenience of a regular computer, you’ll not find it on the iPad.

But, the original question was – can you blog from this thing?

Answer: Yes, but it’ll be more cumbersome. And when you do, don’t use the lame WordPress app. Great blog platform, crappy Ipad app. For now, anyway.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

1. Six Figure Blogging… Now On The Iphone/Ipad :-)
2. Test Post From Iphone