Jumpstart Writing Your Book with This Proven Formula
Two acquaintances emailed to see about hiring me to write their copy — one wanted me to write her ebook for a new product (and quite a promising one at that!) and the other to hire me for rewriting their fitness site.
Since I included a lot of information that is good to know, I combined my replies and I’m including it here for you. Here goes . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Client Top Secret, Info-Product Creation, Mind Of The Info-Marketer | 1 Comment »
By Walter
Secret Strategy #3 - Will People Buy What You Sell? Here’s The Easy Way to Find Out . . .
Lets face it, most market research tools suck, plain and simple. WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, while 
powerful — also burden you with too much information and it’s up to you to sift what you need from the chaff.
Those of you who know me know that I speak quite a bit about the KEY importance of first establishing the viability of a market, before creating a product for it.
It’s a mistake I see prospects and clients make again and again.
At a recent summit I attended, Anik Singal had one of the best quotes I’ve heard this year: “A good idea is not a business.”
Amen to that, brother. I, and the most successful serial entrepreneurs I know find a market hole first, THEN and only then do they develop an product to fill it.
Most people do the exact opposite and the Internet is littered with abandoned sites and Google has fattened itself on bloated AdWords budgets from those who didn’t know what they were doing.
We all have good ideas and god knows we know plenty of people who have them, too. But . . . but, is the market looking for your good idea and more importantly, are they will to PAY for it?
To that end, I’ll tell you about a tool I use for Market Research in my personal and professional projects that allows me to:
Topics: Client Top Secret, Info-Product Creation, Mind Of The Info-Marketer, Pro Analysis | No Comments »
By Walter
Grrrrr . . . Starbucks Baristas Are Trying My Patience
You can love something or someone absolutely and still have to occasionally give them the Cher/Cage 
Moonstruck “Snap out of it!” bitch-slap back to reality.
Such is the case with my beloved Starbucks, who seems to have suffered a bout of Worst Practices coupled with my personal favorite, Bad Customer Service with a dollop of Indifference on the side.
Look, I buy all my coffee from Starbucks - ground by the pound and individual drinks.
I own SBUX stock.
I’m not a fanatic or anything, they just have the best-tasting coffee so it’s simply a practical issue for me.
I’ve sampled other coffees over the years, because if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know how I HATE to have all my eggs in one basket.
No one, but no one does coffee and the coffee experience better than Starbucks.
When I travel to a new city, one of the first things I do is find where the nearest Starbucks is to the hotel.
When I traveled to the IMC Summit in L.A. last month, I was doubly-blessed that the nearest Starbucks was inside the hotel. Didn’t have to walk blocks for it nor send the concierge.
I was doubly-blessed, and it was a glicken pile-on that IMC also saw to it that we were served Starbucks coffee throughout the summit.
And . . . this blog’s Tip Jar is for my favorite Starbucks drink, the Grande Americano. With their Chocolate Chip Frappucinos during the summer and Green Tea Lattes during the winter being close seconds and thirds. And the only ground coffee I get is their heaven-sent Celebes Sulawesi, the finest whole bean I have ever tasted.
So, safe to say I’m rather fond of the company and product, right?
And you would not be surprised to learn when last March, Starbucks released their Starbucks Card — that I would get one. And for a few bucks more, I could design the card I wanted?
Bam, I’m in. The baristas enjoy it when I whip it out and it never fails to draw attention and comment to the point where they even shown to each other and the nearest customers.
Seriously, I have a tear in my eye as I write this. No . . . I really, really do. Stop it . . . I do.
Love On The Rocks
But that’s where the romance jumped the tracks and I’m forced to bring down the hammer of tough-love - Starbucks has dropped the ball and dropped it repeatedly.
So you know what time it is, right? Yep . . .
[rolling up sleeves] Time to get to work . . .
Topics: Fighting Back, Marketing Mishaps, Pet Peeves | 2 Comments »
By Walter
"By Hook Or By Crook We Will," MJR’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - Part 2
A video dramatization (though not by much) of the titanic struggle to save our homes from the faceless corporation . . . for sake of clarity and drama, picture me as the guy who’s taking on The System . . . all will be explained on the other side –
There’s not a way in the world to watch that opening and not feel like kicking some well-deserved ass. I get a rush just hearing the music . . . the shot of the gathering storm, the determined stride, the thunderclap as he flings open the doors and pounding the desktop of some mealy-mouthed bureaucrat is just glicken from there on.
in Part 1 of our little saga, I drew the parallel between that British spy drama of one man’s battle against a larger, faceless, oppressive and better financed opponent. The show was “The Prisoner” and is considered by many to be one of the most unusual and thought-provoking television series ever made.
Plus, the parallel to our uncovering of the MJR plot, its subsequent exposure, the scandal and ensuing battle is “spot-on” as my UK clients are fond of saying. And just like the show, I too discovered who my allies were — surprisingly, they were not the residents.
But I’m getting ahead of the story . . .
In the series, Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), played a former British secret agent being held captive by an unidentified power.
Episodes typically featured the unnamed prisoner, labeled “Number Six” by his captors, unsuccessfully attempting to escape from “the Village,” (the name of our apartments was “Redwood Village“) but successfully resisting interrogation and attempts at brainwashing.
Not to let irony slide, MJR often referred to our habitat as “The Village,” which partially inspired this analogy.
And that’s the parallel being drawn here today, folks.
During the pitched battles you’ll soon read about, getting a straight answer from MJR, McClure (the bureaucrats’ spokesmodel) and the owners; all desperate to keep their plot hidden, often went something like this mental dueling swords exchange from the beginning of each episode:
I am the Number Six character and Mike McClure, MJR’s spinmeister (seen interviewed in the King 5 report) is our Number Two.
Topics: Fighting Back, It's A Good Thing, Marketing Mishaps, Pet Peeves | No Comments »
By Walter
Letter To The New Info-Product Creator - Postscript
So that email to “Bob” you’ve been reading about . . . 
What I didn’t include in my posts, was the urgent Call-To-Action (in voice and e-mails) for him and I to pow-wow on Next Actions before I left for L.A. to attend that Information Product & Marketing Summit.
Given what you read in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 — you didn’t have to be the Amazing Kreskin to see the next installment of this Wagnerian micro-tempest coming . . .
Topics: Info-Product Creation, Mind Of The Info-Marketer | 1 Comment »
By Walter
MJR Deals Dirty -"Who Is Number One? You Are Number Six"
What does the second most famously-quoted line* of a British sci-fi show have to do with dirty-dealing real 
estate developers, and just who the hell is the nefarious “MJR?”
More importantly, why should you care, right? Look, I know you’re askin’ so I’m tellin’ ya why it matters.
Let me put it this way — have you ever needed to fight back against a larger opponent, but didn’t know how to do it? Then pull up a chair kiddies, because . . .
[cue Rod Serling voice] Submitted for your approval . . . a blueprint for fighting back, taking charge, if you will and as added glicken, watching the wheels of Instant Karma grind the bad guys into dust.
[end Serling voice, begin Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now] . . .
Topics: Dirty Dealings, Fighting Back, Pet Peeves | No Comments »
By Walter
Letter To The New Info-Product Creator - Concluded
Have you ever tried to push a rope? Well, getting the subject of our series on new info-product creation, “Bob” to act in his own intelligent best-interest has been just like
pushing a rope, or trying to teach the proverbial pig to sing.
In Part 1 I told you about a new info-product guy with one of the most promising product ideas I’ve heard in a long time and how he started self-destructing and squandering his ticket out of the 9-5 grind.
In Part 2 I revealed the first part of my response to his lollygagging, 9-5 mind-trap.
And below in the final segment, I tell him why he is his own worst enemy on this floundering project and what he can do about it.
Pay attention — I could well be talking about you.
So I asked him . . .
Topics: Client Top Secret, Mind Of The Info-Marketer, Pet Peeves | No Comments »
By Walter
Letter To The New Info-Product Creator - Part 2
In Part 1 I told you about a guy with one of the most promising product ideas I’ve heard in a long
time.
But he suffers from “failure to get started” syndrome and it’s going to be a VERY costly mistake . . . for him.
Unless he starts taking MASSIVE ACTION to overcome the mental inertia keeping him in a miserable 9-5.
And since what he email below is pretty indicative of a first-time info-product creator and what it takes to bring it to market, I thought I’d share it with you.
So I pinged him for a progress update and this was his response . . . nearly 3 weeks later! Ai-yi-yi . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Client Top Secret, Mind Of The Info-Marketer | No Comments »
By Walter
Free $10K Expertise - IMC’s Internet Wealth Mastery Summit 2008
3 days downloading the info-product creation and marketing strategies from the top experts making the most 
money doing exactly what they were teaching us.
Easily, over $10,000 of tips, tactics, strategies . . . even whole campaigns laid out for us — and it was all free.
Yup . . . F-R-E-E.
After 3 days of drinking from the information firehose and one full day of recovery under my belt, I’m back home and becoming more lucid. Wish I had scheduled a week off for mental decompression, but if wishes were fishes . . .
As it is, copy takes 3x longer to write.
Yet, yet . . . it was more than worth it. Click on the image to see everything that was promised . . . and more than delivered upon . . . ==>
So why didn’t you know about it? It wasn’t highly publicized because you had to be a member of the exclusive club.
Topics: Client Top Secret, Mind Of The Info-Marketer | 2 Comments »
By Walter
Letter To The New Info-Product Creator
The hardest thing to do, business-wise, is to overcome your own inertia and rouse the mind from it’s slumber.
Especially if you’re new to the game.
Even moreso if you’re working for yourself.
[in my best Rod Serling] ‘Case in point . . . witness one new info-product guy with dollar signs in the eyes, the dream of working for himself in his heart . . . but tragically struggles with his own doubt and uncertainty.
Years of slavishly working for others has dulled his fire and diminished his sense of possibilities to the week-to-week paycheck he gets for all his hard work.’
Okay . . . kill the Twilight Zone music, you get the idea.
So I got this email the other day from a newbie who has a GREAT product idea in a niche market that is HUGELY ripe and just waiting to be plucked.
Back in November 2007, this guy was new to the world of online business and it all began innocently enough with him suddenly asking me, “Hey, how can I do what you do (meaning work from a home office)?”
And because his expertise was such a rich field of possibility,
Topics: Info-Product Neuronet, Mind Of The Info-Marketer | No Comments »
By Walter