Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Okay, let me start off this article by saying this. I do NOT condone spam. It is an abomination that is destroying email marketing. Okay, maybe destroying is a harsh word. But it is certainly making email marketing a lot harder than it has to be because of all the safeguards put in place that ultimately end up hurting the legit email marketer more than the spammers. Having said that, you can learn a lot from all the spam that comes into your email box.

For starters, check your spam folder. Thanks to George Sepich for reminding me about this. If an email ends up in your spam folder, that means that the person who sent the email put something in it that caused it to end up there. Read the email, especially the subject. See if you can figure out what caused it to end up where it did. Run it through an online spam checker. It’ll point out all those bad words in it that triggered a high spam score. By doing this, you ultimately figure out what NOT to do.

But you can learn more than just how to keep your emails out of the spam folder. Sadly, a lot of these spammers have some excellent writing skills. I have actually read some emails that had excellent sales pitches in them. In fact, I’d say that the sales copy was written by a pro. I’ve seen excellent uses of mystery, scarcity and a killer offer at an unreal price. Hey, let’s face it. If spam wasn’t profitable, these guys wouldn’t do it. So some of them MUST know something about marketing. Too bad they don’t use their smarts for good rather than for evil.

Point is, as bad as spam is, and as much as I personally hate it (You should see my in box) you CAN learn something from it. It does serve a rather twisted purpose if you’re a marketer and have the time to go through it all. That’s the problem though. You get so much of it, and so much of it is pure garbage (one line ads) that finding the quality spam (is that an oxy moron?) isn’t so easy to do. But if you have a few extra minutes, like maybe during your lunch break (if you eat lunch at your PC like I do) go through some of your spam and see if you can’t find something that gives you a few ideas. At the very least, make sure you do a spam check to see why it ended up in your spam box. Then you’ll know, at the very least, what to stay away from doing when you compose your legitimate emails.

For example, some people will spell the word “free” with special characters. Believe it or not, this will trigger off the filters more than if you just left the word free in. There is actually nothing wrong with this word. Problem is, people have been conditioned to believe it’s a bad word, so they don’t use it. I use it all the time and my emails get through with no problem at all.

Yeah, spam sucks…but by at least learning something from it, you can make it suck less.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

If you follow my articles regularly, you’ll probably notice that this is the first one I’ve written in well over a week. Yes, that should sound surprising as I usually write one or two a day. In this particular article, I’m going to explain why it’s been so long in between and why you sometimes need to take a step back from your everyday marketing activities.

About two weeks or so ago, I noticed something…I was getting burnt out. It doesn’t happen often, but I was definitely on the verge of taking my computer and tossing it through a wall or a window…whichever was closer. This isn’t because my business was suffering or anything like that. It was simply because I was getting tired of the whole grind. Hey…I’m human.

For a while, I started to think that maybe it was time for me to retire. After all, the money is secondary these days. I’d much rather play video games, magic cards and write some songs…or so I thought. But after I took a step back from things and stopped my regular activities, I realized that the problem was that I was in a rut. I wasn’t being challenged and I didn’t really feel like I was getting through to anybody. I felt like I was just wasting my time.

So I stopped everything and sat down and thought to myself…”What am I really trying to accomplish here? Is it JUST to make a buck? If that’s the case, there are a heck of a lot easier ways to do it.” That’s when I realized that I just wanted to make a real difference and I wasn’t doing what I SHOULD be doing in order to make that happen.

Ultimately, I decided to open up a limited coaching program to just a few people at a ridiculously low price. Needless to say, it sold out in less than a day. Suddenly…I was excited again. I was setting up a membership site for these people to get their materials, setting up affiliate tools, providing them with instruction and flat out having a blast.

Internet marketing was fun again. I’m back to working full time days like I did many years ago and loving every minute of it. This isn’t work for me…not when I’m doing something I really love. And it shouldn’t be work for you either. If it is, maybe it’s time for you to take a step back and think about what you’re doing.

Is it REALLY what you want to do?

You might discover that it’s not and that you’d rather be doing something else. That’s okay. Not everybody is cut out for this Internet marketing stuff.

But if it IS what you want to do, then find what it is that excites you and do THAT. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the mundane. Let somebody else do the tedious stuff.

It’s time to have fun again.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels trying to make a buck online? Visit the products page of my blog at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/products and get a 6 figure education for pennies.

I have no doubt that a lot of people aren’t going to agree with what I’m saying in this article. In fact, I expect to get a lot of negative feedback because of it. However, there is one thing I have learned from 8 years of marketing online and it’s this…if you don’t stick to your guns, you’re nowhere man. Okay, what am I talking about? Well, keep reading and you’ll find out.

Let me start with an example. It should clearly explain what I mean by sticking to your guns. Just recently, I launched a coaching program. It’s closed now so don’t even try to get in. Anyway, I made it very clear on the sales page that there was a conditional guarantee. I explained the condition in detail. If the prospect wasn’t happy with the condition, they didn’t have to get the coaching.

Well, just a few minutes ago, somebody emailed me with a request for a refund. They explained their reasons. Unfortunately, the reasons did not meet the criteria for a refund. Now, I could have been a “nice” guy and refunded the purchase. But if I did that, what would it say about my credibility as far as my word on something? Why would anybody have to believe anything I say if I so easily go back on my word?

While I emailed the person saying that I would “consider” refunding them if I filled the spot, I probably will not. Why? Again, it comes down to credibility. If I say one thing and do something else, no matter what the reason is, my credibility is shot. This way, when somebody purchases something from me and I say “these are the conditions” they better darn well know that I mean what I say.

Like I said up top, a lot of people aren’t going to agree with this. They’ll believe that exceptions should be made. But then where do we draw the line? Let’s take refunds for example.

Your refund clearly states that no refunds are given unless you use the product, show me that you used it and did everything it says and still didn’t make any money.

Now the customer writes to you and tells you that they had a death in the family and they need the money for funeral expenses. While I can sympathize, what does that have to do with the guarantee? Where does it end? My cat died? My pet mouse died and I’m distraught? Where do we draw the line as to a valid excuse?

What if somebody doesn’t use the product at all? Well, that’s not my fault. If you weren’t sure you could use it when you got it, you shouldn’t have gotten it.

In all my years of buying products online, I asked for ONE refund. Why? The piece of software literally didn’t work at all. In fact, it was so fraudulent that I reported it to ClickBank and eventually, that product was removed from the marketplace.

But if I buy something and, for whatever reason, I don’t use it…that’s on me…NOT the product creator.

Again, many people won’t agree with this. That’s fine. You can send your hate mail to any one of my many email addresses that you’ll find online.

In this business, you have to stick to your guns or nobody is going to believe a word you say.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Have you been going the “learn everything for free” route and not getting anywhere with your marketing? Well, maybe it’s about time that you invested in your education. Too radical for you? Well, check out my products page at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/products and see if maybe you can’t find something that’s just right for you. It just might mean the difference between success and failure.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that a lot of Internet marketers seem to be looking for validation for the Internet marketing efforts. I’ll go to a forum and read a thread with a title something like, “Is This Okay?” and then they’ll go on to say what they’re doing and asking if it’s okay to do and will bring good results. Well, this article is going to tell you under no uncertain terms that if you’re looking for validation, don’t bother. If you want to know why, keep reading.

There are several reasons why looking for validation is a waste of time. At the top of the list is experience. Everybody is going to have different experiences with different things. Plus, their skill levels are all going to be different. I can tell you that, if you were to ask me about article marketing, that you will get great results with it, based on my own experience. But that means nothing to you. For one thing, I’ve been writing my whole life. I have a developed skill that has gotten stronger with each passing year. What if you never wrote a day in your life? Can you possibly get the same results? Maybe, but not likely.

Another reason that looking for validation is a waste of time is because things change constantly. What worked last week may not work tomorrow. I can’t tell you what the future is going to hold in store for you. The only thing I can tell you is that if you try it, it may work and it may not. That’s the only honest answer that anybody can give to anything that changes almost on a daily basis. Will some things have a better chance of working than others? Sure, but nothing is certain.

Finally, and this may be the best reason of all, no matter how good something may or may not be for somebody, the only way you’re really going to learn how to do it is by trial and error and actually learning from experience. If I were to say to you to just blindly do something by the numbers, you’ll never really learn it and understand it. You’ll just be going about it like a robot. Then what happens if something changes? You won’t understand the process enough to adapt to the changes. So if you’re looking for validation, forget it…just do it and see how it works for YOU.

The above few reasons are why I never just take somebody’s word for something. I evaluate a process on my own, decide if it’s something that I want to try, and then go and try it. I don’t look for somebody to validate my actions because for all I know…they haven’t got a clue as to what they’re talking about.

Yeah…that’s another problem that you’re going to run into.

And it’s a BIG one.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

I want to thank Martin Avis of the Warrior Forum for bringing this up this morning. It is something that has been driving me crazy for a long time. I’m talking about people who don’t read the posts at forums but just kind of skim through them. Then, they make some half witted comment based on what they skimmed that, had they actually read the whole post, would have realized made no sense at all. Yes, this stuff drives me crazy. But it’s not just forum posts.

At the Warrior Forum, we have a WSO section. This is where we sell products at a discount to other Warriors. Well, this morning, I got an email from a customer saying that he expected something different from my product than what he got, based on the testimonials on the sales page. Well, had he actually read the entire sales page he would have noticed two things.

The first thing he would have noticed is that the testimonials were for previous products that were similar in nature, but not quite the same. This was clearly stated before the listed testimonials. But even if he had missed that line, there is a section of the sales letter that specifically states, in big bold letters, what actually DOES come in the package. It is all spelled out in black and white. But once again, people just don’t read. They skim, think they know what’s going on, and then make their decision based on incomplete information. That is a very dangerous way to run your business.

For one thing, what if you were to purchase a service and in the terms of service there were certain things that it specifically said you couldn’t do? What do you think would happen if you did those things? Do you not think it would be perfectly within the rights of the service provider to ban you from using their service? What would your defense be? That you didn’t read the whole terms of service? Whose fault is that? It’s certainly not the fault of the service provider when everything is spelled out.

And I could go on and on about all the dangers of not reading. But I think you get the point. Words are put on a sales page or terms of service or even a forum thread for a reason, at least by those who are actually serious about their communication to others. If they didn’t want you to read every word, they would have left some of them out. When I write something at a forum, every word is important because I choose them very carefully.

So, if you’re going to participate at forums and comment on threads, please at least take the time to actually read what’s there.

Otherwise, you’re going to look like a little foolish when you start arguing with the OP and your argument is actually backing up what was said.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.

Well, list builders are in a panic today…especially those who use Aweber, which just happens to be one of the biggest autoresponder services on the planet if not THE biggest. So, what exactly happened? Why are customers being dropped like hot potatoes? Well, read this article and you’ll find out. You’ll also learn what to do in order to keep YOUR list from being blow to kingdom come.

Essentially what has happened is this. Delivery rates are going down for the service. According to Aweber, it is an ISP wide problem and they are looking into it. But you can bet they already know that the reason is for all the spam complaints. And why are there so many spam complaints? Because marketers are jack asses. That’s the only way to put it and be anywhere close to accurate. To give you an example of what jackasses they are, the other day I got an email from one of my Aweber subscriptions that essentially told me in the subject line that I had a sale. When I opened it up, it was nothing but a sales pitch.

Unless you are as brain dead as a rock, you have to know that this is a deceptive subject line and against the Can Spam Act of 2003. You are actually committing a crime. And if the feds wanted to make a case out of it, they could. But Aweber isn’t waiting for the feds to get involved. They’re being proactive about this. Customers who use their service and send out deceptive subject lines are being dropped…period. Say goodbye to your precious list. But that’s not all. Aweber has also issued a warning about relevancy. If you have a list that’s about how to make money with blue widgets, you better keep the content relevant to blue widgets and nothing else. If you’re going to make sales pitches to your list, you better be up front about that on your squeeze page.

Okay, so how do you keep from getting your list yanked out from under you? Well, for starters, make sure that on the squeeze page where they are opting in, you tell them everything that they can expect from you when they hand you their email address. Full disclosure is going to be required if you want to have any chance of keeping your list. You also want to ensure your subscribers that their information will NEVER be shared with anybody. And of course, when you do your emailing…NO deceptive subject lines.

Aweber means business. If you violate any of these things, expect to have your list yanked out from under you.

You’ve been warned.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

So I head on over to the Warrior Forum this morning and I see the following thread title.

Can I copy the whole content of my competitor site?

Here is the actual post.

“Hello warriors. I want to create a micro niche website. I checked my competition and it’s super easy to rank. Ranking #1 is also a micro niche site, with less than 10 ezine backlinks. I was wondering, would it be okay to totally copy the whole content from that site and WP unique that in mine? I mean, not SEO wise, but more to “safety” wise. Could he sue me for doing that?”

I left this quote, bad grammar and all just as it was so you can see it for yourself. No, you are not seeing things. The man is asking, in a public forum, if it’s okay to steal somebody else’s content.

Now, let’s look at this on two levels. Heck, we can look at this on so many levels but I want to keep this article as simple as I can.

First of all, let’s look at it purely on a legal level. If you steal somebody’s content just as it is and put it on your own site, you are leaving yourself open for a lawsuit. And I hope to God they take you for everything you have. You deserve to be fried.

But this problem goes deeper than just legal issues. Think about this. You’ve posted on a public forum asking if it’s okay to steal. What do you think other marketers are going to think about you? Do you think anybody is going to want to do business with you? I know I wouldn’t. You’ve essentially destroyed any reputation that you might have had. Not only that…you’ve showed the whole world what an idiot you are.

Okay, but let’s go back to the question that this article puts forth. Just how stupid are you? Do you do bone headed things like this? I sure hope not. Before you do ANYTHING that goes public, think about what you’re writing or saying. If you are going to make stupid comments or ask stupid questions, expect the fallout to be severe.

It boggles my mind, not just in Internet marketing circles, but all over the world, how stupid some people are. You read about the indiscretions in the paper or watch the news stories on Fox 5 or wherever. And you wonder if these people have the good sense that God gave them.

This particular forum poster is certainly going to get quite a ribbing today.

Hopefully, it doesn’t get any worse than that.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

This article is probably going to get you thinking quite a bit. In fact, you might not even agree with what I’m saying. However, I am going to ask you to at least consider it. What exactly am I talking about? When it comes to marketing to prospects, a lot of the success that you’re going to have will greatly depend upon what the prospect is accustomed to. Allow me to explain with some examples and I think you’ll get where I am coming from.

Let’s take, as an example, a person going into a movie theater to see a movie that has just come out that they’ve been dying to see for a long time. Now, if you’ve gone into most movie theaters, especially today, they’re all pretty much the same. The concession stand is somewhere in the middle of the theater and then off to the sides you have a number of sub theaters, as most movie houses today show more than one film. Would you agree this is pretty standard?

Now, imagine you walked into a movie house and instead of that scene, you saw a stable off to one side with some hay and a horse. Off to another side was a pig pen. Maybe there’s a chicken coup somewhere by the main entrance. Would you think you were in a movie house? Would you stay to see the movie, even though it’s the same movie that you would have seen in a conventional movie theater? Probably not. At the very least, you’d probably search out another place for the next movie you decided to go to.

What about a fast food restaurant? They’re all just about the same. You walk in the main entrance and walk up to the counter. Usually, there is some kind of roped area where the line forms. Then, after you get your food, you move into the dining area which is usually a bunch of benches and/or chairs and a number of tables. Just about any Burger King or Wendy’s looks like this.

Now, imagine you walked into a fast food restaurant and found that same scene as I described in the movie theater. Do you think you’d want to sit and eat with a bunch of animals roaming around? Okay, you probably couldn’t find such a setup because of health regulations, but you get my point.

Yes, the above examples are quite far fetched. They’re exaggerated to make a point. We, as human beings, are used to certain things. Sure, we don’t mind a little variety, but for the most part, when we go to a car dealer, fast food restaurant, movie house or whatever, we expect to find a specific layout and atmosphere. In some cases, what we expect isn’t all that good. How many people really ENJOY going to a doctor’s office? But still, the office is going to have a certain kind of atmosphere.

It is the same thing with Internet marketing. Sure, you have to be a little different to stand out from the crowd. But for the most part, there has to be a feeling of familiarity if you’re going to connect with your target market. If you’re too out in left field, you risk losing them, or worse…total alienating them.

So keep this in mind when you go about designing your next Internet marketing campaign. Yes, you can be a little different. In fact you SHOULD be a little different in order to distinguish yourself from the competition. The keyword here is “little.”

Are there exceptions? Sure. But those exceptions are few and far between.

And you don’t have to invent something new to be successful.

Just be a little different and deliver quality and value.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.

You’ve probably read the title of this article and said to yourself, “Huh? I don’t want a long cut. I want a shortcut. What’s the point?” Well, keep reading and you’ll get the point.

Okay, let me ask you a question. Did you ever try to do what I call a live PC screen video? For example, you’re trying to walk somebody through a process like how to buy a domain at GoDaddy. So you take them through the entire process, in real time.

All of a sudden, you click on the next link in the process and your Internet connection hangs. And there you are speaking into your Camtasia fumbling around for words to say while your PC tries to connect to the Internet. It can get to be real awkward and unprofessional in the presentation. And then of course there are those instances where you type in a password and it’s the wrong password. Yeah…that looks real professional.

Truth is, when doing a video live, things can go wrong. And trust me, they WILL go wrong. I’ve learned this from personal experience. Well, there is a way to make sure your “live” PC videos come off without a hitch and no errors or mishaps. However, in order to make this happen, you need to take what I call a long cut.

Here is the step by step process. It takes a little longer to create the video, but it’s worth the effort.

Step 1 – Take a screen print of each web page you’re discussing. This way, load time doesn’t come into play. Make sure any typing that needs to be done is already on the page.

Step 2 – Bring screen print into editor and add any arrows or other graphics that you feel are needed.

Step 3 – Import each screen print into Powerpoint, creating a new slide for each one. A simple “insert picture” will overlay the screen print onto the blank Powerpoint slide.

Step 4 – Write out the script for each slide in a Word Doc and then print it out.

Step 5 – Go through the Powerpoint presentation adding the narration. You won’t have to stumble over any words because the script is right there in front of you.

Step 6 – Import into Camtasia and produce in whatever format you want.

By doing this, you don’t have to worry about any of those annoying “live” things that might pop up.

Slow load time
Forgotten passwords
Results you didn’t expect
Expired coupons (for demonstrating GoDaddy domain buying)

And so on.

By going through the process beforehand and capturing each screen as you get to it, you virtually eliminate any problems you might run into.

Try it. You might find that you like this much better than recording live.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to find out how to create killer videos like my friend Kevin Riley and rake in a 6 figure income like he and I do? Check out my review of his dynamite product at my blog at http://stevenwagenheim.blogspot.com/2008/06/kevin-rileys-recipe-for-success.html

Okay, so Christmas is over, New Years is over, the weekend is over, it’s time to get back to work…

And it’s the absolute LAST thing you want to do.

Join the club. When I woke up this morning, I almost dreaded having to get back to my business after essentially taking a whole week off. So what do you do when the LAST thing you want to do is attend to your business? Well, I’m going to tell you what I do. This may or may not help you, as everybody is different, but if you’re anything like me, it should do the trick.

First thing I do is make a game of it. I play the reward game. I do something for my business and then I do something for myself. It could be something simple like getting a snack out of the fridge. Maybe I’ll take a run to the store and buy myself something. I might go visit my friend Steve who owns a comic shop and by some Magic The Gathering Cards. But I’ll do something to give me incentive to get my work done.

It doesn’t end there. See, sometimes incentives just aren’t enough, especially when you essentially have everything that you could possibly want. So when that happens, I think about my family. I think about how much they’re depending on me to bring home the bacon. Doing something for yourself is one thing, but when you have others who depend on you, it’s a whole new ballgame.

And if that doesn’t do the trick, I think back to when I first started my own home business back in 2003. I think about how I was out of work and on the verge of being homeless. I think about the early struggles with my business and how I made only $28 in my first five months. When I think about those days, I realize that I don’t want to EVER go back to them. That gives me the incentive to work hard on my business. That’s what keeps me motivated.

Like I said…everybody is different. The above might not work for you. I don’t know. Essentially, what YOU have to do is find YOUR inspiration. Maybe it’s that brand new car you want to buy. Maybe it’s a trip you’re dying to take that you don’t have the money for. Whatever it is, find it and tack it up on a wall if you have to. Remind yourself each day that if you DON’T do your work, you won’t get the things you want.

It’s one way to keep yourself from falling into the “I’m done with this stuff” trap.

Because it’s very easy to fall into.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!