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Sounds exciting doesn’t it? The Challenge! Makes me wish that Ed Dale actually owned that website. Maybe he can go purchase it … “TheChallenge.com” has quite a ring to it. Alas, it’s owned by some … Golf Course. Argh. The humanity.

For those unknowing, the Thirty Day challenge was a thirty day, free (more or less), course you could take to build a business on the internet. I think it was started, and is owned by, Ed Dale (but there might be more people involved). Let me start by saying, I loved it, and I had many people use it, and try it over the years (and I did it the first year myself, and it worked ok).

Unfortunately, over the last two years, it wasn’t really working. I still had employees do the course (for the training), but the results were not as good as our own “home baked” recipe for success. It turned into a bit of a time waster, but still very useful for training purposes, especially for brand new internet marketers.

Now, that the course lost its Edge, well, that’s not Ed’s fault, and it’s certainly not fair to compare the course’s teachings to what we actually do in house, for million dollar basement empires. However, that being said, the changing face of internet marketing, and specifically, the length of time it takes to get websites to rank properly, has shifted greatly in the last two years. The thirty day challenge no longer made any sense because of it, and the new format seems far better (encompassing over three months), yet still, I think, may not be enough to see results. Yet, I still want to find out …

While I am a big fan of the proposed 30 minute chunks of training and implementation, as a motivational tool, I think in practice, there’s not a chance in hell it will work, and I wish Ed had made it a minimum of an hour. Really. No way in hell you can do it in 30 minutes. Sorry. Rewind. Hit delete. Try again. It simply takes more time and work than that to build a business or see results, even at an entirely surface level. That being said, to appeal to a large group, this is probably the max amount of time you can say upfront. Any more, and you’ll lose people due to perceived complexity.

All that rambling being said, good training is hard to find, and I’m going to do something special this year - I just thought of it!

First, here’s the Link to Ed Dales Latest Post explaining the Thirty Challenge changes.

First, as you know, I don’t like promoting anything from my blog, but this is a course that, while I do not use personally, I use every year in my business (usually running a contest among employees). I will do the same this year. In fact, I invite YOU to be part of it, if you want.

If you would like to be paid $8/hr for working through the challenge as an intern of MarketingCrazy. I’m actually going to let you do it.

Here’s how you apply.
Send an email to info@marketingcrazy.com, and simply include:
1) Why you want to do it
2) What you hope to get from it
3) Facebook Like or Share this Post.

Getting paid to learn might actually be an additional motivator, and you’ll be competing against my actual employees, around the world, for some great prizes (that I have yet to come up with). Probably Ipads, computers, tech toys and such …

I just came up with this idea while writing this post, and it’s really growing on me. I hope some aspiring internet marketers take me up on this, and I can get people launched into the world of internet marketing.

Internet Marketing, or more specifically, building a business on the internet, allows you freedom to live life, be wealthy, and control your own destiny.
At the end of the day, this is the only “job” I would ever have …

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The day after Underground Seminar, List Control video four closes me.  It wasn’t the first three videos, nor the software (which I’d been using for years), but it was video 4. That did it. Damn, it was good. I’m ready to purchase …

Now, let me first state. I’m not promoting the course. I may buy it for myself, but I am not posting my affiliate link, nor am I trying to pitch you on it. It’s 2k - and for many, that’s simply a crazy amount of money (see below though). However, I thought I’d share with people the fact that, yes, I’m going to do it.

My greatest fear is that I already know everything there is to know about list building. However, the desire to continue learning, and perhaps, find things that have eluded me in my ten plus years, or simply to keep myself involved, is enough for me to pull the trigger and get the course.

It will be the first internet course this year, and likely the only course I get. However, to be honest, the other main selling point was the event in San Diego. I love San Diego, and having an excuse to go down there and party - well, that’s was a major selling point for me. I tend to learn a lot at conferences, as my last three posts have probably affirmed, so the chance to go to one more this year, and learn three more essential skills of internet marketing, was too good to pass up.

In truth, 2k is nothing. I don’t mean to belittle the cost, however, compared to a single year in school, or any other training program which teaches you how to make money, or actively “do” just about anything, it’s really fairly typical. In the internet marketing world, it’s considered a lot. In the Stanford, or even UC Berkeley world of real life education, its’ a drop in the bucket. It’s hard to say which one is more valuable in life, however, it’s easy to say which one will likely net your more immediate income.

Frank’s product is at http://www.listcontrolsite.com, and that’s a straight link (no affiliate stuff). If you get the course, please let me know, as I’d like to have people to compare notes with. My single fear is that there will be nothing new for me here, and in essence, it will take my TIME away from me (which is by far my greatest asset).

If you are purchasing, do a search of the warrior forum to see if any bonus offers appeal to you. I think most are horrible, as they are even more time draining (offering more courses, or added bits and pieces that take more of your time). That being said, Jeff Johnson’s might be ok, and I may purchase through his link (for the ability to have his team build me a site “their way”). Not sure I believe that, but I’ll give it a fair shake.

This boils down to me feeling that I’m moving forward, becoming more involved, investing in my education, after my years of travel, I want my playtime to be over. I want to be invested in something. Houses, cars, hotels, spas, they’re all great - but I’m over it (almost … I think …). I won’t do it at the expense of wasting my time however, so if the course doesn’t deliver, you can expect to hear about it.

Hope You Join me! List Control …

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Think you can’t do it? Think you can’t make 2k a day with no hands?

YOU ARE RIGHT!

But a good percentage of you might try anyway, right? Why is that? Never-ending hope? That’s rigth! Every day I am hounded by products that promise this (or that), with no work. Not just less work, but NO work.

For the newbies, let me cut to the chase - buy NOTHING, EVER that’s main selling point is that there’s NO work involved. Never, Ever, buy a single thing that starts that way. In fact, buy precious little that ANYONE is ever trying to sell to you on the internet …

Do those words confirm your worst fears?  That everyone on the internet is a scam?  Here it is, said by an internet millionaire, whom is sure as hell out to sell you something, confirming your worst fears. Pretyy scary eh? Yet, not scary enough, because…

That being said, many of you will purchase anyway, lord knows, I do.  I’m a spendaholic. I buy no less than a course or tool a week. I’m a true-bred US Consumer though. I get panic attacks if I’m away from Amazon.com 1 click orders for a day. I fear I may have become addicted to the purchase process of internet marketing junk…

So, now that I have come clean, and protected those internet beginner’s whom might listen to me in their quest for internet freedom and lifestyle, let me share a single golden rule!  This, learned from tens of thousands of wasted dollars …

If a product’s main selling point is its lack of work - it’s NOT for you.  It’s likely a scam.  Simple as that! Why? Well, simply put, if you really want to make money, you DO want to work.  We’re smart people - we realize that success does require work. In truth, we simply want to work smart - we’d like to save time, but we know there’s going to be a significant time commitment regardless of what we invest in.

So, where do you start? Where do you start if you really want an internet business? I wish I could give you a solid answer. When I look at the sheer amount of misguided information, to say nothing of the scams, fraud, and outright lies out there, I tremble for those getting started. Honestly - it’s not a path I’d like to tread. I’m happy I got my training in relatively early …

So what brought this rant of a post about? Well, the 10 offers in my box, each terribly similar to the last, each landing page well crafted (very well crafted), and an honest fear that … how can I break through that amount of noise? Honestly, how can anyone not willing to sell out, or honestly trying to stick by their principles EVER break through the sheer amount of hype-noise? It’s a scary marketplace not just for consumers, but also for the real internet marketing teachers, and business builders and consultants …

It’s a scary prospect, and one I will ruminate on as I buy my next course on how to make money without a website or a list …

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Drum roll please … I promised you some results (in my previous post), good or bad.  Here it is, results from the Mass Control 2.0 4 day cash machine experiment.

So, here they are: Internet Marketing Results 101.  I like Frank Kern. Really - this guy is a riot. Funny, smart, and deserving of attention. The full course I can review a bit later, but the 4 day cash machine was presented simply, straightforwardly, and so a baby could do it IF (and only if), he had his basic internet marketing skills down (autoresponders, list, landing pages, sellable product, etc …). Let’s get to the stats, right after some basics about my execution:

1) I completely turned off my brain, and tried to follow instructions to the letter (not one of my strongest skills mind you).  So, you’re getting Internet Marketing Results 101, from someone whom has graduated 701 (i.e. 7 figures).

2) I did the exact plan, mirroring the landing page, AND 4 follow up emails, exactly, with no changes. In fact, I even left the word “Dog” in there instead of my chosen market. Whoops! So, my market has nothing to do with dogs, or dog traing, and this of course brough up some pretty funny questions.

3) I did this work myslef. No employees, no outsourcing. It tooks about 7 hours. I did the web stuff, AR’s, buy links, thank you pages, upsells, all by hand (and all by lonesome). I loved it - but felt constrained to follow instructions to the letter. There were many ways I felt I might improve results, but I did not want to do anything to throw off the expriment.

4) I chose a 12k cold list, filled with what was, at one time, targeted optins. The list had not been mailed in over 1 year. Of the 12k list, 10.5 were sent each email, and around 8k active received them.

5) My open rates were around 8-10% or less, using all the chosen headlines.  1ShoppingCart was my mailer - and yes, Aweber might have done better.

6) My product was $137, with two upgrades at $47 each.

and … care to guess? How many sales?

Sales were 20.

Upsells were 7.

Thank you sales were 2 (not talked about here, but results in ongoing income).

So, what do you think? For the newbie, I think it’s extasy, and opens up a new world of possibility. For the expert, it’s a disaster that I am REALLY GLAD I DID!

Ok, so the results stunk (from my perpsective), but the process was something I hadn’t done in years, and I did enjoy it. The feeling that a) I might be missing something, and b) there might be huge sales from this, and c) I didn’t know exactly what would happen was … really quite fun. Will I do it again - No.  Will the learning process improve my existing marketing? Yes. I think it will.

Honestly, this covered such basic stuff, and the real money, as I’ve said before, is all in the basics. The fundamentals! It’s not the next big thing, the new software program, the silver bullet, but rather, returning to the fundamentals of Internet Marketing, again and again, that creates real money on the internet.  It is through trial and error that almost all internet marketer’s succeed!  It’s that, and obsessive testing, tweaking, and tracking.

But you all know that already, right? If not, perhaps it’s time for you to visit the upcoming Basement Empires? Regardless, this brought me back to earth.

Other stats? Can you believe, only 61 people unsubscribed? Crazy eh? Makes me think FEWER people than reported ever saw the email. That’s just too low an unsubscribe rate!

Even more funny, are some of the emails I am recieving from friends whom are also great marketers, whom are testing out the exact same thing. I can’t name names, but I’ve gotten the exact emails from various people in various niches. It’s hysterical. I have sent them emails to confirm their results as well, so I may be able to post a follow up message.

And, now … the review of the Mass Control 2.0 course? The first course like this I have purchased in a long time (and now I went and purchase Russel Brunson Micro Continuity too, argh…).  Perhaps we’ll hit that in a later issue.

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So simple! I use to do this all the time,  but admittedly, I have integrated most of it, automated most of it … and I haven’t thought about this method in years.

Now, with the arrival of “the box”, I have attacked the first task… the four day cash machine method.  I am very familiar with it…

So, I got the Mass Control 2.0 impressive box in (but I’m beyond being impressed by fancy boxes). That being said … I was impressed. It was a nice box!  Organized, clean, and easy to understand. I started with the four day cash method, to see what my results would be. Granted, this isn’t an important test for me (I am truly interested in the COURSE and what it teaches), but there’s so much hype around this, I had to see what would happen…

Specifically, what would happen if I followed HIS instructions to the letter. I would not change anything! I would simply follow the instructions perfectly…

I have now put in a total of 5 hours of work. I have made the landing page, setup the list, ARs, thank you ARs, bonuses, etc … I suppose it might take others a little longer, but I had most of my things in place already. I believe the instructions focus a bit too much on the email (getting the click) versus the landing page (getting the sale), but I will implement SOLELY based on what I’ve been given.

I am turning my brain off (for this exercise only)

I have sent out the email to the coldest list I have, of about 11,000 people. I mean, this list is quite cold, and we rarely contact it beyond the follow up system we initially integrated into it.  I have setup the method, exactly as told, and now … people are arriving at the landing page.

What’s going to happen? Stay tuned … this is just day 1. We’ll update the results tomorrow!

What else? I just purchased the MicroContinuity program (Russell Brunson) … Love the sales procces.