Smashing Idols in the Temple Of Info Marketing

Mel,    Let's get one thing clear right now:   Organizing, creating and communicating information—and getting paid well to do it—sure beats mopping floors or hunting yak meat for dinner.   Low inventory, printing on demand, high margins, selling downloadable stuff on the web, selling advice and insight for top dollar—it's a pretty fine gig.   But contrary to marketing land folklore, it's NOT for everyone.   Is this the "perfect" business for you?   First of all, the perfect business for you is the one that employs your own giftedness and unique talents...   Capitalizes on your past experience...   Engages your passions and interests...   Is the info business good for your passions and interests?   Maybe, maybe not.   If you don't like to write or speak, then you'll have to hire other people to do all your writing and speaking, and that's a big handicap.   If you don't eat, breathe and sleep marketing and advertising, the info business is a bad business for you too.   Another HUGE myth is that an info biz runs on autopilot.   Now it is possible to generate some "passive income" this way.   But with the steady parade of Pandas, Penguins and Google slaps, this gets tougher every day.   To stay profitable you have to penetrate deeply into your market.   Most of the money in any market is "underground."   It's only available to those who have achieved a degree of recognition and longevity, and have built a trusting, ongoing relationship with customers.   Not the one-time sale, but the cultivation of a following over time.   Full Time Info Marketer = Cat on a Hot Tin Roof   This is NOT a business where you lay in your hammock for months on end with nary a care or thought while people rabidly consume your stuff and a part-time assistant occasionally replies to their emails.   Yes, you are a paper and ink alchemist.   You do have enormous leverage. The value of your insights has little or nothing to do with how much time it takes you to develop them.   You can automate many, many things; you can have most customer service done for you by part time staff, and you can reach hundreds of thousands of people without ever talking to a single one of them. You can take vacations and even sabbaticals.   But you can't turn your brain off. If you have a following, a 'herd', a group of hot, responsive customers—you can't ignore them for very long, or they'll go away.   So if you're in the information business full tilt, you need to be prolific.   Whether it's emails, newsletters, teleseminars, seminars, postcards, videos, mentoring programs, new products, CD's or whatever (notice that's a pretty big list of choices), your group needs to hear from you.   That's the reality of the "pure info marketing" approach.   What I recommend for most people is the hybrid approach.   It's much easier to run an information business when the product is only a part of what you sell.   I started my business as a consultant, and because I was already known in my industry, got paying clients right away.   I spent the next year getting my information business up to speed, which was a trial and error process.   If you do consulting—if you perform, hands-on, what you also teach people to do, then you always have a cash cow you can fall back on.   You also have more to write about.   Most of us would prefer not to be trading hours for dollars, but here's a little secret:   In the end, anything you do, no matter how automated it is, boils down to a certain number of hours for a certain number of dollars.   Let's say you pull off something really brilliant and it takes very little work to maintain it—it may net you $20,000 per hour.   But twenty grand is still a finite number.   And if you climb to the top of the consulting heap, fine-tune your pricing and build a "support machine" to handle the mundane details, well...   You'll find your hourly returns are nothing to sneeze at.   Carpe Diem,   Perry Marshall       ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   support@perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

[Trusted Authority] Are you being compared to other consultants?

Mel,   The last time you lost a consulting project opportunity, were you compared to other consultants who offer similar solutions to you?   It can be an awkward situation.   You’re being compared to another consultant, yet you believe that you authentically can do the best job possible for the client at a reasonable fee.   Yet, the prospective client lets you know (if they are polite) that they chose another consultant who they believe can provide a similar solution.   You shake off the loss and say to yourself: “Oh well, I did the best I could, I’ll get the next one.”   Here’s a really important sales myth that I learned from Ari Galper, The World’s #1 Authority On Trust-Based Selling that you’ll want to be aware of, if you want to become a Trusted Authority in your market:   ** Your potential clients are not comparing you to other consultants. They are actually ranking you based on how much trust you convey, and how much authority you project.**    News flash: Trust isn’t enough anymore, you need to now become a Trusted Authority in your market to bring in the highest quality clients that only want to work with the best.   What you bring to bear right now as you sell your consulting services is a roll-up of all of your experience and expertise into a single pitch for a project.   What I mean is, you work really hard to “prove” to your potential client that you are the best choice.   When you are a Trusted Authority, by default, you are the only choice.   You no longer have to defend yourself or prove yourself ever again.   If you’re a Professional Business or Corporate Consultant, discovery how you can become a Trusted Authority in your market on February 15, 17, and 19th (in Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta).   Ari is coming to the US (he’s been living in Sydney for the last 10 years) for a nation-wide tour and is holding his world-famous Trusted Authority Summit® destined to revolutionize the consulting industry.   If you don’t know Ari, he is one of the sharpest and most respected world-class mentors you will ever meet.   If you’re one of the first 35 Professional Business or Corporate Consultants to apply and be accepted, you can attend this game-changing training for free ($2,500 fee waived).   Begin your Trusted Authority journey by clicking here…   To your success,     ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   support@perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

"You're a Fraud"

Mel,   Recently a copywriter I know told me how he had this really disturbing dream...   He's still pretty new to the whole freelancing game, but I like his work, so I've thrown a few projects his way.   His confession came after he handed in his most recent assignment.   In his dream, I, Perry, had sent him a withering "poison pen" critique of his copy.   "You're a fraud," said Nightmare Perry. "You'll never amount to anything as a copywriter. And who do you think you are, anyway?"   Wow.   He continued:   Lately I've found myself facing each work day with a vague sense of dread.   I was starting to get discouraged, because it reminds me of how I felt about my Dilbert cube job right before I left.   I was thinking, "Is this what I was working so hard for? Did I just replace one job I couldn't stand with another that I dread?"   But then I realized this constant white noise background hum of apprehension is just because EVERY FRICKEN THING I do is waaaaay outside my comfort zone.   All day, every day.   Boy can I ever relate!   It's the same feeling I had sitting in on sales calls as a kid in my mid-twenties—Andre The Giant, wringing my guts like a dishrag.   It's the same wobbly-legged sensation I had when I hung out my shingle as a marketing consultant, the dust from the Twin Towers still thick in the air...   I've come to recognize this intense discomfort for what it is—                           A sign of growth.   When you're pushing yourself toward your heart's deepest desires...   That's when your "inner orphan" wakes up and starts wailing like a banshee.   Now these days my "comfort zone" has expanded.   I can rip through consultations, hot seats, even live "look over my shoulder" copywriting-as-performance-art sessions without breaking a sweat.   But ever since I sat down and started writing the book that became Evolution 2.0...   Those familiar doubts and queazy feelings came roaring back.   Just a few days ago I showed up to a radio studio to debate PZ Myers, a famous biologist and cantankerous atheist.   And ol' PZ spent 80 long minutes trying to hack my legs off at the knees:   How dare this uppity electrical engineer write a book about Science!   Some days I wonder if I made a mistake picking this fight...   But then out of the blue someone will post an Amazon review like this:   Perry, I'll be honest. I thought you were going to go off on some Christian rant and start telling me how great God and Jesus are and how they  should be in my life.   Should have known better.   Refreshingly honest and backed up with some straight talk and facts.   I  thought it was one the best reads of the last 20 years. Honestly I  learned stuff and have changed my opinion from being an Orthodox Atheist  to thinking... Code. Could it be that simple? It does seem to make a  lot of sense.   Really surprised many of the points raised in this book are not covered in detail elsewhere.   Thank you for writing it. It has taken a major place in my life already. A journey that is just beginning.   Hear me on this, Mel:   You didn't "just get lucky."   You worked hard to get where you are.   You earned your spot at the big kids' table.   So next time YOUR inner orphan starts beating on the cellar door, just smile...   Cuz things are about to get GOOD.   Carpe Diem,   Perry Marshall     ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   support@perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

The “20-Minute Work Week” for Social Media Traffic

Free Webinar: 10 Social Media Traffic Hacks Perry Marshall & Larry Kim Tuesday, January 12, 10:00 AM Eastern REGISTER HERE   Mel,   Tomorrow, Larry Kim and I are going to dig into 10 hacks to turbocharge your social media traffic.   We’ll show you... How to boost your “Quality Score” for Facebook & Twitter ads How turn low engagement updates into click-snagging high engagement traffic sources How to leverage the Flywheel Effect of social media marketing How to get free clicks Plus 6 more hacks!   But that’s not at all.   If you stick around to the end, Larry will show you how to get free access to “The 20-minute workweek.” This is WordStream's one-stop PPC management software that makes it faster and easier to maximize the performance of your Google AdWords, Bing, and Facebook campaigns.   It’s an impressive “80/20 tool” for managing your biggest paid traffic sources.   So, get our free traffic hacks then stick around to see how you can test drive this tool for free.   Register here   Carpe diem, Perry Marshall         ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   support@perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here