At a recent conference hosted by information product guru Fred Gleeck, I was introduced to the Strengths Finder 2.0 book by one of the speakers at the event. The book goes hand-in-hand with an online evaluation program designed to determine your 5 core strengths.

The basic concept behind this is that it is far more productive and rewarding for people to engage in work/activities that mesh with their strengths rather than struggle to overcome weaknesses. Why dedicate your life to being the best basketball player if you are 4′10″ tall with asthma?

Wouldn’t it be better in the long run to place your efforts behind something you might excel in?

The whole thing makes sense to me. The results of the test speak to deep strengths like ‘learning as a motivator in your life’ and not simplified and overly determined things like ‘you should be a research scientist.’

My Strengths Finder 2.0 Test Results:

1. Learner
2. Ideation
3. Activator
4. Achiever
5. Input

Even more interesting to note are the things that are not on my list like: Strategic, Discipline, Analytical, and Consistency.

I still have a lot to digest from the results, but this has been a helpful exercise to locate some areas of strength to focus on as I plan out my work in the future and evaluate potential business partnerships and joint ventures in the future.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: core strengths, personal development, self awareness, strengths finder

If you have spent more than 10 minutes searching for information about Internet marketing, you have probably experienced the results of Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing System. He created a detailed and integrated marketing system and built software that allows anyone to put the system into use with minimal technical knowledge.

This software, bundled with The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*, and other audio and video training materials, sells for thousands of dollars - and it is worth the price!

After the initial launch of the Butterfly Marketing System, Mike Filsaime decided to sell the The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript* e-book separately from the rest of the package. This e-book explains the entire system and is available for less than $100. It is also the focus of this review.

The name, Butterfly Marketing, refers to the chaos theory concept known as the butterfly effect. This concept states that small actions can create big changes in the final outcome of an event. The example usually given to illustrate the idea is that a butterfly flapping its wings today can create disturbances in the atmosphere that eventually lead to storms instead of sunshine in the future.

In The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*, Mike Filsaime focuses his attention on identifying small changes that online marketers can make to the way they do business that will have a huge impact on their profits.
The butterfly marketing approach is more evolutionary than revolutionary in nature. It includes viral marketing strategies, free membership sites, joint ventures, affiliate programs, developing pre-launch buzz, testing and tracking, email marketing, contests, promotions, one time offers, and more. Each concept is explained in detail - what it is, how it works, and WHY it works! For novice marketers, this information alone will save hundreds of hours of research and trial and error. But, The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript* doesn’t stop with the basics.

Mike Filsaime takes all of this information and structures and sequences it to give readers a complete blueprint for their online marketing projects. Those that spend the extra money for his software also get a complete business system built to operate according to this blueprint.

To further explain and demonstrate the Butterfly Marketing System, the manual provides 10 case studies of Mike Filsaime’s websites and products. These are familiar sites, but readers are given an inside look at why and how they work.

I highly recommend this book with a couple small caveats. First, Mike Filsaime is a former car salesman and car sales can be a pretty high pressure sales environment. I don’t question his honesty, but his tone can be a bit blunt.

When he describes how some affiliate sites provide links to their affiliates he exclaims, “Oh My Gosh, this is just damn insane!” The bulk of the book is on target, well written, and packed with high quality information, but these types of comments are peppered through the text and they might put some people off.

My main reservation has more to do with the way some of the ideas he presents have been implemented in the marketplace. One topic that Mike Filsaime teaches centers on giving affiliates a wide range of easy to use promotional resources. These include things like affiliate links, banners and buttons and also complete pre-written email sequences for them to mail to their lists. On the surface, these are all a good ideas. But, lazy affiliates just cut and paste these letters into their mailing programs. The result is that I often get 15 or 20 copies of the exact same letter from various affiliates who all just had to write and tell me how their best friend so-and-so has just released the most amazing new product that I just have to check out.

Coupled with the emphasis on building buzz and expectation before a launch and then driving tons of traffic during the launch, this can get aggravating and turn off potential customers. I’ve seen it happen many times.

I spend a lot of time in the Internet Marketing worlds and it is a crowded marketplace. This annoyance may not be a problem if you are applying the Butterfly Marketing System in a different marketplace.

Novice and intermediate online marketers should read The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript*. It is like getting a degree in online marketing in 125 pages. Print it out and keep it next to your computer. You’ll be referring to it often.

The Go-To Guy!

* Indicates Affiliate Link

Easy BookBinding, by Nathan DeStephano*, is the most current and complete resource I have found for learning how to print and bind your own trade paperback and case bound hardcover books.

However, this book is NOT for everyone. It is NOT written for the book arts enthusiast who wants to study the centuries old craft of hand made books. It is also NOT written for those wanting to make arts and crafts projects. If that is what you want, here are a few much better resources:

• The Complete Book of Bookbinding*
• Book Arts: Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books*
• Bookbinding for Book Artists*

Easy BookBinding* is written for the self-publishing author and people who want to bind the many electronic books that are piling up on their computers. It will teach you to make trade paperbacks and case-bound hardcover books cheap and fast. These are the most common styles of books you find at your local bookstore.

Personally, I get lots of e-books every month and like to have hard copies of the good ones to read during my commute to work and make notes in. I also like to download public domain classics from the Project Gutenberg website and create printed copies for my library. Occasionally, I make collections of my photos to share with family and friends (this option has become much more popular since the birth of my daughter!) You may have a collection of poems or short stories that you want to share. Whatever your reason, finding good information on bookbinding is challenging.

If you are like me, you have spent many hours searching the Internet looking for information about creating paperbacks and hardcover books. Most of the websites out there are just copies of 100+ year old books that teach complex methods involving specialized tools and time consuming techniques - how many people really want to sew together a book? (I just wanted to make a plain old paperback.)

Most sites I found that taught more modern methods are either badly done or don’t show enough detail to get you through the whole process. You have to get a little info here and a little more there and invent your own method through trial and error. Saving you from wasting time experimenting is where the real value of Easy BookBinding shines through.

Easy BookBinding* takes you step-by-step through the entire book creation process. There are tutorials for using a free page layout program (and information on where to get it) to design the cover and interior of your book. Three different binding methods are explained and there is even a set of plans for building your own binding jig to speed up your process.

Easy BookBinding* does not leave you with general descriptions of the process and rough sketches. Every step is shown in detail with screen captures and high quality 3D images along with measurements in imperial and metric units so the information is useful around the world.

The biggest downside of the book is the price. It’s a little on the expensive side - $49 US as of this writing. I resisted buying it for months and set about trying to figure everything out by myself. If I added up all of the hours I wasted trying to find the information that is available inside Easy BookBinding* and multiplied it by the minimum wage, I am sure the number would be 10 times the cost of the book (and there was a trick for making laminated paperback covers that I had not heard before.)

Easy BookBinding* is a practical step-by-step guide to making your own trade paperbacks and case-bound hardcover books. I recommend it to anyone looking to shortcut the learning curve and start making high quality books.

For more information visit the Easy BookBinding Website*.

The Go-To Guy!

P.S. I was so inspired when I got my copy, that I printed out the book and bonus materials and bound my first hardcover book - how cool is that?

* Indicates affiliate product link.

Seven Years to Seven Figures is Michael Masterson’s latest book on the topic of generating personal wealth. He set about looking for seven people who had built up a seven figure annual income and interviewed them about the steps taken to reach this goal in seven years or less.

The book is aimed at baby boomers who are waking up to realize that they do not have enough money to fund the retirement they want and they do not have enough time to save the money in a conventional retirement plan. But the book is not just relevant for baby boomers. It offers valuable information on wealth building for anyone interested in a fast track to a high net worth.

Masterson claims to have thought up the idea for the book and then pitched it to his publisher before determining if it was even possible to find seven people who fit the profile. He ended up finding eight.

The principles involved in every person’s story track with the recommendations Masterson made in his earlier book, Automatic Wealth. The process involves:

• Increasing your income
• Saving most of the extra money you earn
• Investing in real estate, stocks, and bonds
• Starting your own business in your spare time

The stories are inspiring and illuminate the concepts that Masterson introduced in Automatic Wealth. They are not tales of genius programmers or reckless risk takers. They are stories of individuals like Monica Day, a middle class wife and mother of two who went from earning $26,000/year to $134,000/year in only two years by learning the skill of copywriting and starting a freelance business with her newfound skill.

As a fan of Mastersons earlier books and regular reader of his Early To Rise newsletter, I also admired how the stories that are told connect to the informational training products that Masterson creates and promotes. It is impressive how, in the later stories, the keys to each person’s success was to engage in the learning skills that Masterson teaches in his business. The writing course that Monica Day took is the same one that you will find regularly promoted in the Early To Rise newsletter.

I guess it is logical that the successful people that Masterson knows would also be the people he has personally helped through the businesses he has created. Still, it is a very clever cross-promotion and extremely well done. The book never feels like a cheap sales pitch for something else.

Seven Years to Seven Figures lives up to the hype of its promotional copy. The stories ring true and offer powerful insights into the steps required to build wealth quickly.

If you have already read Automatic Wealth, I highly recommend this book. If not, I suggest you start with the earlier book and then read this one - or buy them both, I’m sure Amazon will offer you a discount!

The Go-To Guy!

Jonathan Leger, author of $7 Secrets and the excellent scripts for viral promotion, has kicked out another excellent report: Write That Report!!!

I grabbed a copy and it is very good (no surprise there.) If you have been wanting to try a $7 report but just can’t seem to get one going, this report is for you.

Jonathan walks you step-by-step through the process of writing a report from selecting a topic to outlining, fleshing out, polishing it up and creating a PDF. No surprises, just a solid process.

Of course, his whole point is to use these with his $7 Reports method. If you haven’t already purchased $7 Secrets, he includes it with your purchase of this report 2-for-1! (this is an un-advertised bonus! Get your copy before he changes his mind!!!)

If you want to check it out, here is the link:

http://www.WriteThatReport.com/

The premise of the $7 reports system is that people will perceive a $7 price tag is very low risk and would be willing to purchase a short focussed report without a hard sell. Then, by using a set of scripts that Jonathan includes with the report, you let your first level customers sell the report and keep 100% of the purchase price. The money goes directly to the affiliate’s PayPal account - no waiting - and the report author gets the name and email address of the customer. The script also includes a mechanism to include a one time offer (OTO) who’s cost is split between affiliate and report owner.

The scripts are pretty amazing and it is hard to believe they are included with a $7 report. But Jonathan claims to be making very good money with this system. The $7 Secrets book explains the whole system in detail!
Keep an eye out, I’ve got a couple of reports in the works already!

The Go-To Guy!

Write That Report, by Jonathan Leger Squidoo Lens

“If You Knew How To Easily Create One Single Page Website That Earned You $3600 A Year…

If You Knew You Could Create That Site In Just ONE DAY…

If You Knew That This Site Would Be Putting Cash In Your Pocket In Just A Few Days Time…

HOW MANY SITES WOULD YOU MAKE?”

Those are the headlines at the top of the sales page for a new Internet marketing e-book, Niche Marketing on Crack*.

I just bought (and read) Niche Marketing on Crack*, by Andrew Hansen. The title of the book is unfortunate, and the ‘Miami drug dealer’ photo on the cover and website aren’t much better, but the sales letter hooked me, what can I say?

The technique is a variation on Bum Marketing, but includes niche websites and basic SEO.

The book is hype free and promotes a very focussed application of respectable techniques. You could learn about them all by scouring forums and websites then cobbling together all of the information into your own system. But, Andrew includes a step-by-step action plan and doesn’t gloss over any of the details which saves a lot of trial and error. (How much is your time worth?)

I am well versed at all of the individual techniques that are written about here, but still picked up some valuable pointers about identifying profitable affiliate products.

The book covers searching for profitable affiliate products/niches, setting up an SEO friendly niche site using Wordpress, creating promotional articles, and the full process for promoting the site and getting profitable traffic.

Niche Marketing On Crack* is a good book for newbies who want a detailed outline of what to do to create and promote a niche website and also for more experienced marketers looking to refine their work process.

Niche Marketing On Crack* is a great fit for 5BaD projects as it focuses on a system that can be completed, from start to finish, in less than a week.

View the Salespage: http://andrewseltz.com/recommends/nichemarketingoncrack/*

I recommend this ebook!

The Go-To Guy!

*This is an affiliate link.

UPDATE: In December 2006, Dennis Becker created a newly revised version of this book and also started a members forum for purchasers of 5 Bucks a Day*. But, Dennis didn’t stop there. He regularly purchases resale rights to products he thinks will be helpful to the forum members and gives them away. There are currently 16 products on the download page - several with master resale rights included. Several of the bonuses alone are worth the price of Dennis’ e-book and they are all included, along with new updates and membership to the forum! This has been a great investment for me! Dennis has also created a blog as well - visit the 5 Bucks a Day Blog to learn what’s new in the 5BaD world.
–End Update–

At this point in my online marketing career I do not think I need to learn another technique or system. I am familiar with article marketing, Adsense advertising, affiliate programs, membership sites, information product creation, viral e-books, squeeze pages and more. I make a few dollars every month, but I still have a day job.

So, what is it that I need?

Click for more information.

Dennis Becker claims that what I need is a strategy for applying all of this knowledge and experience. After reading 5 Bucks a Day*, I am inclined to agree with him.

5 Bucks a Day* does not teach a technique or system for making money online. It lays out a strategy for applying what you know in a systematic way by breaking down your goals into manageable chunks. Instead of complex never-ending projects he encourages week-long projects designed to achieve small goals. The small goals, accomplished with regularity, build up to big results.

The title refers to the author’s focus on breaking up big goals. If you currently earn nothing every day, it is a big mental leap to visualize yourself making $10,000 a day. If you try to make a leap that big, often your subconscious mind will just decide that the task is impossible and start sabotaging your thoughts and efforts. It is a goal to far from your experience to comprehend with clarity. If you focus on a more realistic target of $5 a day, the goal seems possible. As you reach these small goals you raise target higher. Before long you will find yourself well beyond your initial ‘impossible’ goals.

5 Bucks a Day* is a well organized, well written and inspiring book. Becker offers specific examples from his own work and provides specific strategies and action steps to help you focus your efforts.

If you are full-up with marketing information and still not making much money, get a copy of 5 Bucks a Day*, by Dennis Becker - and make sure you join the forum. There is a wealth of great advice and helpful people there and you will also get access to thousands worth of additional resources that Dennis has purchased for the community.

The Go-To Guy!

* Denotes affiliate links.

Are you hunting for advice on how to make money with your blog or website using Google’s Adsense advertising program? You may need this book!

The very first piece of advice that Joel Comm gives in his new book, The Adsense Code, is to make sure your Google Adsense ads do not look like ads. It should not surprise you that his book doesn’t look like a book about Adsense either - The cover is a spoof on the Da Vinci Code design.

While browsing through the business section of my local bookstore the cover caught my eye. I wondered what a Da Vinci Code book was doing in the business section and then realized it was Joel’s book. The gimmick made me smile and I grabbed it to see what tips I could get for free by reading it in the store. After skimming through chapters and having a few aha! moments, I realized I was going to need my own copy to study and broke down and bought a one.

I was first introduced to Joel Comm’s work through one of his Dr. Adsense podcasts. I had been toying with a niche topic website and Adsense to see if it was possible for me to make a little money online. His podcast was helpful and I was soon looking for more Adsense advice from him. That was another reason I was so quick to buy this book.

Joel is not an advocate of slapping up hundreds of software generated garbage sites with ads stuffed in them. There are hundreds of “gurus” out there who promote this type of approach. Google is getting wise to their tricks and the profits made from those types of websites is evaporating quickly. It has a number of folks claiming that Adsense is Dead, but the techniques and strategies that are taught in The Adsense Code will keep you on Google’s good side and keep you making money.

The book spends a few pages giving a brief overview of setting up a site and an Adsense account, then jumps into explaining how to use Adsense on your site. Joel shares his years of experience giving advice on the best formats and placements to use for your ads. He explains ways to influence the ads you get on your site without violating Google’s terms of service. He gives suggestions for gathering and generating content for your site and how to track your ads and analyze your visitor stats.

What impresses me most with this book is that Joel encourages and demonstrates tracking and testing strategies to help you evaluate the impact of the changes you make to your ads. Without tracking and analysis, you are just groping in the dark. Joel recommends keeping an Adsense Journal to track your changes and their impact on your earnings. A wise recommendation!

If you are trying to get a handle on how to use Adsense for your website or blog, this book is a must have. If you have been working with Adsense for a while you may have heard of many of these ideas before, but you will still learn a few new tricks to try (I know I did!)

The Go-To Guy!

Tired of Internet marketers promising a ’secret technique’ for making money online? How about marketing manuals that tell you to make marketing manuals to sell to people like you? It’s like a dog chasing its tail.

You won’t find any of that junk in “The One Month Magnate“*, by Tony Shepherd. The system he lays out is filled with gimmick-free practical techniques presented in a logical (and profitable) sequence. He chose a real world example to demonstrate his process and leads you through it from beginning until almost the end (he stops detailing his project at the 30 day mark giving an overview of what he planned to do next.)

The sales page for Shepherd’s e-book grabbed my interest and tempted me to risk $27US to find out more. He promised a blueprint for creating a profitable online business that puts money in the bank in 30 days - starting from nothing. I pulled out my Amex card, payed my money and downloaded the e-book. I got my money’s worth.

If you are a seasoned information marketer, or have already consumed as many e-books, websites, and podcasts on creating and marketing information products online as I have, you will find no surprises in Shepherd’s book. I had heard every technique before, but I also spent a lot of time gathering that information. Plus, I still learned something new.

What I found is exactly what Shepherd promised: a sound blueprint for applying reliable techniques to take you from nothing to profitability. He talks about market research techniques, techniques to establish yourself as an expert and build an audience using free reports, how to create an info product, how and where to set up the accounts required to collect orders and deliver products, and how to do it all in 30 days or less.

The book is arranged to take you day-by-day through the process as Shepherd relates what happened with his sample project. By the end of the story he claims to have earned more than $3000US. (You have to take Shepherd’s word on his earnings because he offers no evidence to support his claims. However, the earnings he states seem entirely reasonable.) By day 30 he hadn’t yet created a website or affiliate program (those cost a little money to start and he stuck to his promise of showing how to make money without spending it first.)

“The One Month Magnate“* isn’t likely to be the last e-book you ever buy on the subject, but the quality of the information it contains improves the odds that you will buy the next one with the profits from your new business. You will also know what you need to learn next.

On a scale of 1 to 10, “The One Month Magnate“* is a solid 7. I would have appreciated more samples of the sales letters he created and the free report he used to build his customer base. I also wanted to see some documentation for his earnings claims. However, I got my money’s worth and recommend the e-book to beginning information marketers looking for a clear path through the woods.

The Go-To Guy!

* This is an affiliate link. If you follow it and make a purchase, I will receive a commision. To visit “The One Month Magnate” website without using my affiliate link, click here.

I recently used the Modx CMS platform to build my sister-in-law’s political campaign website. It was my first attempt to build a working site using this CMS. Overall it worked out very well - once I wrapped my head around a few basic concepts. I’ll write more about my experiences with this project if there is any interest. Send me an email or leave a comment and let me know if and what you want me to discuss

The Go-To Guy