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I am Joe’s email list.

Joe calls me his list, his peeps, and sometimes just “the list.”

But, I am not a list, really, I am not a crowd, or an audience. I am not “everyone out there” as they teach new broadcasters to say.

I am me.

One single person with hopes, dreams, stresses and fears.

In many ways I am just like you – the way you describe yourself in your hungry years before you went to that life changing event, read the book, and started making money online.

I get email from you Joe.

I can’t remember for sure, but I think I “joined” one day when you offered a free report or video and I had to put my email address in – and confirm – in order to see it.
In my inbox, Joe, your email looks just like the personal emails I get from my daughter or son, and sometimes, sadly, from my ex.

Now that you’ve been sending me email – as well as some of your “good friends” – I have begun to be able to see in a glance that they are just offers, sometimes disguised as important messages, sometimes blatantly, not.

Whenever I see the word “this” in your subject lines, like – “this won’t last long” – or “have you seen this?” I know it’s an offer.

Since the Product Launch Formula I and especially II – I’m amazed at how many times per month I am literally inundated with emails from so many people all about the same exciting product.

They arrive over multiple days, culminating in a bonus orgy that is just overwhelming. I read a clever post in a forum once, that “the bonuses are so comprehensive, it makes me wonder what is covered in the course, that is not already covered in the bonuses!”

That made me laugh.

I’m writing you today, to share something important about myself – and I hope you’ll take the time to consider my feelings, ok?

I have to get off of some of these lists.

The volume of email and the distraction of chasing the offers is just crippling my time, my focus, and my ability to get things done.

When Rick Butts asked his readers to consider unsubscribing from the people who sent you Stompernet Launch offers IF they had not provided any useful content in the last month – he really got me thinking.

Then Ed Dale made a video saying, basically, that no one is holding a gun to your head and that if you wanted to stop getting offers – stop bitching – and just unsubscribe.
But here’s the deal. I’d LIKE to learn from you Joe – and to be able to know that being on “your list” is valuable to me, my business, and my future.

So, please don’t think me a big whiner, I’m a customer, and here’s what I respectfully request:


1. Slow down the frequency of mailing to me, Joe.

Do not email me every day – that’s just way too much now.

sales-letter-outline
2. Don’t mail me offers all the time.

I’m reading a lot more RSS feeds from bloggers who are putting out great content. If you are using Feedburner or Feedblitz or Aweber’s blog notification service that mails me when you update your blog – then, cool. I’m good with that.


3. If you do mail me an offer PLEASE don’t cut and paste the pre-written one from the creator of the product.

Do you know how stupid that makes you look to me? And, how insulting it is to get them from multiple people?

colbert-truthiness-speak-the-truth
4. Try giving me some TRUTHINESS in your communiques to me.

If you are really making money in the non-marketing-to-Internet-marketers, then tell me some useful tips that are working for you. No, you don’t need to tell me your market niche but hey, every once in a while how about your show me how valuable I am to you buy sharing one of those SECRETS?

millionaire-calculator
5. Show me some stuff that made less than $1,000,000.00.

I’d be immensely interested in real world examples of success I can get my head around. I’m never going to build a big list of “biz-op” peeps and hammer them with a big JV launch. Show me how I can make $500 a week – then be able to replace my income and quit my skank job.


6. Stop bragging about your zero-gravity dives and how you are spending my money in outrageous ways.

Trust me, this is a lot more fun for you, then it is for me to read about it. You may excuse it as “inspirational” but I dont’ even think that works in MLM anymore. It just annoys me. A little “high life” goes a long way and I’m more impressed by how Internet marketing lets you enjoy your family.


7. Please, please, please, for the love of God, stop participating in these dreadful launches!

Let me believe you are successful enough without having to bend over and schlup me and the rest of my list mates through your embarrassing attempt to get me to “buy from you” and help you win a contest.

The reason Rick Butts wrote about the 12 Biggest Whores, without naming anyone, is that we have all watched the emergence of about that many well known marketers who cross-promote each others stuff so regularly it is hard to imagine that they do anything else.

I think that gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of things that would make getting email from you valuable again – and persuade me not to unsubscribe from you forever.

Sincerely,
Joes List

(Thanks to Rick Butts)

P.S.

I (Jon) accidentally spammed my list with a technical oversight this past week. I apologize. I mean to provide value, not spam! :-)

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Sitemaps are very important for both users and search engines. They exist in both HTML and XML formats, and there is a “best practice” for how to operate sitemaps.

Did you know that Google just updated their sitemap technology? What – 2.5 billion URLs possible in one sitemap?

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Google Webmaster Central YouTube Questions

by Jon Rognerud on June 10, 2009

Recently, the team at the Google Webmaster Youtube Channel answered new questions – some things like a) is URL shortening treated differently, b) how can I make sure Google sees “deep” (inner) pages on my site, c) what does server (physical) location have on my rankings, etc.

Click to see all the detail questions and answers…

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The SEO Guide from Google, launched last year – definitely seems to give the “thumbs up” for SEOs. It has been updated to include a wide variety of languages.

If you didn’t see or read the guide, it might be a good place to start. If you are not interested in reading using the English language, see if this list provides a better avenue for you…

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The Largest Developer Gathering At Google

by Jon Rognerud on June 10, 2009

Google I/O has come and gone, and tons of great content is being published. If you haven’t checked it out, it will be well worth your time (I’m still trying to catch up!).

See what they shared at the conference as well, and their thoughts about the future of the web…

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Cloud Computing Still Going Strong?

by Jon Rognerud on June 10, 2009

Recently, a group of journalists, partners and customers got together in San Francisco for an event & discussion on Google Apps in the enterprise. Is the “state of the cloud” still  strong? What steps are being taken to make it even stronger?

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Google Experimenting with Images in Search Results?

by Jon Rognerud on June 10, 2009

Is Google playing with a new search result display… and also testing image recognition?…I was doing some research on google.se (Swedish localized Google) when I came across some interesting search results.

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Announcing Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

by Jon Rognerud on June 10, 2009

Product Manager Chris Vander Mey, Senior Product Manager for enterprise, is talking about the new sync product. Users need to move from Exchange to Google seemelessly, he says. Calendar, contacts, etc. The product will launch this afternoon.

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brian solis conversation prism illustrated

Do you want to jump start your social media learning?

Before you do – make sure you are clear on these 4 important social strategies:

  • Who’s Your Audience?
  • What Are Your Goals?
  • What is Your Action Plan?
  • What Tools, Tactics & Techniques Will You Use? (Twitter, Facebook and powertools?)

Jump into the conversation: see more and what people are talking about on the brian solis conversation prism flickr page.

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Do marketers really know the power of videos? Did you know that over 70% of web visitors watch video out-takes on the Internet today?

You may have thought that working on your blog or social networking platform is of highest priority. However, according to recent findings, you may want to change your strategy and focus more on the massive shift in people’s engagement online (Do you spend time on Youtube more and more?).online-videos-youtube

To go from virtually nowhere – to massive interaction by visitors in only three years or so, online video & watching is now the fastest media growth in history.

As a business owner, you owe it to yourself to join the video marketing revolution. Online video marketing should be made a paramount solution to your brand expansion, traffic and customer education and ultimately, acquisition.

Online Media Daily reports the findings here.

Here are some tips to get started with video marketing:

  1. Create a Powerpoint with 5-10 slides to that “solves a problem” (no sales pitching). Think about strong headlines for each powerpoint, since you will build more.
  2. Create a video using Camtasia (Paid) or Jing (Free) to talk through the slides – make it engaging, interesting (not boring). You can also use a webcam or the Flip Cam.
  3. Make the video 1-3 minutes long only (think about creating a longer series for membership later on)
  4. Save it & upload to Youtube (when you get more advanced, try TubeMogul for wider distribution)
  5. Wash, Rinse, Repeat (make 8-10 videos in total). “How to’s…” work great!

Now, fire up the Google Keyword Tool and locate your keywords for each video – and use them in name, titles, description and tags for these videos. Make sure you include your website early in the description of each video. Create engaging text and that you use keywords (that people search for) to describe your video. You can create a description much longer than the traditional META description for search engines (200-300 words is almost like an article).

Then, bookmark them (delicious, stumbleupon), and send to friends and ask to do the same.  Write a press release and submit. Webwire is low cost option (19.95), try that to start, look at prweb longer term.  Drive links to your new Youtube channel, write some articles (ezinearticles, goarticles, articlecity) to support it as well. You may find that the video ranks in Google *way* before any of your own domains do. (find out more on Universal Search here)

Trust & Authority (The “T & A” of the Internet!) of your content placed on the Youtube property will have greater value than your own website (very likely!). Check out (hope to meet her soon!) Maria Andros (Video Queen) for how you can do this with personality as well! (helps build on the all important “know, like, trust” concept).

Online video marketing is really simple. Just make sure you get on the trail fast, and track your metrics both in web analytics and on Youtube’s Insights. Video can also spread like a virus (viral marketing), so make sure you brand every video with your own (transparent) watermark.


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Create Your Own Social Network With Ning?

May 25, 2009

Do you know how to create a personal social network? Here are some reasons “Why Ning?”

Ning allows you to create unique social networks and to make new friends around their interesting passions.
Ning lets people with common interests gather around niche social networks.
Facebook is fantastic to connect with people you know, and Twitter is great for [...]

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Kutcher, Winfrey, Twitter: Who’s Rising The Fastest?

May 22, 2009

Another Stats Fact Friday!
With all the buzz around The Ashton, The Oprah and related Twitter exposure in The Media – I thought to share the growth of Twitter, and a few thoughts of why you as a business might want to join. (like, right now!)
(Twitter is a social micro-blogging (140 characters only as input per [...]

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Search Engines Growth Trends: Google, Yahoo, MSN

May 15, 2009

Hitwise, an Experian company launched another report indicating Google’s domination of the search engine market. Last time I checked – it was around 60% or so, and it has grown to 72.09% of all searches in the USA, ending January 31, 2009. Impressive to say the least.
What is perhaps more interesting from a Search Engine [...]

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Do You Believe It: Only 1 in 20 Americans Use Twitter

May 8, 2009

Social media fact friday: Social Media Statistics
If you can believe it – only 1 in 20 americans use Twitter:

http://industry.bnet.com/media/10002109/only-1-in-20-americans-use-twitter/
Also – 51 percent of Americans do not yet have a MySpace or Facebook account!
Forrester predicts 34% annual growth for social media marketing $ through 2014:
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/04/forrester-social-media-growth.html
Marketing dollars moving towards social media:
Social Media Marketing budgets on the rise [...]

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Top 10 Adwords Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

May 3, 2009

Using Google Adwords is easy. Why then, is it that I see so many bad habits that businesses and individuals continually repeat?
I see a very high percentage of website owners with little to no understanding of how to build a search engine-friendly site. That’s typically my first encounter. The cash drain isn’t as apparent then [...]

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How Now, Brown Cow

April 24, 2009

Branding in this country began with cattle sharing open grazing range before barbed wire came along. When it came time to go to market, the hot tattoo was a convenient way to identify a particular cow.
The golden arches help us today identify a particular fast-food restaurant; an apple with one bite removed identifies a [...]

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SEO Consultants – Should You Outsource?

April 11, 2009

If you are outsourcing your SEO efforts, make sure to ask these top 10 questions first.
Finding and hiring an outside firm or consultant for your SEO can be daunting. In today’s marketplace, a professional search optimizer is a combination of copywriter, web designer, product designer, developer, marketer, advertiser, analyst and entrepreneur. It can [...]

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