MasonWorld Late Night Internet Marketing

Outsource Tasks in Your Part Time Internet Business and Work In Your Sleep

Mark Mason — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:36:07 +0000

I know. You are sick to death of people telling you that you need to outsource. Just hang with me for a second here. I know you hear this all the time, but that is only because it it true.

As a part time internet entrepreneur you need to outsource in your business as much as you possibly can. It’s important and you need to figure out how to get it done.

Instead of just preaching outsourcing: let me give you a simple way to think it. Consider it a model for success as a part time internet business person. Ready?

If you spend 15 minutes every night making a list of things that could be done at that moment by somebody else.

Simple, right?

Take for example transcribing a video. When I get done with a video I’ll typically ship it off to a fantastic transcriptionist, she will transcribe it for me and make a PDF, and I won’t touch it.

Sending articles to directories is another really good example. Other examples include pulling traffic reports from your sites, tweaking and maintaining sites, updating autoresponders, etc.

Make that list of things that you don't want to do anyway and have them done while you sleep. I can’t explain it to you any other way. The most effective use of your sleep time is to have some worker in the Philippines doing your work for you while you sleep. That person is thrilled to have the work, and you will be thrilled to have the work complete.

It's Win-Win.

I know what you’re going to tell me. “Mark, I’m just getting started. I can’t afford to outsource.” Let me tell you, Your time is worth more than you think. You cannot afford NOT to outsource. But, if you really don’t believe that, just start small.

Think of a small thing and go to Scriptlance.com, or someplace like that and outsource it. Just one thing.

Even better yet there’s a new site called Fiverr.com where you can get stuff done for five dollars. Look at the internet marketing section (Social Marketing), and you will see that people will do various social bookmarking tasks and other things for you that you should not be spending your time on for five dollars.

I know you’ve got five dollars, give it a try and see what you think.

You need to learn how to outsource if you’re going to be a successful part time internet marketer, take my word for it.

This has been another post in our Part-Time Internet Business Series at MasonWorld.com, where we build successful internet businesses one night at a time.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS Feed. As a thank you for subscribing, I'd like to offer you this free gift. If you like that, and you want to get all the latest information from MasonWorld.com, be sure to join my Internet Marketing Newsletter. Subscribers enjoy access to the MasonWorld Members area. Have a great day!

Outsource Tasks in Your Part Time Internet Business and Work In Your Sleep

MW010 | Is There A Mouse In My Pocket?

Mark E. Mason — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:31:10 +0000

In this episode of the MasonWorld Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, we talk about "the mouse in my pocket" and about having the right mindset for your internet business. We also interview Jeremy "Sterling" Frandsen from Internet Business Mastery.

In the podcast, we're still rocking out the new MasonWorld Late-Night Internet Marketing Podcast Theme Song that I introduced last week. I really hope you like it

If you like the podcast and are willing to take a second to leave us a favorable review in iTunes, that would be fantastic. You should be able to do that using this link. You will need to do this from inside of the iTunes application (which is free).

In the episode, I talk about the power of teams, the value of "we", and the critical mindset that you must have if you want to be successful in business (and in life).

Also, I continue with the interviews I promised last week.

Jeremy "Sterling" Frandsen from Internet Business Mastery is on the show this week talking about lifestyle design and definite major purpose.

All that I want to do for you that have to do with how to think about internet business. Then, I will be turning my attention to affiliate marketing techniques.

Basically, I plan to touch on the kind of things that I will be teaching over at NicheProfitUniversity.com (starting in about 4 weeks).

When the transcript is available, it will be here.

If you are lovin' the podcast, please be sure to leave us some feedback and subscribe in iTunes!

Podcast Alley is another option:
My Podcast Alley feed!

Here is the Raw RSS Feed.

I'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. Drop me a line here on the blog on on the digital recorder at 214-444-8655. Ask a question or leave a comment and we may use it on the show.

Motivational Tip #18 – Reward Yourself

Mark Mason — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:00:55 +0000

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to achieve goals is to provide yourself with tangible incentives for doing so. For instance, if you work at a sales-based commission job and you want to push yourself to sell more, then you may want to commit yourself in the following way:

If you make over a certain amount in commissions for the week, you will spend 25% of everything you make over that amount on something for yourself; or on a nice evening with your significant other.

You might immediately think: “that’s a lot to spend on a weekly basis.” But the point is this: if you can encourage yourself with good incentives to not only make as much as you would normally make, but more, then giving yourself that incentive not only makes you richer, but it also finances nice evenings with a special person in your life.

Join us! Every Monday morning at 6AM Central Time we publish the motivational tip of the week. Each week we offer a short simple motivational tip to help you in your business. If you like this, you can check out our other Articles On Motivation.

Avoid the Bright Shiny Objects in Your Part Time Internet Business

Mark Mason — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:31:18 +0000

My very personal favorite and my nemesis is that you’ve got to avoid bright and shiny objects as a part time internet entrepreneur.

Marketers are really good at marketing, there’s a newsflash for you. These people, some of them are amazing. They can sell ice to Eskimo’s. You need to recognize that.

You don’t need to run away from it, you don’t need to be upset with them about it, but just understand that they’re professional sales people and marketers out there and they’re going to try and sell you stuff. Your best defense is only to buy stuff that you need.

I’ll tell you the big way you can evaluate this is to ask yourself whether or not this particular purchase, the purchase that you would be considering that might be a bright and shiny object that’s going to detract you from your part time business, does it take you closer to your goal or further away? If it takes you further away don’t buy the product.

By the way, Jimmy Brown, a very famous marketer, taught me something that I’ll never forget. Jimmy said,....

“If you weren’t looking to buy something , if they found you, odds are you don’t really need it.”

Buy the stuff when you need it, when you’re looking for it. If they came to you, chances are you probably don’t need it.

When possible wait before you buy. There are very few circumstances where you really need to act now, so stew on it for awhile. The worst thing that can happen is that thing that’s going to change the internet forever will sell out. Let me tell you, very few things change the internet forever. There are a few gems out there, but when possible you need to wait before you buy these things.

This has been another post in our Part-Time Internet Business Series at MasonWorld.com, where we build successful internet businesses one night at a time.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS Feed. As a thank you for subscribing, I'd like to offer you this free gift. If you like that, and you want to get all the latest information from MasonWorld.com, be sure to join my Internet Marketing Newsletter. Subscribers enjoy access to the MasonWorld Members area. Have a great day!

Avoid the Bright Shiny Objects in Your Part Time Internet Business

Effective Ways to Promote ClickBank Products

Mark E. Mason — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:51:38 +0000

Today I have asked affiliate marketer Jason Acidre, a Marketing Consultant for Affilorama, to come and talk about how to promote ClickBank products. In his post, Jason describes three ways to go about promoting products successfully.

Remember, when using these promotion techniques, you should keep new FTC rules about disclosure and testimonials in mind. Promote products that you really believe will help people. Be honest in your promotions and act with integrity - you will love the results in the long run.

Here is the post from Jason....

Effective Ways to Promote ClickBank Products

Ready to learn the most effective ways to promote ClickBank products? It’s much easier than you think and anyone can get started earning in virtually no time. There’s no better way to earn online than getting started with a good affiliate network like ClickBank so read on to learn more.

When it comes to earning income as an affiliate, using a popular affiliate network like ClickBank is the best way to gain access to top selling products and services. ClickBank has become the gold standard of affiliate networks and is often the first thing newbies to affiliate marketing learn about. There are many sites similar to this network but very few are as reputable or have as many affiliates promoting the available products. That being said, what are the most effective ways to promote ClickBank products for the best results? Read on to find out.

Method #1 – Blog with a pen name and “alter ego.”

In recent years this has become even more popular. While some people argue the ethics behind it the plain and simple fact is that it works. Many people set up free blogs at sites like Blogger or WordPress and blog from the point of view of someone else about how useful a ClickBank product is for solving problem X –whatever that may be. This is quite popular amongst people promoting weight loss related products and male enhancement products. Since the visitors read the blog and assume it’s a real evaluation of the product by someone who’s similar to them and their situation they go through with the purchase through your affiliate link.

Method #2 – Make YouTube videos

Make YouTube videos and make passive commissions. Depending on how saturated a niche is or how many people are currently doing this with the product you’re trying to promote you can have varying results. The way it works is simple. Make a video (either of yourself on camera or a slide show in Power Point) and talk about the product you’re promoting and why it’s great, how it helped you or could help the viewer and then tell them where to get it. The best way to do this is to purchase a domain name and redirect it to your affiliate link. Throughout the video recommend visitors go there to learn more and purchase the product.

Method #3 – Go Offline.

One of the most effective ways to promote ClickBank products is to go offline altogether. While this requires significantly more work and can be harder to monitor results it can work very well in certain areas. For example if you pick a weight loss product you want to promote you can purchase a domain like “KarensWeightLoss.com” and then print that on flyers along with a short message about how well it worked for you or what the benefits are. Then simply post the flyers in different areas around town like gyms, grocery stores or health food stores.

Depending on which methods you choose try to stick with it until you see results. Don’t immediately skip from one to the other if it doesn’t immediately work. Check to see what you could change and improve next time and try it again. Do this repeatedly until you get something that starts to make sales for you. Once you’ve identified what works simple scale it up and begin outsourcing the majority of work to others.

This guest post was written by Jason Acidre, a Marketing Consultant for Affilorama, an affiliate marketing portal. They provide affiliate marketing education and advanced affiliate marketing tools for beginning and advance affiliates.

Motivational Tip #17 – Write Your Goal Down

Mark Mason — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:27 +0000

One good way to encourage yourself to accomplish your goals is to write them down on paper. Until you do this, you will never convince yourself that your goals are concrete, inflexible, and something worth accomplishing.

However, once you write them down, you have no way to escape. You can simply look at a document on your computer or on the piece of paper you wrote them on; and you can see exactly what your goals were. If you aren’t accomplishing them, you can hold yourself accountable.

So start writing your goals down. As soon as you have them on paper, you also have a way to hold yourself accountable—to make sure that you are living up to your own standards.

Get Some Stick-to-it-iveness and Fail Fast in Your Part Time Internet Business

Mark Mason — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:27:31 +0000

Stick-to-it-iveness, as we say here in Texas, has a lot to do with part time internet business, and I’m going to argue you need to really stick with what you’re doing. Again, I say there are 10 to 100 ways to make money online. I told you before you need to pick one. Now, I’m telling you in addition to that you really need to stick with one.

Let me warn you. As a part time internet entrepreneur this is true, but it’s also true for the full time people out there. Most legitimate business opportunities on the internet that I’m aware of, and gosh I might even say all legitimate business opportunities on the internet take time to develop.

All of those overnight successes that you hear about, they’re usually working for years before they become an overnight success. There’s really no such thing as easy money. You cannot get something for nothing. Just forget it.

As a part time internet entrepreneur you need to recognize and acknowledge that this is going to take you some time, it’s going to take you longer than the full time guy. You need to accept that and embrace it.

Fail as fast as you can. You’ve got to fail as quickly as possible. You miss every shot that you don’t take. There’s no way for you to be successful if you don’t try. So, you want to try and fail as you possibly can, fix that problem and move on to the next problem. That’s the recipe for success and you’ve got to have stick-to-it-iveness to do that.

I submit to you that internet business is like eating an elephant and everybody knows the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time. You’ve got to stick with what you’re doing in order to get that done.

This has been another post in our Part-Time Internet Business Series at MasonWorld.com, where we build successful internet businesses one night at a time.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS Feed. As a thank you for subscribing, I'd like to offer you this free gift. If you like that, and you want to get all the latest information from MasonWorld.com, be sure to join my Internet Marketing Newsletter. Subscribers enjoy access to the MasonWorld Members area. Have a great day!

Get Some Stick-to-it-iveness and Fail Fast in Your Part Time Internet Business

Motivational Tip #16 – Get to Know Yourself Better

Mark Mason — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:00:22 +0000

When it comes to getting motivated and achieving your goals, few things are as important as truly understanding who you are, what you want, and how you respond to various situations that life presents you with.

So, get to know yourself better. Next time you make a plan for the day, think about whether you have carried out similar plans in the past; and, if not, why you weren’t able to do so. This will help you to gain a better feel for how you are likely to respond to this plan if it is implemented.

Over time, if you make a conscious effort to do this, you will begin to understand yourself better. You will not only know what makes you fail, but how to overcome it. And you will not only know what makes you succeed, but how to ensure that it is always present.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS Feed. As a thank you for subscribing, I'd like to offer you this free gift. If you like that, and you want to get all the latest information from MasonWorld.com, be sure to join my Internet Marketing Newsletter. Subscribers enjoy access to the MasonWorld Members area. Have a great day!

Motivational Tip #16 – Get to Know Yourself Better

Instant Article Factory Review (Free Copies)

Mark E. Mason — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:24:09 +0000

I just spent the last few hours playing around with an advanced copy of Instant Article Factory (IAF) from Jonathan Leger. Bottom Line: I was so impressed with the software that I talked to Jon and scored 3 free lifetime copies for my readers.

To enter to win a free copy, all you need to do is look at the video here ( Instant Article Factory Sales Page) and tell me what you think about the software, how you would use it, etc in a comment on this post.

Jon is offering special pricing until Friday (deep discount of 40%), so my contest has to end Friday as well.

This software is really neat, and the video speaks for itself. In fact, the video is so complete, here is my review: The software works exactly as advertised.

The video is so cool, I don't think you'll have any trouble coming up with comments about what you see. I am interested in any sort of feedback on the software, including questions.

Update: Instant Article Factory Bonus

If you decide that Instant Article Factory is right for you, and you purchase through my link, I will send you the following really cool bonus that will help you with your business (note, you may want to clear your browser cookies before purchasing through my link):

Bonus: Niche Navigator eBook

	36 of the hottest techniques and websites to have ideas coming out of your ears! - CRUCIAL!
	A simple plugin that can cut hours off your research with just a few clicks!
	How to quickly and easily find out if people are opening their wallets in your niche - then exactly how to find out the magic formula to get them to do it for you!
	The 6 ways to find out how to reach your market which after you do this, will give you a treasure map to follow anytime you drive traffic!
	How to find out the best time to launch your campaign, and the times that will absolutely make it bust.
	How to use one insanely popular website to spit out ideas like a spammer sending out emails, and actually make it gives you LISTS of niches to choose from - no more hunting through sites!
	The truth about the absolute best types of niches, and ones you can profit from them like no other...
	A list of 'gateway' keywords you can exploit to get Google to give you more niches than you can use in your lifetime...

36 of the hottest techniques and websites to have ideas coming out of your ears! - CRUCIAL!
	A simple plugin that can cut hours off your research with just a few clicks!
	How to quickly and easily find out if people are opening their wallets in your niche - then exactly how to find out the magic formula to get them to do it for you!
	The 6 ways to find out how to reach your market which after you do this, will give you a treasure map to follow anytime you drive traffic!
	How to find out the best time to launch your campaign, and the times that will absolutely make it bust.
	How to use one insanely popular website to spit out ideas like a spammer sending out emails, and actually make it gives you LISTS of niches to choose from - no more hunting through sites!
	The truth about the absolute best types of niches, and ones you can profit from them like no other...
	A list of 'gateway' keywords you can exploit to get Google to give you more niches than you can use in your lifetime...

To claim your bonus, simply purchase through my link
and submit your receipt to my help desk.

Here is how to Win A Free Copy (CONTEST NOW CLOSED)

The contest is now closed.

Thanks for all the entries. To select select the winner, I simply picked the comments that I liked (completely at my discretion) and gave some consideration to backlinks (as described in the rules). Selection was very subjective. Thanks for participating.

Here are the winners:

Mark Sierra
Kent F
Lori B. Walker

Please contact me through my support desk to claim your free copy of IAF.

Enter your comment about IAF before the end of the day, Thursday July 16th
Good, thoughtful comments get the most consideration
People who link to the post (or tweet about it) will be smiled upon
Early entries get special consideration
On Friday, July 17th at noon (not Saturday) I will pick 3 winners and contact them.
Three winners will get free lifetime copies.

Note: If you have already purchased a copy, don't worry. I will make sure you get your money back if you are one of the three winners.

It's that simple. The winners will be totally at my discretion. My decision is final. 3 people get lifetime accounts.

Check out the video and let the contest begin.

Winners will be announced at NOON on Friday July 17th by email and on the blog.

Thanks,
Mark

MW009 – Internet Marketing Podcast Transcript

Mark Mason — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:07:44 +0000

Today on the podcast we talk about the fact that there’s still six months left to do all those crazy things you said you were going to do at the beginning of the year. We also talk about all the crazy things we need to do on the Internet Marketing Podcast for the rest of the year.

Finally, last, but certainly not least, we have a fantastic interview for you today. We caught with Geoff Smith, music legend, author of the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast jingle, and accomplished entrepreneur, and asked him to tell us all about his tips for successful client relationships when you’re outsourcing creative content.

All this and more today on the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.

It’s really great to be back on the mic. Hello, it’s Mark Mason and I’m really excited to be here to talk to you about internet marketing and all the stuff that’s been going on at MasonWorld.com.

I hope you’re digging that new jingle. I’ve got a great interview for you later in the episode with Geoff Smith, he’s the incredibly talented musician, really famous in podcast circles, that put that jingle together for me. Shout out to Geoff, it’s just really awesome. You guys are going to enjoy hearing from him later in the show.
Before we get to that I wanted to cover a couple of things. The first thing is this is episode nine of the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. In the first eight episodes we spent a lot of time talking about all of the different business models that we decided to cover.

There are an infinite number of business models on the internet, but we decided to cover several of the fundamental business models to kind of help people get an idea of how you might make money online.

I got a couple of interesting pieces of feedback regarding that. One of the overwhelming feedbacks that I kept getting was, “Hey, Mark, keep going, we really like that.” That’s why I’m back here with episode nine.

We’re going to really kind of push this forward and talk about some of the business aspects that are fundamental that cut across all of the business models that we talked about by focusing down on affiliate marketing in the next several episodes.

Now, the reason we want to focus down on affiliate marketing is because the things you need to do as an affiliate marketer, build websites, drive traffic, identify products, convert traffic, test, land and convert, measure sales, all of these kind of things retain visitors, email marketing, all of these things that apply to affiliate marketing apply across all internet marketing.

So, if you can learn to be an affiliate marketer my claim is that you know enough about internet marketing to do a lot of different kinds of business models on the internet, so it’s a great place to start. In the next many episodes we’re going to be talking about the different fundamentals of affiliate marketing and really kind of teaching affiliate marketing right here on the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.

Of course, this kind of content goes hand in hand with my work over at Niche Profit University, which is one of my other main activities right now. So, if you’re interested in really starting to get an in depth knowledge about affiliate marketing Niche Profit University is where you want to go.

Now, before we get into some of the details of affiliate marketing in the future episodes I’ve got three really special things planned for you. The first thing I’ve got for you is an interview with Geoff Smith. Now, I’m putting Geoff Smith in this episode because I’m rolling out the new jingle, you just heard it at the beginning of the podcast, and Geoff has some interesting things to say about internet marketing and about how to deal with clients and creative media relationships on the internet when you’re outsourcing your creative media. I wanted to get this to you, because it’s fresh and to celebrate the roll out of the new jingle.

In the next episode we’re going to answer one of the other feedbacks that I’ve gotten, or questions that I get all the time and that’s the following. “Hey, Mark. I see that people are making money on the internet teaching people how to make money on the internet. But, can you really make money on the internet helping people do something?”

So, to answer that question I’ve got an outstanding interview for you from Scott Tousignant, the guy over at FatLossQuickie.com who is going to tell you all about how he is successfully making money on the internet helping people change their lives, literally helping people change their lives.

Then the week after that I’ve got a really special interview for you that I’ve had in the can for a long time and that’s an interview with Sterling from InternetBusinessMastery.com. Sterling is going to talk to us a little bit about how to get our mind right with having a purpose for our internet business.

I think if you can really have a purpose for your internet business and you can really have an internet business that’s trying to help people you’ve really got the key elements of a successful internet business almost no matter what internet business model you decide to go after.

So, that’s the plan for this episode and the next two episodes. After that we’ll start getting into some of the fundamentals of affiliate marketing and we’ll carry that on for a long time. As I’ve described in some of the videos that you can find over at Niche Profit University, there are five basic pillars of affiliate marketing that we’re going to be covering on the podcast over the next coming months.

Those include identifying niches, creating a web presence, driving traffic, identifying products and converting sales, and retaining visitors. Those five main pillars of affiliate marketing are the kinds of things that we’re going to be talking about in the coming months on the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.

As I mentioned before, I got a lot of feedback from listeners over the last few months after thousands and thousands of downloads of previous episodes of the podcast asking me when the next episode was coming out. It really told me people were resonating with the kind of content that I was generating here on the podcast.

The other thing that really motivated me to get going again on the podcast is that I’ve been spending some time with Jason VanOrden, also from InternetBusinessMastery.com. As many of you know Jay just released a new course called Traffic Attraction Formula and I’ve been going through that course.
That’s a course all about the creating of magnetic media. That really got me fired up to bring back the podcast in its full glory. So, that’s what we’re going to be doing, that’s the reason for the new jingle, we’re just getting everything ship-shape over here so we can push through the end of the year.

That reminds me that the other point I wanted to mention to you today is a very important one. You may not feel great about everything that you’ve been able to accomplish so far this year. I hope you’ve had a fantastic year, but I’ve talked to several internet marketers, some of whom I really respect, who have told me they just felt like they haven’t gotten everything they wanted to get done accomplished yet this year.

They really feel like they’re off to a little bit of a slow start. To that I say, “That’s great.” Water under the bridge, it’s an opportunity to excel in the back half of the year. So, I really want to challenge you to think about that.

At the beginning of the year, or maybe even as recently as last month, you may have had some goals. You may be behind on those. It’s no problem. Tomorrow is another day. The best thing you can do for your business is to buckle down and get after it tomorrow. It’s a fresh day and whatever you can accomplish tomorrow will be moving you closer towards your goals at the end of the year.

I really want to challenge you to think through that and identify some goals for the end of the year, even if you have to tweak your original goals from earlier and push through to the end of the year really strong into Christmas.

Look, there’s one thing I know for sure about internet marketing. Most people that fail in internet marketing fail because they give up too soon. So, don’t be one of those people. Push through strong to the end of the year, work hard, and you’ll like the results.

That leads us to what is my favorite part of any podcast and that’s the interview. I’ve got a doozy for you today. You see, when I decided that I was going to revamp the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, one of the things I knew I wanted to do was get a really polished and professional front end for the podcast, the new jingle. I hope you love it, I absolutely love it, I’m thrilled with it. In order to do that I decided to go get the best in the industry for this sort of thing and without question that is Geoff Smith over at TheGeoffSmith.com.

Geoff is awesome. When I worked with him there were two things that I noticed right away that I knew would make a fantastic interview for you here on the podcast. Thing number one is Geoff has taken his passion, which is music, and turned it into this fantastic internet online and offline business opportunity that is just amazing.
It really just goes to show you that if you can combine passion with internet business you can really kill it. Geoff is providing podcast jingles for people, including very famous people, he runs in very famous circles in internet marketing, he’s got a ringtone business, which is a pure play internet business based on his passion in music, and he’s able to establish a fantastic web presence.

The media and stuff that he has on his website is truly shocking to drive his offline music business. It’s really a nice little trifecta there of internet business melded with passion that really comes through in the interview. That’s thing one.

Thing two in the interview is when I interacted with Geoff as a professional his ability to understand client requirements in an outsourcing situation was truly impressive. So, at the end of the interview I pin Geoff down and ask him, “Hey, what makes a good client? What can my listeners do to be better outsourcing clients so they can get more for their money and get better results when they outsource?”

Those two things make this a fantastic interview. I hope you enjoy it. Geoff is an awesome guy and I encourage you to check him out at TheGeoffSmith.com. Here’s Geoff.

Mark Mason: I am very excited to be on the line with actually The Geoff Smith. Now, Geoff is this multitalented amazing guy that I’ve recently come in contact with.
All of you today heard the fantastic new introduction to the Mason World Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, that’s all thanks to Geoff and his amazing talents. But, I’ve been blown away not just at Geoff’s musical talents, but his talents as an internet marketer and his talents as an entrepreneur.

So, I wanted to get Geoff on the phone and talk about some things that I thought would be relevant to internet marketing and the kind of things that we talk about here on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Geoff, how are you?

Geoff Smith: I’m great, Mark. It is late at night, it’s awesome. This is my time of night.

Mark Mason: I knew that about you from our previous interactions, which is something that I want to talk to the audience about here in a little bit, because I thought it was such a successful example of content outsourcing.

I just thought you run such an excellent business and I wanted to get some tips from you for the audience on that. But, before we get to that, I’ve been going through your video resumes and all of the stuff that you’ve done and I’m just shocked.

How in the world did you get started with all of this music business? It’s just amazing all the things you’ve been able to do.

Geoff Smith: Thanks. Where do I start? Well, my dad is a musician, so right off the bat I’ve got that going for me where music and being a musician is not frowned upon, but encouraged. So, we had a lot of cool records playing around the house. My dad used to play with The Temptations and Marvin Gaye, and he backed up a lot of bands.

So, he’s a huge influence in my life and basically I got into music because I couldn’t think of anything else to do and that’s all I really want to do. I act and I write and I do a bunch of stuff, but it’s all kind of based around music.

All the different gigs I’ve had up until now have been quite numerous. I started out doing theme parks. I grew up here in Nashville, so Opryland was one of my first jobs. That got me to Texas, which got me into playing in bands, which got me into piano bars, which got me into a steady gig where I could actually make music and afford rent, then pick up some gear and start dabbling in studio production.

Then through the course of just time, I guess, podcasting came around and I of course jumped on listening to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, because I knew who he was and also I just thought, “This is one thing I should kind of connect with.”

Immediately I was listening to him “outsource” content, which he’s got listeners who would be providing feedback. Whether it be emails or voice recordings and in my case I decided that my type of feedback should be a little jingle for a segment that he always talked about, which at the time happened to be a biodiesel car.

So, I wrote a little song and then he loved it, which blew me away because then I had the thumbs up from a guy who had a huge audience. Then I proceeded to whenever I had free time write more little segment pieces for that particular show. Pretty soon some of his listeners would say, “Could you get me in touch with that guy to do a segment piece for my show?”

I started doing them just for, “Give me an iTunes card,” or whatever. Then I realized, “Hey, this could be like a gig that I could tweak and make money at. Cool!” And at the same time become better in the studio.

So, a long story even longer, I kept that contact list going. I was fortunate enough to run into many other great internet names like Leo Lapport, who got me to do some music, and Kelly Lewis, and our great friend Paul Colligan, who is also just an visionary in internet marketing.

It really encouraged me and opened up the door to not only be a part of entertainment media content, but there’s a lot of marketing people and people who aren’t doing shows about entertainment, but also doing shows about marketing. This is kind of what you and I have found. You’ve got an amazing thing to tell and to teach people and the variety of content that you can have and the variety of media to do so, to catch people’s attention is highly important.

But, most people, from what I’ve seen, in this kind of podcast world they’re really good at talking and really good at maybe even marketing, but creative musical content I was fortunate enough to be kind of remembered. I found that volume, the more I kept doing more and more and people just kept saying my name, it seemed to be kind of a windfall.

I still have to work at. I’m rambling, I hope that’s okay.

Mark Mason: That’s okay.

Geoff Smith: So, I get up to this point where now I’m hashing how I want to do this type of thing, because through the many years that I’ve been doing this I’ve learned how to interact with clients. I would 99.999 percent has always been real easy, because I like to communicate.

One thing that you and I did that I do with all my clients now is really get as much information and as much personal interaction before I get started, so not only do I know what direction I need to be going in, but kind of the vibe of the person.

Our phone conversation probably directed more than the email questionnaire that I sent you just because we figured out each other’s kind of vibe. You could sort of feel how I am and I liked that, because I think one problem with the internet is that we’re hidden behind these little ones and zeros and little words and I like to hear the person’s voice.

Mark Mason: Yes. That’s kind of the magic of podcasting is that you get to break down some of those barriers. I guess in your business the client interaction and the jingles themselves, they really go a long way to tearing some of those barriers down. I really like that about it.

Geoff Smith: Well, I think I’ve been fortunate enough to make stuff that most people like, at least for this genre of jingles. I do have an original sort of career as well.

Mark Mason: You sing Motown too, right? Aren’t you doing a Motown gig right now?

Geoff Smith: I co-produced and engineered and wrote the title track to The Impressions Christmas Album that was released last year.

Mark Mason: That is so cool.

Geoff Smith: These are the guys from People Get Ready and Curtis Mayfield and those kind of things. I used to work at a studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is the studio out there where James Brown and Johnny Cash, a lot of people did definitive records out there, so it’s got a lot of history.

A lot of those old guys still go out to that studio to cut records and I happened to be an intern, actually not an intern, but an assistant engineer at the time and they said, “Hey ,Geoff. We’re going to do The Impressions record this week.”

Mark Mason: Wow.

Geoff Smith: It was all covers, it was them doing their really cool renditions of great Christmas songs, but there was nothing original. So, I wrote a song and they liked it and cut it, which is cool.

Mark Mason: Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty cool, dude.

Geoff Smith: I was talking to my great friend Neil Campbell and I said, “I’m just making jingles.” And he said, “You’re writing art no matter what it is.” So, I look at the creative process of writing a jingle versus writing a pop song for pop radio or a piece of background music as all the same thing.

The great thing about a jingle is that it gets to the point really quick. I think that’s a good thing about pop music, and I kind of like pop music. When I say pop music I mean anything from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys really. Stuff that just gets going and you’ve got to get to the hook really fast.

But, the interaction part I’ve learned a lot through the years and I think I’m hitting a little point where I really like where it’s at and I like the trickledown effect. I just did one literally a week before that you heard a rough mix of and immediately were like, “I’ve got to get in touch with this guy.”

Mark Mason: That’s right.

Geoff Smith: This sort of viral thing still keeps going.

Mark Mason: We’re going to try and keep that going here now. So, I want to encourage people to actually check out your website, because particularly your video resume on the biography page of your website is just shocking.

You’re not just running a music business, you’ve got some internet marketing stuff, you’ve got this ringtone business, you’re into a lot of stuff. That’s TheGeoffSmith.com.

Geoff Smith: Right. It’s TheGeoffSmith.com. I also registed the one with the J just in case people spell it wrong.

You mentioned the Ringtone Feeder business. That has been quite an amazing ride and still is. It’s become one of my major kind of outlets as well.

I have a really good, he’s my business partner now, but a guy who had heard my jingles on This Week in Tech or Geek Brief or Daily Source Code and said, “Hey, you could make ringtones. Why don’t we work together and I could help you with backend things?”

So, what we came up with was a unique way to do ringtones. There’s a million ringtones. A) the unique thing, part of it is the delivery, because you sign up to get ringtones every week and it’s 1.98 a month.

Mark Mason: And they’re delivered directly to your iTunes via RSS, right? Then they just show up on my phone.

Geoff Smith: Right. Yes, they will. We’ve definitely been focusing on the iPhone at the moment. We have partnered now with Verizon now for some other things, but the iPhone market was really what inspired me, because the amazing backend of how iTunes and RSS all this stuff works.

It’s basically a premium podcast in a way. You sign up and stuff downloads right to iTunes, and because it comes already completely created in the ringtone format it immediately syncs to your ringtone folder. You just plug in your iPhone and you’ve got ringtones.

It’s neat, it’s simple, and people like it. I have no idea what people like half the time. Sometimes I have no idea if people are going to like stuff. So, it’s my kind of take on a ringtone. It’s not like chopped up pieces of pop songs or dirty sound effects.

What you get each week once you sign up you get a dozen or so that are the most recent and then you start getting new ones every week. One of them is like a rock song, or whatever genre I do that week, and the other one is more of a traditional instrumental ringtone for people who might be embarrassed to hear a loud rapper saying, “Pick up your phone,” or me doing a Beatles type of thing.

Then the other one is something a little bit more traditional, very Apple-y. I tried to kind of make creative hip kind of sounds. I think I’ve got a really neat catalog. I think it’s the best deal to get it from subscribing to our feed. You can also buy one ringtone off of iTunes.

Mark Mason: I noticed you had a 25 pack now. I looked at a bunch of those ringtones, I thought they were really cool. I thought it was very interesting the way you’ve also got a video component and you’ve actually added a bunch of production value into the videos.

I love the French one, and the Beatles ones are awesome. I was just shocked by all this stuff that you’re doing. It’s really neat.

Geoff Smith: I know my family is just wondering how much time I can take away, but I manage to fit it all in. But, yes, those videos are so when I make a ringtone every week as part of the marketing kind of example instead of just letting people listen to it I make a music video to the ringtone.

So, when you go to the website you immediately see the latest updated video of the ringtone and sort of following in that little video is sort of how to subscribe, or how to sign up, or how to get it and any other pertinent information that we want to deliver that week.

We were holding quite a high ranking in iTunes for a long time on that thing. That actually is almost more fun than making a ringtone, because I get to put costumes on, I get to animate. Speaking of outsourcing, I don’t do all of that animating that’s in that video.

I have a partner, a guy who you’ve probably seen his work all over the place, he’s done a lot of pretty high tech podcast intros. He’s my go-to animation guy. When I’m doing a jingle for a client who also wants to have a video opener I basically work with him.

Mark Mason: That’s awesome.

Geoff Smith: I’m doing a mew thing now for a company in England and I’m the music portion and I’m going to have him do a 10 second video intro and then we kind of piece it all together, and then I finally mix it down in my little studio here. I’m doing probably too much stuff.

Mark Mason: But, that’s the greatness of genius. Let me bring you back around a little bit, because now that my listeners have a great idea of just all the stuff you’re into I was wondering if we could close out with a few tips.

You’ve got so much experience with dealing with clients on the content creation side and my listeners are often outsourcing to content creators or other artistic people, whether it’s graphics or audio. I was wondering if you had just a couple of tips you could leave people with.

What makes the best client? If I want to be really effective as one of your clients what are a couple of things that I can do to sort of get the most for my money when I’m outsourcing creative work?

Geoff Smith: I think one of the first things, and it’s probably one of the first questions that I ask people, and that’s, “How did you hear about me?”
Then sort of building off of that question is maybe I would hope that my client would have done a little homework to look at or listen to some of my other work to kind of get an idea about me, because I may not be the best Bulgarian folk singer they want.

Not that I’m stereotyped as this pop jingle guy, but that is a good chunk of what people know me for is the sort of catchy commercial kind of song thing or the kind of snappy production type of things. So, I would hope that would save a lot of time, and I do the same thing.

When someone has agreed to work with me I want to go and check out what they’re doing, because I don’t want to waste their time either. So, when you and I started talking I went and listened to the links that you gave me.

I think the more information the better. You can’t give enough information to me and I hope that I can have enough background information on my website for you to figure out what you may want from me.

So, for people to say, “Hey, just do whatever, do your magic.” That’s cool too, because then it’s a lot of freedom. Hopefully their idea of my magic is the same idea as mine.

Mark Mason: Right. It sounds like the two keys that you’re pointing out there though is if you want to be a good client you should do the due diligence to make sure you’re working with the right person. Then you should do the guy you’re hiring the courtesy of giving them enough information to get it right the first time.

Geoff Smith: Yes. That’s really it. The cool thing is that even the people who aren’t musically inclined and they have no idea what they want, I just recently in the last year and a half to two years started sort of a phone conversation with my clients, it used to just be all the web and I think most of the time that’s all I really need.

What I find with a lot of people who when I say, “What’s your favorite type of music?” They say, “Well, I’m not really into music.” Most people are, but there are a lot of people who are just like, “I have no idea.” I try to talk through them and sort of give them examples of, “Listen to this. Is that kind of where you’re going.” And then yes or no.

I think I can cover a good particular genre. For example, the one I did right before you was definitely much more of a upbeat younger more modern rock kind of sound, and you definitely liked but you said, “I would prefer more of a acoustic contemporary rock thing of sort of our age,” which is the late 30’s or whatever.

Mark Mason: It’s cool to say it, because Lynn Terry is a friend of mine and she is launching her new podcast. We’re definitely encouraging my listeners to check out Lynn Terry. I’ve had her on the show before and everybody who wants to hear another Geoff Smith intro needs to go listen to that podcast, because you’re right, that one is completely different and it kills too. It’s just fantastic as well, so kudos to you on both of those.

Geoff Smith: Well, thanks. I can’t really think of too much. I’ve been so blessed to have people that are just really cool to work with. I think a lot of it has to be with this community of new media we kind of sort of already know each other a little bit.

Mark Mason: Right.

Geoff Smith: Just you mentioning a few people’s names, Paul Colligan, Lynn Terry, all these people that I know and then some of them I’ve actually already worked with before. It’s like, “cool.” We may not take too much of a conversation to get in the right head space together, because we’re all kind of in the same kind of “new media club.”

Mark Mason: Well, Geoff, I can’t thank you enough. I can’t tell you all the great feedback and reactions that I’ve already gotten off of the jingle, even before it’s released. You are incredibly talented and I admire not just your musical talent, which is clearly God given, but your business acumen is very impressive.
I can’t wait to work with you again and I want to encourage all my listeners if they’ve got audio needs you are the guy. Thank you so much.

Geoff Smith: Thanks so much.

Mark Mason: I really appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the call. Remind everyone again how they can find you if they need you.

Geoff Smith: You can go to TheGeoffSmith.com, you can just click contact me and it will email me directly. You could tweet me, I’m at Twitter.com/GeoffSmith, I love tweeting. I’m on Facebook somewhere.

My website is sort of the stepping off point, so TheGeoffSmith.com, there’s an email address right on there and you can follow my tweets. I have a new album coming out that I just produced and head mastered.

I’m probably going to hit the road, I’m kind of planning a major city type of stop off, Dallas is one of them. So, as soon as I get some stuff ironed out in the fall I’ll be tweeting some actual live performance.

One other thing, I do a pretty regular Ustream show. I haven’t done it in about three months, but if you follow my tweets, if I’ve got a wild hair in my head a lot of times I just fire up Ustream.tv/GeoffSmith and I just sit in front of the camera and take requests from the crowd. It’s a fun little show.

So, follow my tweets, go to TheGeoffSmith.com and we’ll rock together.

Mark Mason: That is so awesome. Geoff Smith, thank you so much. It’s my distinct pleasure. I can’t wait to hook up with you in Dallas. I’m here and I’m looking forward to it. Thank you very much, sir. Have a great evening.

Geoff Smith: You too.

Mark Mason: Thanks. Bye.

All right. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. That about wraps it up for this episode. Remember, get back out there, reassess those goals for 2010 and recommit yourself to getting some stuff done by the end of the year.

My name is Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com, I hope you have an absolutely fantastic day. Thanks.

If you really liked this podcast there’s two great things you need to do. Thing number one, go on over to MasonWorld.com and sign up for the Mason World Internet Marketing Newsletter. I send out all kinds of information to that newsletter that goes along really great with the podcast and you’ll learn about new podcast episodes there.

The second thing you need to do is go to iTunes and Apple.com/itunes and find the Mason World Internet Marketing Podcast and leave us a positive review. We love that and it helps us tremendously rank in the iTunes media library. So, go on over to iTunes and give us a great review and two thumbs up. Thanks!

Never Stop Learning in Your Part Time Internet Business

Mark Mason — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:49:45 +0000

You need to commit yourself to becoming a pro in areas that you need to, but not in areas that you don’t need to. For example, one area you need to be a pro in is traffic. You always need to be looking for those areas where you need excellence and focusing on those.

Be a lifelong learner. However, what I would offer as a part time internet entrepreneur, don’t let that learning paralyze you. You can get information overload, you can get paralyzed in indecision, you can be too busy learning and not busy enough doing. Avoid all of those things and learn for the rest of your life, but take action first.

Again, you have to find balance here. You can't always be in learning mode or you'll never be able to move forward in your business. I think the 80/20 rule applies very well in this case -- spend 80 percent of your time working your business and marketing and then spend 20 percent of your time learning the newest things in your niche, new marketing ideas, etc...

Just because you’re part time that doesn’t mean that you can afford to stop learning about internet marketing. In fact, the problem is that internet marketing is changing and that’s your business. So, don’t ever stop learning about your business. That’s a fatal mistake that will cause you to go the way of the dodo bird.

Don’t confuse learning with distraction. Just because I’m telling you that you need to learn stuff it doesn’t mean that you need to go off in the weeds and start researching stuff that you don’t know about or get distracted by the latest bright shiny object.

Just make a habit of finding and following quality sources of internet marketing information. The two I like and rely are the Internet Business Mastery podcast (excellent source of information) and/or mastermind groups that you can become involved in. Either find live ones in your local area or something like the Internet Business Mastery Academy or LearningWithLynn.com. You want to do something like that where you can interact with like-minded people. Just be careful and limit the scope of that interaction to something that fits inside your time budget.

This has been another post in our Part-Time Internet Business Series at MasonWorld.com, where we build successful internet businesses one night at a time.

Thanks for subscribing to my RSS Feed. As a thank you for subscribing, I'd like to offer you this free gift. If you like that, and you want to get all the latest information from MasonWorld.com, be sure to join my Internet Marketing Newsletter. Subscribers enjoy access to the MasonWorld Members area. Have a great day!

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