You’ve worked really hard to build that list and your success with it will have a big influence on your next product launch. Yet you write bad promo email after bad promo email and watch your list shrink every time you hit send.

When alarmists like Rick Butts tell people to unsubscribe from internet marketing lists that don’t deliver, you quake in your pants cause that means YOU. And you’re getting scared because it’s about to hit the point of no return and you don’t know what to do.

1) Write your own emails:

Think you can copy paste the pre-written JV email and get away with it? Wrong. It’s a mortal offence any one committing should be quick to repent for.

We’ll investigate the other reasons you need to do this in a moment, but let’s consider for just one second how it looks when you send the template email.

It says one of two things and suggests a mix of both: first off, you don’t care enough about the product to have reviewed it yourself and you are promoting it just for the money or to return a favour. Secondly, it says you don’t give a crap about the people reading it. They are numbers on your list. Numbers that fall quickly.

2) Have a Freaking Emotional / Ethical Barometer:

Yes there are hoards of newbies out there to who you can sell anything. That doesn’t mean you should. Not all offers are created equal and not all gurus are created equal.

Some will not deliver and others will massacre the customers you send them with daily promos for junk. And you recommended them. Trust: minus 1.

3) Be Relevant, or at least try:

Ok so a new product came out, you like it and you want to promote. How does it fit into the CORE message you yourself have sold them on earlier?

Yes, this is marketing and you can stretch things, but it’s good to stay in the same ballpark or at the very least give that impression.

Want to make sales AND have your prospects thank you for it? You’ve already taught them something when they bought from you originally. Show them how to get the most mileage out of it and propose products and services that fit in with that mission.

That way you look like you practice what you preach and you still believe in your stuff…

4) Deliver SOMETHING beyond an Affiliate Link:

Ideally you will NOT write promo after promo to your list, but we all know that can happen… If you just can’t do it any other way for now, then add value to each promo by delivering something else with it.

Most of the time, this takes the form of a story that uncovers a relevant business lesson. Or it describes in some detail how something can be achieved. Therefore the promotion is not the end all be all, the actual object of the promotion is the accelerator they buy if they want to do it faster, better, etc…
But thanks to you, they can now do it anyways. Whether they buy today or not, they got something out of the interaction.

5) Don’t be a Doormat, nor a Bore

People are looking for guidance and reassurance. They like to get this from people they trust.

They already WANT to trust you since they got on your list, but if you get all wishy-washy, they’ll listen to someone else that really believes what they’re saying.

You want a polarized audience, not a sleepy one. If you can get half the people to love you and the other half to hate your guts, you’ve done a much better job than if NOBODY cares…

Having good copy skills will also make your emails more interesting, and therefore readable so please, go…

6) Read some Halbert

I make it no secret I’ve gained nearly all my copywriting jiujutsu from the Gary Halbert Letter. Yesterday, I went back for a refresher and found this great piece…

Let me say it without mincing words: copywriting is the marketer’s prime value. If you fall short here, you will NEVER get to the top. Never.

If you don’t know copy, your emails don’t get opened, don’t get read, don’t capture attention, don’t create desire, and don’t generate action.

Oh, and since they don’t do any of those things, they are useless. Not just to you, but worse even, to your prospects, who will soon give their limited attention span to someone who knows how to keep it and get something out of it, for the sake of both parties involved.

7) Find Something Wrong with it

Think about it. No product is perfect. We all know that. If you promote flawless product after flawless product, it’s your credibility taking a hit every time.

I’m sure if you actually reviewed it, you found some parts you liked less and some parts you liked more. Don’t be afraid to make the product and proposition feel REAL by admitting it’s imperfect.

Imperfections also create the perfect opportunity to…

Add Value to the Proposition:

Here I’m talking two main issues. The first way you add value is by helping the prospect make the right decision for themselves.

You give them the information they need to situate if and where the proposition meshes with their current situation. Whether they buy or not, they can thank you for helping them make the right decision.

The other way to add value is the classic bonus.

Often this will target the flaw you exposed earlier. For example, did you feel bogged down reading the 200 page book? Offer up a mindmap that counters the flaw.

Have something more to say on the subject than the author did? Can you offer more depth on one specific tactic, can you hold hands, provide a short cut?

The answer should nearly always be yes.

Sure you can get away with “shock and awe” bonuses, aka $2749 worth of PLR ebooks you paid $1 on Ebay for Master Resell Rights to, but that gets old real fast and the backlash is just around the corner…

—————

I’m sure I’m missing some but just these 8 brief points, once applied, will get your emails opened and read for a long time to come as you become they guy or gal that provides a dose of personality, real world logic, buyer protection and education as well as added value.

If you’re reading this, you’re either a marketer with a list or a prospect on those lists. Share your experience below. Did I miss any big ones?

“Desperate Nerd From Ohio, achieves….”

Or How about

“One Legged Golfer, reveals…”

Those are great headlines that sold so much product they made their creators beyond rich. Reason why is because we as humans are attracted to stories.

But beyond that, what really ties the knot in this case is this thinking:

“If a one legged golfer can do it, then so can I!”

“If a desperate nerd from Ohio got it to work, I can do it too!”

When someone with a disability achieves results far above average, we are quick to think it must be easy. This thinking is actually correct a lot of the time.

Imagine our one legged golfer: it’s pretty safe to assume they have a strong disadvantage over their multi legged counterparts.

But if they developed a system or tap into some kind of secret, then that system would work even better for someone in full capacity.

Of course the drive and desire have to be there, but beyond that, systems work and they are the way by which ordinary and sometimes strongly disadvantaged players get their big breaks.

I’m telling you this because about a month ago I met a guy named Kevin.

Young guy, somewhere in his early twenties who has not only overcome the odds by making himself into a strong 6 figure earner at an age when many are still in school, but he also did it despite being completely unable to talk.

Here’a link, but keep reading here, it gets better:

http://www.crackingonlinewealthcode.com/alex/

———————-
3 Major Niches
———————-

A lot of our gurus get their breaks almost by mistake. In fact that happens a lot in life.

Just this morning, I was talking with some mastermind fellows and the conversation went towards the ability to reproduce results.

We all pretty much agreed that while what the Google Guys (Sergei and Larry) had done was pretty exceptional, they almost certainly couldn’t do it again.

Think about it, it’s a case of right thing at the right time: non exceptional skill + luck = once in a lifetime result.

Do you really think that even if you gave them both a million years, they could ever come out with another Google? I don’t think so…

Same thing for the world’s youngest billionaire, the founder of Facebook. Do you think he could do it again? I don’t.

And that’s one of the main reasons I stay away from things like that: for every super home run, there are a million failures you never hear about.

So essentially, I strive for things that are simple, proven and with an ability to last and be done again and again.

When I enter a new market or make a new product, I pretty much know what’s going to happen: I’m going to make a small but certain pile of cash.

And that’s exactly what Kevin has been using his system to accomplish.

In just a few months, he successfully used his system to enter 3 of the most competitive and cashfilled niches around:

- Internet Marketing (and his success at it makes him more than qualified)

- Betting and Horse Racing

- Forex Currency Trading

Those are markets in which the millions are flowing and the competition is supposedly fierce. Supposedly because if you work the system properly, there is no real competition. At least not any that you can’t crush underfoot if they refuse to fall in line and get out of your way…

————————————-
CRACKING THE CODE
————————————

Kevin has recently released a book that demonstrates how he does it. It’s short and no fluff.

The material is right on point and just 2 of the diagrams in there made it more than worth the asking price.

But then I hit the download page and was literally blown away. There is a pile of unadvertised bonuses in there. Not the crappy rehashed PLR stuff: real quality materials including PDFs, audios and videos.

It’s like a killer library of cash in there. I’ve been enthralled since last night and I haven’t even been able to look at the half of it…

——————————————–
READY FOR THE BEST PART?
——————————————

This offer is so good I’m not even sure what the best part is…

You see Kevin sells this for the grossly underpriced sum of $47. And it sells very well everyday, a lot of it from word of mouth since the value is so high.

But then I did the greedy thing and asked Kevin if he would be willing to do something special for my customers and subscribers.

I’m not one to shy away from asking for what I want, so I asked for the full package: a big rebate, some extra bonuses AND a special call where I get to grill him silly for my and your enjoyment (as you can well imagine, the call will be with his partner since he can’t talk…)

We’re going to talk about his niches and websites and the exact tactics he used to make it happen. And if you know me, you know I won’t settle for generalities and hot air…

To my surprise he said, “sure Alex, anything for you”.

———————————————–
SO HERE IS THE DEAL WE MADE
———————————————-

Kevin has made a special page for you only. You have 48 hours to follow this link and place your order there.

You will get a full $20 off the already discounted launch price. That means you get it all for just $27, which I think you can agree is plain ridiculous…

- You get the core blueprint
- You get ALL the unadvertised bonuses (something like a thousand bucks worth)
- You get 2 extra bonuses
- You get the “Feet to the Fire” call where I grill him silly

AND You get 30 days of email training (only the first 100).

This is not like those other programs where some uninterested customer support Pill gives you vague answers three days later. This is the real deal where a real pro shows you where it’s at.

Just that is worth more than the $27 investment if you only use it one time (and you can use it for 30 days).

http://www.crackingonlinewealthcode.com/alex/

——————————–
How to Claim your SPOT
——————————-

All you have to do to get all that is place your order through the link below within the next 48 hours. The sooner the better if you want to be sure to get it ALL.

Then email me your receipt to bonusoffury (a.t.) gmail (d.ot) com with the title CODE BONUS.

That’s all I have to say about this and I will only ever mention this offer once, so make good on it now if you like what you’ve read so far:

http://www.crackingonlinewealthcode.com/alex/

Whether you take advantage of this exceptional offer today or not, I’m glad to have been able to bring it to you today. I like it when I can bring you something different and valuable that adds some clear cut benefits to being a customer or subscriber with me.

“Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different”

These are questions that I am often asked, as an authority in the buzz marketing industry I have studied these questions for many years, and today I am going to attempt to get your creative juices flowing with a series of examples of creativity from the world around us.

There are many aspects to it, but essentially you are taking an existing idea, notion, object etc… and then combining and mixing them to create something new.

Do you want some examples?

Ok, well, Gutenberg took the wine press and the die/punch and produced a printing press, and we all know how important the printing press became.

Ok, I admit it, that was a boring example, let’s look at some more modern versions.

Quite a simple and boring item… right?

The above bag was given when you bought a book by a famous crime-writer from Belgium.

Again, a useful product, but very boring. So how do you promote something so dull? With a little twist of creativity:

We are not endorsing drug smuggling, but if drug lords can be creative, then surely we can?

Below are thinly sliced sheets of Cocaine designed to look like Pringles.

It is fair to say business cards are pretty dull and boring, for decades we have all had boring business cards with virtually the same designs, but check out these creative business cards :

“Can you spare any change?”, those are the words we generally hear when we pass a homeless person on the street. But it is amazing what a little creativity can do:

Lego is a great way to demonstrate and encourage creativity in children, check out this life-size model of R2D2:

Check out this great 404 error page for a poetry website.

How cool is this advert for National Geographic…

And finally, we finish with one of my personal favourites… the creative billboard ad:

I hope you have enjoyed this journey through creativity, and perhaps it will spark some creative ideas of your own.

If you want to see how creativity has been applied to my life to generate huge amounts of buzz and viral success, check out my free case studies and reports at: www.webtrafficorgasm.com

Dean – DeanHunt.com

Another slew of oozing gooey sales pitches disguised as friendly communication.

Another wave of guru bashing. Another dose of fake outrage at what the gurus have stooped to (yes, they keep going lower and lower those hell spawn).

Another lazy long haired surfer boy brandishing easy riches. Another dream, just one in an endless string of broken promises and hype…

When you look at pros in whatever field you can imagine, there are two types of people at the top: those who get there with every ounce of juice their body and mind was ever able to produce, and those that make it look so easy you start thinking they got nothing over you.

Kern is of the second type. This guy flies right under your radar with his dorky T-shirts, rude jokes, improper humour and general lack of seriousness.

Indeed, when you see him presenting at conferences, he might as well be sitting around with a bunch of friends drinking beer: that’s how laid back this guy is.

But it’s all an act. Frank Kern is the epitome of the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. You think, hey, there’s no way that “dude” is going to sell me anything. M. Visa and M. Mastercard can stay well anchored in your wallet right?

Hello no. I’m not sure I’ve encountered a more dangerous marketer than Kern.

This guy gives you stuff the likes of which most gurus would be honoured to sell… if they had half the brains to come up with it.

Slowly, the rich content and beaming smiles sway you left and right. Slowly, the formula begins to work it’s magic. Without you even knowing, it’s infecting you, coursing through your veins.

And then it’s too late. Fever. Delirium. Infinite desire. Oh boy can this guy sell. It’s almost disgusting. In fact…

Yes, he really is that dangerous. With tremendous power comes tremendous responsibility. So how did this great blond fool come to wield such a deadly weapon? It was a natural thing. If Tiger Woods was made for golf, then Kern was made for marketing…

That’s the name he gave his formula. And believe me, this isn’t a joke or an overstatement. Frank has put together this system that turns ordinary people into purchase obsessed zombies.

I know the guy. I’ve seen him work. Stompernet, Annihilation Method, Pipeline profits. Millions spewing from the machine launch after launch. Gigantic influence over driven masses and sales, sales, sales…

The man has done it in dog training, internet marketing, dating and countless other industries. It ain’t no fluke.

If there was such a degree as a PHD in mind control, Frank would have 2.

I haven’t written here for a long time. I haven’t promoted a damn thing in ages. I’m disgusted for many reasons.

Not only are all products coming out cheap knock offs of something much better written by someone far more intelligent… The worst part is the crap tactics and tips that send thousands of the hopeful careening up shit creek without a paddle.

When I saw Mass Control (and yes, I saw it nearly a month ago) I wanted to cry with joy. There is stuff in there that is plain priceless. I can formerly declare that in that single course, I understood the game of marketing more clearly than ever before.

I grasped the whole launch and selling thing so achingly simple it made my ears buzz.

This is some crazy stuff and I firmly believe it’s “the WAY”.

This is where it starts. All of it. This is my first post of 2008 and I will tell you right now: if you decide to make money with this, you will, unless you have some kind of crushing disability like morbid all-encompassing laziness.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: product ownership is the way to go. Plain and simple. I can’t conceive of someone with half a brain following the plan and not doing six figures this year.

I’ve never done this before but I loved this so much, and in general I have such an obsession with marketing that I’ve decided to put my reservations aside and go for it.

I’m going to take a stake in your success this year. It fits into my personal objectives to make several disciples rich this year, and I honestly could see no better way than with the offer I will make you shortly.

Expect a post on that soon, but for now, go to Mass Control and optin. Do it right now and unhesitatingly.

Obviously, there is going to be something for sale at some point. Duh, we all know that so I won’t try to hide it. It also smells expensive and my nose is rarely mistaken. But hey, you knew that already…

The stuff being given away here has hard value. I would have paid good money to see these free videos. Don’t miss them. Better yet, don’t miss the whole process, it’s mastery in motion.

Feel free to comment on the whole thing here and let’s get that party started.  (just make sure you sign up first)

Tags: masscontrol, frankkern, kern, stompernet, pipelineprofits

I have to say this ebook gave me mixed feelings. Let me explain why:

This is why I loved it. I was already familiar with many of the 5 tactics in the book (although 1 really caught me by surprise). These tactics are well explained and documented and I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt: they make money, more on that in a minute…

Now don’t take this the wrong way because it would be a big mistake to do so, but Project Quick Cash will NOT make you a zillion dollars.

The tactics are rock solid, but I would be surprised if you could get over $500 a day applying them. It just doesn’t scale that well. That being said, if a guaranteed extra $100 a day would make a big impact on your life, then read on…

Tactic 1: CASHING THE SPIKE 1:

This was my favorite tactic in the book. It’s a pretty obvious one when you think about it, but it caught me by surprise because even in my rather imposing experience, I have never thought to do this.

Well Project Quick Cash changed that and I immediately gave it a spin. The results were instant and they blew me away. You see, this tactic shows you how to capitalize on trends and buzz before the market has the chance to catch up.

It sounds like a good idea, but if you don’t know how to do it, you’d likely be hard up to figure it out. When I read about it in Project Quick Cash, it was demonstrated so simply I couldn’t resist trying it. I setup a campaign in about 80 minutes and banked $30 from a 4 dollar ad spend on the first day. And the same thing on the second day…

Very very easy money at over 800% ROI…

Tactic 2: CASHING THE SPIKE 2

This is a spinoff of the first method but it works by sucking traffic out of social networking sites. While the theory is valid, it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of tactic from Project Quick Cash…

Tactic 3: INFO NICHING

This is something I used to do a lot of and that has been the first stepping stone of many success stories. It requires a little sneakiness but it really can work wonders.

In fact I remember reading that Russell Brunsson started it all doing something similar, so that gives you an idea how far this can take you. You just have to take it to the next level when the time comes…

Tactic 4: SITE TARGETING

This is an explosive and well explained way to get the cheapest traffic imaginable from Adwords. Dirt Cheap. And Dead on Target.

This is the best converting traffic out there when you do it right. It’s very well explained in Project Quick Cash and could cover the cost of your investment right there.

There is a complete ebook on the market explaining the same subject. If you’ve bought that book then you know what I’m referring to here. If you haven’t, then there is a huge gap in your traffic generation methods and you have a chance to close it here…

Tactic 5: LAUNCH LEECHING

This is one of the simplest ways to generate a big hit of cash overnight. I’ve used this tactic in the past on several occasions and it never failed to make bank.

In fact, I showed a buddy of mine some secrets from my bag of tricks and he made$3000 last week on the launch of Google Assassin using a very similar tactic to the one found in Project Quick Cash.

A simple word of warning on this: if you are unwilling to get creative at all, you will hit major competition. If you are willing to think just a smidgeon, then this is covert affiliate cash blasts at their best…

So that’s the story. If you’re making over $200 a day as a full time marketer, I doubt you will be blown away. However, if you are struggling and an extra $500 a week with little or no investment would really help right now, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see Project Quick Cash not only puts it within your grasp but practically hands it to you on a silver platter.

Check it out for yourself…

4 Months ago, I got in contact with a Genius Arbitrager from Brazil. This guy is making around 10 grand a day with search engine arbitrage.

To make a long story short, we spent hours, if not days on the phone and he showed me EVERYTHING. We’re talking million dollar secrets…

Here’s what I did. I took all the notes I had and formulated everything into a killer, and straight to the point blueprint that would serve as my guide so I would be sure to get things right from day one.

I spent weeks testing and tweaking it, going over and patching the system as I went along, until I got it exactly right.

Then I set up a couple of test accounts. I’m not sure if I was surprised or not, but within days, I had broken the 100$ a day mark.

To make a long story short, I made about $4000 in my first month and nearly $12,000 the second on one account. And it’s still going up like crazy.

The best part is, once I had the blueprint down, it took me literally less than 15 hours to set it all up. Since then, I’ve been too busy putting the blueprint in “clean” format to do anything more than check my stats. I literally haven’t touched it for weeks and it still makes hundreds a day.

That’s how automated it is. I’ve made an intro video so you can grasp exactly what I’m talking about.

Check it out here:

Google Payload

More on this tomorrow.

Tags: googlepayload, arbitrage, searchengines, ppc

Let’s get right to it.

Here are the Major Steps again:

Step 1: Find 5 Products to promote

A Win!

Yes, one of my two chosen niches responded to Bum Marketing, faster than the doughnuts disapear at a law enforcement convention. However…

A Loss!

My other niche BOMBED. There was a constant flow of traffic to my sites, but the reaction of that traffic to any attempt to get them to click the affiliate link to the product’s sales page, was total “cold shoulder”.

Every time I checked the stats, I could see icicles forming on my monitor…

Recommendation For You: Diversify your risk.

Choose only ONE product per niche, and try to do at least 5 niches.

Also, as I mentioned in an earlier article, don’t use Clickbank. Info products require… well… info. Lots of it, to convince your reader to keep moving further down your “sales funnel”. Bum Marketing is too simplistic – it leaves out too many things to make the sale on information products.

Step 2: Find 30+ Keywords for each product

A Frustration!

This one really ticked me off. There are few things more frustrating than achieving a #1 ranking in Google for your main keyword – then seeing absolutely no traffic resulting from it. (This was achieved by a different method than BM, by the way.)

I used Good Keywords to do my keyword research. It takes it’s data from Overture. Useless!

Recommendation For You: I learned the hard way – only use Wordtracker.

And BM introduces another problem with keyword research. It “eats up” keywords, faster than a drunk goes through cans of Sterno.

Because it’s based on Volume (writing as many articles as you can, as fast as you can), you can go through a lot of good keywords, in a very short time. But since BM doesn’t make good, full use of your keywords – you get the distinct feeling that you’re “wasting” them…

Step 3: Write the Articles for your keywords

Once again, the Infamous statement by Travis:

“You should be able to write 5 articles per hour – AT LEAST.”

When I started, and being a writer, I wrote Quality articles. After all, you hear time and time again: “Quality Content” is the key to success on the Internet.

BULLSH*T!

I need a full article to talk about this one, but here is what YOU need to know NOW.

Recommendation For You: If you’re going to use BM – write CRAP.

Yes, you heard me right. Go for speed; forget about quality.

And don’t worry about submitting Textual Cow Paddies to the article directories – it will not get you even ONE extra “decline” on your articles. How do I know? I TESTED it!

(There is SO MUCH I want to say about this particular topic, that I have to save it so I can “Unleash The Hounds” in a full post on NetFM. But it won’t be pretty. Can you handle it, Alex?)

Step 4: Submit your articles to EzineArticles OR GoArticles – ONLY

One of the keys to “article marketing”, is to mass submit your articles to as many article directories as possible. But when you’re going for Speed, how do you handle all the time required to do mass submission?

Travis’s approach is to only submit to one directory. And only one of the two he recommends, at that.

When I started, I did mass submission. I now know that it *is* a waste of time.

BM uses article directories for TRAFFIC only, not LINKS. And I quickly discovered that 95% of the articles directories are totally useless for getting direct traffic to your site!

So Travis is right – but only because BM “leaves so much on the table”. The method exclusively brings traffic to you, through your article posted on the article directory. It is nearly useless for boosting the ranking of your site on the search engines (and thus, brings you almost no traffic from the search engines – directly to your site).

Recommendation For You: EzineArticles is by far, the best article directory for Traffic.

However, I did manage to find a few others with traffic “potential”. It appears to be VERY niche dependent.

So *IF* you want to spend the time, make a “test” mass submission, and record VERY closely which article directories send you DIRECT traffic from your articles…

Step 5: Concentrate on the best-selling products

This is an Obvious Win, so I won’t discuss it further.

Step 6: Your Article + a Curiosity-creating Bio box = a great Pre-sell!

Initially, Travis appeared to make some good suggestions for my Bio Boxes. But when you write CRAP for the article directories, don’t expect to get good conversion (i.e. readers of your articles, converted to visitors to your site).

Conclusion

Again quoting Travis: “If your articles get on Google’s first page, then you should easily be getting an AVERAGE of one sale, per month, per article.

Averaged over all my products, and over all my sites: Not even close. This has been the biggest disappointment so far.

And the reason I’m not writing this from Monte Carlo… yet…

Andy

Tags: bummarketing, travissago, articlemarketing, ezine, google

When selling, a sure-fire formula is: “ Problem- Agitate-Solution”. Here’s how it works:

Problem:

Find the prospect’s pain and identify it as clearly as possible. “It hurts right here, yes?”

Agitation:

This is the equivalent of finding the pain and then poking it with a sharp stick, pouring vinegar on the wound until the prospect is yelling “stop! I can’t take it anymore, anything to make it go away!”

Solution:

Now that your prospective customer is writhing in pain, practically begging for relief from the real problem they have which you have now created a monster out of, it’s time to offer a solution.

Of course this was your primary objective all along…

That’s what this piece of Charles Atlas’ marketing does. Scrawny wimp on the beach. Jock kicks sand in his face. Girlfriend practically calls him a coward. He buys Atlas’ book and bulks up. Back on the beach, he catches up with the Jock and socks him one. His girlfriend swoons while other women gawk at his biceps.

Gotta love it

Surprisingly, Bum Marketing was recommended in one of my many email subscription newsletters, by an Internet Guru entirely unassociated with Bum Marketing. My being a writer, the methodology sounded intriguing, so I went to the main BM site and subscribed to Travis Sago’s e-newsletter.

I was in the midst of doing something else online, so reading the BM emails was slow. But after a long delay, I had heard enough to convince me to devote some time to further researching it.

Again, as a writer, BM looked appealing. But it took me a long time to be “sold” on it, which means you can do your investigation much faster…

How YOU can “quick-start” Bum Marketing, by avoiding my initial mistakes