I made a few short videos to help Brendan Wenzel with his contest, where he’s giving away a free scholarship to Social Media Marketing Machines.  I hope I win it because it would definitely help me with the tools to enable me to help more business and to work more efficiently.  The education would be great too.  I’m sure there’s something I’ll learn from the training.

I have posted up the links to the videos below.  Please check them out and let me know which two you like the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_J90o41ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3zq9da1nWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5GGu8gyZCI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5RqltUiBk8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFJ5ArVRL2c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXQ0mM8MGM

If you want to know how I made these videos let me know.. I’ll show you.

My personal favorite is the 4th one!

The main reason is there are so many things going on, so many blogs and websites, this one has become a little behind in the update field.

For those of you that follow, this the the change.  I will make this more of a personal blog instead of a marketing blog.  Which means, I will share what I’m doing personal and in business, with some results and knowledge.

There may be some rants, and maybe some blatant “commercials” but I promise to be honest and blunt.

With that said, here is a bit of a rant I need to talk to you about.  This is your wakeup call.  A slap in the face.  It’s a “What are you thinking!?” before you’ve gone and did it.

!!!WARNING!!!

[rant]

First of all, I am an Internet Marketer.  Which means I market products and services on the internet to make money.  No, it’s not a “get rich quick scheme” like some people think when you say you make money on the internet.  I have over 30 websites some bring in money, some funnel people to the money sites, but they’re all there for a purpose.

There are A LOT of “newbies” who want to become Internet Marketers.  That is, they want to make money online.  They could be a small business owner or someone who wants an online only business, like me.

I have been bombarded by offers from other Internet Marketers who are talking about “push button” or “Automatic” systems.  You can do a months worth of work in 2 hours by pressing a couple of buttons or make money on autopilot.

IT’S ALL CRAP &/OR LIES OR YOU NEED A BUNCH OF MONEY TO MAKE IT WORK

When someone who is making “$540,340.00 On Autopilot” and they want to sell you a product on how to do the same for $150 or less… Doesn’t that but up a RED FLAG!?

Let’s do a little math here.  I’m going to show you, if you don’t already know, how things work.  First, before the math, let me tell you about affiliates.  I make a lot of money there so let me explain it briefly so you’ll understand the math.

Basically an affiliate marketer is someone who promotes someone else’s  product for commission.  So, say like I was promoting something like “How to get online jobs“.  You click that link and it takes you to a website.  If you buy from that website, I get commission.  Normally 50% on average, for electronic products.

So let’s get to the math.  This guy made “$540,340″. In order to make that money with his product, let’s say it’s $47 and there’s also an upsell for $97.  That means the main product is $47 and after you buy it, he asks for $97 for an upgrade or something to make it better.  You know, when you have your credit card out, it’s easier to keep paying, right?

OK so let’s say 50% of the people who buy the $47 product, upgrade (very high rate by the way, but the math is easier).  I take $97 and divide it by 2 (50%) and get $48.50.  It’s easy to say that every person that bought was an income of $47 + $48.50 = $95.50

NOW let’s talk about affiliates.  Generally, that’s where you’re going to get a majority of your sales.  Affiliates email their lists of people and some of them buy.  Let’s say the affiliates get 50% commission for promoting this “automatic” product.

Let’s take $95.50 and divide by 2 since 50% goes to the affiliate and 50% goes to the product owner.  That comes out to be  $47.75

Now, how many units does this guy have to sell to make the amount he does on autopilot?

 Take $540,340 and divide by $47.75 and you will have to sell: 11,316 units

That doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is.  Since not everyone you email opens the email, and not everyone that opens clicks on the link, and not everyone that clicks on the link buys.

In fact, industry average is about 3% of the people that his your sales page will buy. That means you’d need 377,200 people to hit the website in order to make $540,340.

So WHY would anyone go through all the trouble to create a product, a website, sales funnel, get affiliates, and more when you can just sit at home and make money on autopilot?

It’s because YOU CAN’T!

 If you want to make money, no matter if it’s online or offline or both, you need to WORK for it.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, buy any of these push button, make half a million dollar type products.

I bought it, read it, and returned it because it was not feasible. Probable yes. It could be done, but not from the materials provided.

[/rant]

What do you have to say on the matter?

So, I have decided to focus on helping Small Businesses with their Online Marketing and Brand Management. Gone are the results and ROI from the phonebook and billboards.  People use Google or Bing to find YOUR business.  If you’re not there, they’ll go to the business that is.  I want to help that business be YOURS!

Let me give you an update on what has been going on with me in the world of online marketing and business.

First off, Internet Marketer Magazine has launched.  You can go download the latest issue for free here: http://InternetMarketerMagazine.net

A lot of people go to InternetMarketerMagazine.com and think that’s all you get. Well that’s not the case. Internet Marketer Magazine is an actual magazine in electronic form.  You can download it and print it out.  It is magazine quality work and many people have been very impressed with the quality.

The site just gives you a sample of the article content, but there’s no images, just a short blurb.  If you want to read more, just subscribe for free and download your first issue free.

Another thing I’ve been working on is the Social Media STORM.  There’s some great things happening in the background there so be sure to sign up for notification when it’s ready to come out of Beta testing.  http://SocialMediaSTORM.com

I have also been working on The Social Media Matrix.  This will be an indepth process on how to use social media to market your business online.  Social Media Marketing is huge and should be a big part of your business’s online marketing strategy.

The principals of The Social Media Matrix will be taught and used at Social Media STORM so just go there to learn more.

I also have hired a virtual assistant team.  I must say that this is one of the best things I have every done for my online business.  Outsourcing  certain parts of your business and marketing is perfect and really allows things to move forward faster.  It gives me time to create other online businesses or better ways to market my business.

As if all of that is not enough, I have started taking on more clients.  I’ve been doing internet business consulting and online business marketing consulting for a while now.  However, with being so busy lately, I haven’t been able to accept more clients.

I’ve been taking on some clients now and came to the realization that I love helping people. I especially love helping local businesses with their online marketing.  It these hard times, the Internet is a great place to turn to lower your marketing budget. In many cases, ROI is better with online marketing than offline.  Well that depends on the business’s targeted market.

Oh yea, did I tell you I’m also running the blog over at http://SocialMediaLandscape.com  Check it out!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or contact me through the contact page or phone.

- Michael S. Copeland

Well if you frequent the site enough you would have seen it was down for a little while with database errors.  The new posts that I added never showed up.  Then when I tried to upgrade wordpress, it broke the site again.  Yea I know… crazy eh?

Well I thought everything was fixed but now whenever I try to go to older posts, I get errors.  It looks like I’ll have to do an entire re-install, which I hope doesn’t cause any inconvenience to you.  Right now at least I’ll still be able to post.  I’ll be working on this in the next week or so because there’s a lot going on and it is very exciting!

In the mean time, go here: http://InternetMarketerMagazine.com

Content is king. It gets to wear the crown. And sit on
the throne. And rule the world. When it comes to
establishing credibility, gaining trust and producing
sales, content is royalty.

While I would never suggest abandoning the concept of
delivering high quality content to your subscribers, there
is another type of list composed of subscribers who couldn’t
care less about content.

“What is this type of list?” you ask.

- > The “announcement list”.

I’ve been teaching about the “announcement” list since
at least 2002 (on record at an event). And, yet, it’s a
widely untapped asset in most email marketing circles.

The main reason is: nobody’s teaching it. And so,
nobody knows anything about it, let alone how to effectively
create one of these lists.

So, we’re going to revisit it.

——————————

——-
What Is An “Announcement” List?
————————————-

DEFINED: An announcement list is a list whose sole purpose
is to “announce” (I.E. Inform, notify) when something new
is available for review, consumption or purchase.

In other words, it unapologetically says, “Hey, I just
released XYZ. Come check it out!”

Now, at first glance you may be thinking, “Who would join a
list that offers no content and only sales pitch?”

If you say it that way, it doesn’t sound too good to me
either! That’s why you don’t say it that way. Let’s take
a look at HOW to “say it”…

————————————-
How About An Example “Announcement” List?
————————————-

If you go to this site:
http://PLRSO.com
you’ll find a textbook example of this concept. PLRSO
stands for “Private Label Rights Special Offers” I
established this list for the sole purpose of informing
people anytime I have a new PLR offer available for them to buy.

That’s it.

I don’t send out ezine articles to them. No newsletters.
They don’t get blog posts. There aren’t any special reports.
No content of any kind. What they get, in essence, are
sales messages.

And there are already 2,822 subscribers, many of which
have already purchased some of the PLR special offers that
have been “announced” to the list.

Why does it work? Let me give you plenty of reasons…

1. I took something that was “in-demand” (PLR) and I allow
people to get a head-start on the world by knowing about
new releases FIRST by joining this list.

2. It’s not billed as an “announcement list”, but rather
a “Free PLR Club”. Big, big difference in perception.

3. It has it’s own domain name, further adding to the
perceived value and importance to those who join.

4. There is no requirement to buy once you join. Buy the
offers that you want, pass on the ones you don’t want.

5. A cost example is provided to show what you can
buy immediately, further illustrating the value of the
complimentary “membership”.

And here’s the big twist that makes this idea of creating
an “announcement” list a complete no-brainer…

I allow my affiliates to “give away” complimentary memberships
to the PLRSO club!

When someone they refer buys one of the offers, they earn
a commission. And I get other people to promote and build
my list for me. We all win.

So, you may be thinking…

————————————-
What Kind Of “Announcement” List can I Build?
————————————-

There are a wide variety of “announcement” lists that you
can build. Let’s briefly look at ten of them…

* PLR List. You can swipe my idea and create a list of
private label rights buyers.

* New Offers List. Build a list of people who love your
work and want to be notified any time you have a new
offer available.

* Pre-Launch List. Create buzz and anticipation for an
upcoming new product release by building a pre-launch
list several weeks (even months) in advance.

* Ezine Publishers List. Build a list of publishers who
want to know any time you have a new ezine article
that is available for reprint in their ezines.

* Bloggers List. Another idea is to allow bloggers who
are looking for ready-made content to post to their blogs.

* Industry News List. How about becoming the “go to”
guy or gal to share breaking news about your industry?

* Joint Venture List. Develop a list of partners and
affiliates who are ready to promote anytime you have a
new offer.

* Incentives List. Here’s a great idea - create a list of
people who you offer “incentives” to when they purchase
someone else’s new product through YOUR affiliate link.

* Freebie List. Regularly give away rebrandable content
(reports, articles, videos, etc.) to these subscribers
to earn commissions.

While all ten of these lists aren’t necessarily “buyers”
up front, they each can certainly lead to buyers and revenue
for you if you implement them.

Content is king. But let’s not forget that there are alot
of queens, princes, dukes and earls out there too.

——-
Jimmy D. Brown, one of the most respected marketing teachers online,
has been fine-tuning what and how he teaches when it comes
to Internet Marketing since 1999. Now you can benefit from
those years of experience and also get full PLR rights to
many of his best-selling products - at ridiculously LOW
prices (I’m talking Ten Bucks).
Run, don’t walk to this website ->
http://PLRSO.com

I guess lets start with Thanksgiving. It was great. My wife and kids were going to my wife’s Grandmother’s house, as we normally do. She lives in a 2 BR apartment in a retirement community. However, this time, I was cooking the turkey.

Now I had NEVER cooked a turkey before in my life, ever! So I wanted to kick it up a notch and maybe rotisorie BBQ it on the grill! Now that would be awesome! I went to the Pathetic Suburban Males Grill Club site to see of one of the guys had done it or if there were tips, but not at the time. (although I don’t drink)

Then I looked in all my grill books and online and found some great recipes! Decisions, decisions. When it came down to is, I just pulled out the old roaster and roasted it “like normal”. It turned out nice and juicy so I was happy. Since turkey is “so important” on Thanksgiving (to some of us) I didn’t want to try any crazy suburban male rotisserie turkey with special jalapeno basting techniques, and possibly ruin the sacred bird of the day. So I did it traditional, the way grandma did it every Thanksgiving since I moved here over 11 years ago.

Thanksgiving dinner was great. The food was wonderful and although my wife, kids and I cooked most of it and took it to grandmas it all turned out nice. Heck, I even made my first turkey gravy too. (Best I ever had, shhhh)

We packed up the left overs and went back home. Next year, as the plan stands right now, we’ll have “Turkey day” at MY house. So this gives me some time to test out some of those crazy BBQ techniques.

The day after Thanks giving though, something happened. I started getting a little cough. I’ve had this type of cough before. It’s an infection moving into the lungs! Sinus infection moving down or something going straight for it or both. On top of that, I had been having problems with asthma so it wasn’t a good sign.  I got as much work done but it kept getting progressively worse.

The next morning, Saturday, breathing was very hard to come by. I went to the store, to get some OTC stuff to fight this gunk in my lungs, I needed to cough it out. It just wasn’t working as well or as fast as I had liked it to work. , then I posted this on Twitter:

Saturday night, I was in such bad shape, I almost passed out from not getting enough air. I was in the bathroom with the tub filling up with hot steamy water, trying to cough all this junk out. Inbetween me coughing, and trying to breathe, and a fever, it was just about lights out. For real! However, I survived that scary moment and kept alive.

Sunday I posted this on Twitter.

Sunday was a scary night, not knowing if I’d pass out in my sleep or stop breathing or what. I knew that First thing in the morning was going to be a call to see the doc!

Normally when you call the Doc, they say we can see you on Thurs or something like that, NO! I called and left a message with the receptionist and if there was no appointments that day I was going to go anyway! But my doc is very cool!

Like I said, I called and was waiting for the nurse to call me back with the appointment time.

I received a call back and they said to come in right away. They did all the normal checks then gave me some breathing checks. It was pretty much decided I was going to the hospital but “I’m a man, and I’m tough and I don’t want to go to the hospital” was my stupid way of thought. Mostly because of the cost of the whole thing.

They gave me a peak flow meter to breathe into. Blow1 25% of normal. “No no, you have to blow your hardest, with all you have.” (I did the first time) Blow2 28% of normal. “If that’s all you can do, I need to admit you right now!” Blow3 30%

Well I was at the hospital for 3 days. Every 4 hours getting a nebulizer treatment. Pumping me full of antibiotics and steroids to open the lungs. It was a trying ordeal. I’m glad I had the room to myself for 2 days at least.

During the time there, I had no phone, battery died. That meant not calling some people who’s numbers were “memorized” by my phone. That also meant no more tweets from Jott either. If you go back and listen to those Jotts, you’ll tell I wasn’t doing too well. You can hear it in my voice, or how I had to stop to take a breath in the middle of a sentence.

Finally, yesterday, I was happy to send this out:

I got home tweeted and then went up to take it easy, charge my phone, and call back everyone that left voice messages, and all that.

I had tons of DM and public tweets from people here are some of them:

Another thing while I was in the hospital, I had time. I had time away from gadgets and computers. It was just me, time to reflect on my life and business and where I was going and what I was doing. I drew mind maps and I came up with multiple improvements to processes and procedures.

I think the most important thing I realized is the need people have right now to make money. The recession has “officially” hit and now that it’s “OK” to say it, it’s all over. Well it’s been here for a while people.  Maybe it’s time for you to take the time to re-evaluate what you’re doing or planning to do.

Times have changed, there are people out of work, there are people who are losing hours, their paychecks aren’t as big as they used to be. People don’t have the money to spend on things. I know in my business I’ve seen this across the board on multiple genres.

Businesses are trying to stay afloat so they can keep paying their employees.

So I have decided to focus my energy on those businesses, whether they have been a brick & mortar business for 45 years and are getting their first website, or if they are a new business who needs help with online marketing. It is those businesses I have decided to focus my energy on.

Businesses provide jobs and money to people and I hope those jobs and money stay here, within America. Outsourcing is a way of life for any business but there are so many people here in America who need that money. All I’m saying, is that if you’re using any of the freelance sites, think about your neighbor who has a car, rent, and kids. They want to write that article for you for $15, give it to them.

You’re going to see some changes from me in the near future. You’ll see new sites, and new offers to help you stay afloat. I’ll help in any way I can. I’ve had a lot of great comments on some of my videos especially this one: SOCIALIZER

So if things like that will help you, I’ll continue to make them.

As of now, I need to go take some medicine and take it easy. There’s still some stuff in my lungs but I can now take a deep breath, which is very refreshing, considering a week ago I couldn’t.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this whole post. I know it’s a long one, and I haven’t written one for a while.

I appreciate your kinds words and thoughts as I continue my road to full recovery.
Thank you, for being you.

- Michael S. Copeland

One of the things that I think is absolutely crucial is creativity.

Creativity is what gets you noticed. It’s what gets your product noticed, and in turn, gets sales. Well that all depends on if people take your creativity the right way.

If you want inspiration from some creative advertising campaigns, check this video out:

Now imagine all the people who will be introduced to Joel since his book is in the Library.  What about your book? Have you ordered it yet?

Also, I mention a Librarian Secret towards the end of the video. All in all, I think libraries are great place. When was the last time you were in one? Don’t you think it’s time?

Here are the books I mentioned in the video:

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business

Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age

Click Here to Order: Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs