208 – Listener Comments Episode 6

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Once again our listeners have their say, expressing feedback, sharing experiences and posing questions about Internet marketing.

In this podcast:

00:32 – Leave us a message
00:56 – Can James go to print publishing?
01:18 – On FWF5 and using Apple
06:47 – The tech end of PLR products
11:29 – Pointing multiple domains
15:17 – John Lee Dumas drops by
16:24 – A rejection and what happened after
20:06 – How many voice messages do we get?

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Quotables:

The biggest reason you want to come to a live event is because of the people. [Click To Tweet].
I don’t hear of people going back to Windows after Mac, but I hear a lot of people going the other way. [Click To Tweet].
…acting classes are a great skill for any kid or adult to take on to cope with fear and to get more out of life… [Click To Tweet].

Transcription:

James Schramko here. Welcome to SuperFastBusiness and this is a Listener Comments’ Episode. This is actually Episode Number 6 in the series and this is where I take listener calls from the website and answer them. So if you want to leave a message, if you like the sound of that, go to SuperFastBusiness.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a text link. Leave a voice message.

Click on that and leave your message and you’ll probably be in a future episode. Now, there’s a couple of other little running notes but I’ll get to those in a little while. For now, let’s listen to the listeners. See what’s happening.

Listener 1:     James. Ben here. Just sent you an email on the AFR Tech’s Tuesday pages. It would be really good for readers, especially small business because they can read some sort of weekly content from you, sort of aimed at big business but I think a lot of other people read the Australian Financial Review, you may get too much business out of it if they’re happy to have your content there.

Number two, I missed your meeting a week or two ago in Sydney. I’d love to know rough dates of when you’re planning to do it next year so I can arrange my work around it and come. Might be the first person inquiring.

Number three, I’m still using a Windows, using a netbook Asus 12-inch and the occasional virus which is a real pain to clean off. Maintaining antivirus and spyware is not too much work but you know, all in all it is a bit, it does use up a fair amount of time every year and I’m just wondering about moving to Mac and I heard you done that on one of your podcasts.

Wondering if you would benefit your listeners if you give a brief plus and minuses of moving over to Mac. I know they’re not totally virus free and if a lot of people move over to them, there may be more viruses on their system but I think there’s a big advantage of moving to Mac. I do have iPhone, iPad and are intuitive and easy to use.  But there is a loss of flexibility because you’re locked in to Apple systems.  Anyway, thank you very much.  Bye.

James:    Hey Ben! There’s some great pointers there. Firstly, number one, that’s a good suggestion: me contributing to an offline/online publication. A lot of print newspapers have been on online publication these days and it’s a good tip for getting more traffic, it’s contributing information to a larger body of work than what I’ve been able to create. So I’ll certainly investigate that.

Inquiry On FastWebFormula 5
Your second thing regarding my event. Well, that’s the first time I’ve ran an event for about 18 months and it was FastWebFormula 4. The good news is I recorded the entire event and when you join SuperFastBusiness.com, you can now watch the entire event in the form of video and also, you’ll be able to get the audios and we’re fully transcribing every single module including each picture from all the speakers.

So that is by far the best way to catch up with what you missed. In terms of my next event, it will be in 2014. It’ll be FastWebFormula 5 at this stage. So keep an eye out for that.

The biggest reason you want to come to a live event is because of the people. The atmosphere is unbelievable. And my guests who came to the event, Ezra Firestone and Clay Collins, and a number of people from all around the world came to the event and said it was by far the best event they’ve ever been to. So I’m so proud of what we did but you can watch it inside SuperFastBusiness.com.

Windows to Mac
Now your third matter relating to Windows. I’ll just tell you what happened when I went from Windows to Mac because I think this is the real lesson. Firstly, I was forced to go from Outlook to something else and something else happened to be Gmail which I’ve now turned into Google Apps.

That was the biggest thing that freed me up from my computer was getting off that hard Outlook system. Moving from folders to labels and going into the cloud, so to speak, was the biggest thing that happened when I moved from my laptop. I had a Toshiba, to the Mac.

The second thing that happened was I couldn’t use some of the programs that I used to use on my computer. So now I wasn’t able to do stuff like run software and things that were helpful for SEO and PPC.

But what it forced me to do was to let the team take over those tasks so the big freedom number two is that I wasn’t able to use some of the programs.  Instead of that being a disadvantage, it actually forced me to pass them down the line to my team who are predominantly Windows-based.

So, in summary, when I went to Mac, I got a more stable, really really awesome workhorse that’s fantastic for audio and video. And I do a lot of audio and video and I find Screenflow is better than Camtasia. And I find that the computer itself is more reliable.

I don’t have virus issues and stuff, and I’ve been through many Macs. I’ve got a lot of equipment. But right now, I’m using a 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina. It’s got the maximum memory and hard drive or flash drives that I can get and it’s fantastic. By memory, I mean RAM, someone’s going to pick me up on that. So, worth the move absolutely.

Go into the cloud and let go of a lot of those programs that you don’t need. If you’ve already got an iPhone, then you’ve got things like reminders apps that will work really well across on your Mac, so I love the seamlessness of it.

I’m a big fan of just using one 24-inch LED, sorry 27-inch LED screen with your MacBook Pro. That way you get a nice big screen, single focus. Get a wireless keyboard and mouse and you are rocking. Plus, you can take this thing anywhere in the world. It’s so solid and robust.

Move Across and Don’t Go Back
So that’s my tip. Move across, you will not go back. I don’t hear of people going back to Windows after Mac, but I hear a lot of people going the other way. I’m sure there are reasons why you might need Windows and there’s got to be people who love Windows and that’s fine. But I found that using Chrome and all the things that we would normally would use like Skype and Evernote, is working just fine for me.

You can just still install Word and Excel and Powerpoint if you need them. But I think Keynote is better for the professional presenter and of course most of the things we are using now, WordPress, OfficeAutoPilot and my Nanacast shopping center are all virtual so it doesn’t matter which system you’re using.

Listener 2:    Hello, James. Billy here of Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s 4am so I’ve got a bit of a morning voice on here. PLR is what I was looking to get some information on. I have purchased at least three PLR products that I have paid the premium package price on to fully re-brand them so I’m able to do that with them.

And I’m looking to tip them up and earn me some money for me. One in particular I’d start with would be my Forex course video series, a strictly video series. I believe there’s a sales funnel there or a page attached to it, with it.

The tech end is where I’m at or I’m stuck at. The tech end and how to actually put a simple page up with a Buy Button, a PayPal and get that out in front of people. Get traffic to it and sell some of these video courses. Stuck with it and not sure where to go next.

Members’ site I could get into but that’s a little overwhelming at the moment. So, thanks for this, James. It’s Billy, early morning Nova Scotia, Canada. Off to get a coffee. Thank you, Bye.

James:    Hey, Billy. I’m sure the coffee’s going to work out well for you. I love a nice coffee in the morning and a couple during the day. Certainly my drug of choice.

Private Label Rights or PLR
OK, so, I think you’re referring to PLR which is Private Label Rights. So you’ve purchased a pre-done something that you want to sell and just put it all together and making it work is the challenge. Now it should work out fine and what you really need is someone who is technically competent who can put it all together in a way that works well for you. Just tying up the payment system, the auto responder and then driving traffic.

We can actually help you with that if you want someone to do it for you. Just go to ATLWeb.com,  that’s my web development company and my team are very good at putting these things together.

That’s the team who puts together my information products so when I have a product and I want to sell it, we will build a website, they’ll put a payment option, they will be able to make resources if you have affiliates. They can make everything talk to each other, even set up your auto responder whether it’s AWeber or OfficeAutoPilot.

If you’re using a cart like Nanacast, which you should generate, then that’s going to work out well.  Maybe you’ve got membership with WordPress like WishList member or aMember. If you don’t know how to deal with all of that stuff, it’s certainly not worth learning how to do it.

I don’t hands-on do that stuff anymore, that’s why I have a team. I suggest you just pay someone to get it all done. And then you can just focus on marketing the business.

Pay People To Do Traffic For You
You can also pay for people to do traffic. That’s what we do from our other websites like SuperFastBusiness Traffic Services. So, don’t try and learn it. Just give someone a brief and tell them what you’re trying to do, get it quoted and then have it done. That’s the simple solution.

Join A Community
If you want to learn some of the mechanics but you don’t need to get too technical, you can certainly join a community such as the one at SuperFastBusiness.com, where you can ask as many questions as you want and people will answer you. So if you insist on doing it the hard way, that’s the way to do it and you’ll get at least advice from people who have already done it, who can move you through faster.

But the further I get into my Internet marketing business, the more I’ve realized it’s actually a handicap to know these things because you might be tempted to do it. If you could just pay a professional to do it the same day or within a week, then that’s better than waiting a year to try and learn how to do this stuff.

And just on a side note, with PLR, you want to go and just make sure that you’re differentiating from the hundred other people who might have purchased the exact same package.

One of my first projects online was to buy some Private Label Rights and I put up my website and I submitted it to ClickBank and I got everything ready and I sat back waiting for my wealth to come and nothing happened. I didn’t make a single sale and I felt pretty ripped off about it actually.

What I found later on is it’s just so much easier to create something yourself or to commission somebody, a professional, to research and write and create something original because you’re the only person in the market with that specific product. So put some attention to differentiation and get out there. I hope that helps a lot. Enjoy your coffee. Have a great day!

Listener 3:    Yeah, Hi, James! Craig George and I’m one of your SEO guys. Just a quick question on, I have multiple website domain names which are all around certain topics that we have online at photography and makeup, that type of thing.

What is the best way to, or the cheapest way I should say, to have I guess to own more than one server so we can just point them to the main site so they’re relative keyworded websites names, and we want to point them to our main site.

So in other words phrases such as wedding makeup and point that to Sydney makeup services and we’ve got multiples of different types of titles and I would like to be able to go, OK, let’s get them all keyword searchable or whatever and then push them towards the main site. So I just want to host them somewhere and redirect and this is the right way to do things. Anyway, look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, James. Bye.

James:    Craig, this is a really common situation. Everyone I know has a few extra domain names.

Redirect Domains
Now a few really important facts to keep in mind here. Firstly, the easiest way to redirect the domain name is probably just to do it at the domain registrar. Most domain registrars will give you a free option to redirect it to a different URL so it just means they’re going to host that domain at the domain registrar and point it to the domain you want.

That’s the easiest step. Step two, if you’re planning to get some traction from that domain, you will have to develop the domain into a site so here are a few questions.

Firstly, do you really need that domain name because it’s much easier to put a post or a page on your mothership or authority site with these exact same phrase if you’re relying on type-in traffic to get that ranking. Secondly, exact match domains are really not that powerful anymore so where you’re trying to rank for that phrase if you want a thin site or just a few pages, it’s not going to cut it.

You’re going to have to develop into a decent site. Usually, that’s going to mean something like a WordPress site with some original content and you should budget several hundred dollars for that to do it right.

Hosting Multiple Sites
In terms of if you want to host these all, that’s pretty easy. You could get a shared hosting account if you want, probably for $15 a month that would cater for quite a few domains but don’t recommend that. There’s a big emphasis on speed now. We have super, super dooper dedicated server for our business that are very fast and we find that they convert better and rank better. When the page loads faster, Google loves it and customers love it.

So, my advice for most people is a) let go of any of these domains that you’re sitting on that you don’t really need. Unless you think there’s a competition thing or a trademark or a branding reason to hang on to it to stop someone else having it. Secondly, you might get something if you want to sell them to someone else who sees the opportunity in it if you don’t need it.

Thirdly, just keep them and redirect them all to your mothership and put your focus on the mothership. Get your mothership or your authority domain, the strong one, categorized properly, build it out, make it strong, get it on a fast server and that’s the best focus.

For most people, it’s just not worth developing these hundreds or dozens of domains that we’re sitting on that we’re never going to use and I can tell you someone with a couple of thousand domains, I am an expert in acquiring domains and not all of them are useful and these days, I’m just dropping off a lot of them.

Just hundreds of them I just let go because I know that I’m never going to develop them. They cost money to hold and that’s just a resource management nightmare. So there you go, I hope that really helps you, Craig.

Listener 4:    James! John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. Hey man, keep kicking out these great content. I’ve been loving your podcasts. Loving your posts. I was kicking myself for not being on stage with you and Ezra at your event. Next year, guaranteed, I’ll be out there lighting the stage on fire. Thanks for all these great content man. You are definitely igniting me.

Entrepreneur On Fire
James:    John, that is a fantastic news. You’re coming to FastWebFormula 5 to talk about podcasting and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have talking about it because of your phenomenal success over there on Entrepreneur on Fire. I encourage my listeners to listen to that.

Go and observe what John has done with the dedication and the powerhouse application of doing one thing super, super well and with focus. I’m really excited to see you rolling up that to community as well, John.

So, thanks for sending me a message. I hope you’re enjoying your jog today because I know you listen to these things when you’re running and if I could be a fraction as successful as you are with my podcast, I’ll be doing well. Alright, take care. Speak soon.

Listener 5:    Hey, James. What’s up buddy? It’s Kev Rogers. Great video. Very inspiring.  You know it did remind me of a story when I was in high school.

Drama Club Back In High School
I wanted to join the Drama Club production on the night of January 16th and the… I thought I was quite qualified frankly because I had taken a little bit of acting even outside of school. I was quite “The Actor.” And the drama department and the director did not see it that way and offered me a lustrous spot on the production crew.

As you know, helping build sets, not even designing sets, James, building. They handed me a tool belt for all my acting prowess and it was… throughout the production I accepted that role and that OK, this will be kind of cool. I can learn some things and at least I’ll be around the production.

But to be honest with you, I really felt shunned and a little bit rejected by that group as a whole. It really felt like they looked down on me. Maybe even went out of the way a little bit.  Maybe… I wasn’t picked on but I was certainly not welcomed and you know I think that’s a big reason why I ended up becoming a stand up comedian because it was a solo gig, right?

Becoming A Stand Up Comedian
I never tried to join a comedy troupes or I didn’t go to Improv classes. It was very appealing to me to be a lone man with a lone mic on the stage. And as I became successful as a stand up comedian, became something of a local hero, the same actors used to come to my shows and I always got sort of a secret pleasure out of thinking you know, it’s “Thanks to you pricks that I became a stand up comic because if you would have accepted me, I might sitting out there with you.”

You know, starting to grow a beer gut and cheering on me, the guy who made good. So that was kind of cool and ironically, my daughter who is 6, begins her first acting class today. Thanks for the video James. Talk soon, buddy. Bye.

James:    Hey, Kevin. Hey man, great to hear from you. Thanks for your comment.

Dealing With Rejection
Listen up, Kevin was talking about the episode that I did called Dealing with Rejection. It was about when I went to get a job and I was rejected and what happened after that. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes. The Dealing with Rejection video, which was shot by my 10-year-old son actually with an iPhone.

So, If not just for the fantastic cinematography, take the lesson from that. And If you want to also find out more about Kevin Rogers, he’s doing a podcast now called Psych Insights for modern marketers with another buddy of mine, John Carlton, who I’m having back on the show soon.

So, if you want to do some prep work, these guys are great copywriters, terrific businessmen and it’s worth listening to. And thanks for sharing that story with us, Kevin.

I hope things are going well with your daughter’s acting class and in fact acting classes are great skill for any kid or adult to take on, to cope with fear and to get more out of life so I highly recommend that.

Listener 6:    Hey, James. This is Captain Lou, producer/planner of Mike Filsaime’s Amazing Annual Marketerscruise.com. And my question, thing that I saw this voice message applet come up on your blog is how many people actually send you a voice message through this applet? Because if many do, then it’s time to add SpeakPipe to my sites.

Let us know and of course, come and network and JV with hundreds of the world’s top marketers this coming January on the Marketers’ Cruise. Shameless self-promotion.  OK, thanks, James.

James:    Hey, Captain Lou. Thanks for leaving a message and enjoy your cruise, I’m sure it’s a lot of fun. Still not quite round the old cruise mindset yet as being the ideal vacation but I’m sure it works for most people.

Speak Pipe
Alright. Now, SpeakPipe, I highly recommend it. I’ve recently changed, as of this episode, the widget. I’m not got the big bubble pop up. I’ve just got a link in the footer and here’s the reason why.

I get about 30,000 visits a month and I’m getting about 30 messages a month, so that means probably the great majority of people aren’t leaving a message and on the click map or the heat map clicking, it’s a very, very clear hitting the cross to close that bubble so I don’t want to inconvenience people with that anymore.

People know where to leave a message because I tell them on this episode. So, with each site that I have SpeakPipe on,  there is a different purpose.

Audio Podcast On My Sites
On ThinkActGet and FreedomOcean, I do have the bubble and it’s a very common thing that people will leave a message because it’s an audio podcast. People want to be part of the show. ThinkActGet gets the most by far. We tell people about it. We train them to leave a message.

And they do and we play them back, every single one of them, we play back on air and people love being part of the show and rightly so because they’re actually able to contribute and make it better for everyone. So I would recommend you do use SpeakPipe.

Displaying Speak Pipe
I would consider how you want it to display. I think the one on the right hand side is very intrusive. The one in the footer is less intrusive and now I’ve just got a link to where people can leave a message rather than having a bubble on SuperFastBusiness. Because the point of SuperFastBusiness is simple, I want people to opt-in and I want people to buy my products, that’s it, rather than leave a message.

Leaving a message is an additional extra nice thing but it’s not the primary goal of my website. So think about that when you’re considering what the point of putting this on your site would be.

On my products sites, I actually don’t have SpeakPipe. When I’m trying to sell something,  it will have instead a live chat to my team that pushes a ticket to ZenDesk using LiveChatInc and ZenDesk and we make a lot of sales from that. So the primary action is to sell something.

Reason For Adding Speak Pipe
So I’m just wrapping up here. The reason to put SpeakPipe on a website would be if it is a podcast, primarily, and if you really want to have that audience interaction and let them be part of the show, that’s the main reason I use it. Now I’m sure that people use it differently.

If you don’t have a support team, if you don’t have a ZenDesk, if you really do want people to be able to just leave a message for support inquiries and you use it that way, it might be quite useful but that’s not how I use it. I just use it to have people on my show such as you.

Solution For Podcasters
So thanks for asking that question. And interestingly, as soon as I changed that bubble, the owner of SpeakPipe sent me an email asking if there’s anything that I could help them explain why I changed it, was there any feedback that would make it a better product.  They’re so responsive. Vladimir is right behind the product. I talk about it all the time on ThinkActGet and I think it’s the best solution by far for podcasters.

Leave A Voice Message
So that’s a wrap for the Listener Comments Episode Number 6. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  We’ve had some interesting discussions. If you’d like to be on the next episode, go down to the bottom of JamesSchramko.com, click on the link where you can leave a voice message and I’ll be responding to your comments in the next episode. Take care. I’m James Schramko.

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