An Email from John Reese I Would Like To Share

Letting Go Of Your Online 'Friends'

If you've been on my newsletter list for the past year (or more) then you know I've got through quite a personal transformation...

In early 2009, I had moved from Florida to California. I spent about 12 months there and then decided I wanted to go somewhere else. And I decided to do it in a bit of a 'dramatic' fashion...

I decided to get rid of everything I owned (things) and just travel the world out of a small

backpack with just my laptop and a few days worth of clothes. I called it my MINIMALIST ADVENTURE.

I travelled to 3 different continents over the next several months, and technically I'm still

on that trip -- although, I got a bit burned out on living out of a small bag (and not having a home base) and so I decided it was better to set up a 'home' and then travel to and from there, and of course acquire some more clothes and normal stuff to be able to enjoy myself a bit more. But I'm still going to keep things to a minimum and not acquire tons of things like I had in the past.

I'm back on the east coast and happy to be closer to my family. But here's my 'point' to this message today and what I've learned from my little 'experiment'...

During the past several years, as I've talked about many times before, I failed to release many new marketing products. Even ones I mentioned were in the works ended up fizzling out when I either changed my mind or got distracted with other things; such as working on unrelated business ideas.

I started out with a 'bang' back in 2004 when I released "Traffic Secrets" (that most people

know me for) and then after that (I am willing to admit) my popularity pretty much went downhill from there because I did a poor job of releasing a lot of new stuff -- I've made it known how much I hate product creation, and that had a lot to do with it.

I ended up working on a lot on non-marketing stuff during those years; I built a large content network of sites (driven by articles and syndicated content) and worked on some software projects.

But during the past 4-5 years or so something else happened that affected everything I was working on...

I GOT SEVERELY BURNED OUT.

I used to be a "marketing junkie" and maybe you are too. I used to read everything about

marketing (online and offline) I could get my hands on. I read Advertising magazines, Direct Marketing periodicals, bought all the new marketing books, you name it. I lived and breathed marketing.

And what used to be a "fun" topic for me turned into something that I had lost my passion for. I felt like my creativity and the 'fire' that fueled me as a serial entrepreneur since I was about 10 (when I ran a BBS and other little businesses) was fading.

But then one day I really started to realize 'what' the problem was...

TOO MUCH NOISE.

And this is the same premise as to why I decided to do my little Minimalist Adventure...

I was spending 10-15+ hours per day online. Reading, researching, and communicating with people. I was getting over 3,000 emails PER WEEK, and was involved in all sorts of 'networking' stuff with social networks, etc.

I quickly reached over 5,000 'friends' on Facebook... over 25,000 'followers' on Twitter. I was getting hundreds of "direct messages" on Twitter and Facebook in addition to all the emails that hit my inbox every week.

The Internet truly is like drinking from a fire hose. And I think it's just becoming a bigger fire hose everyday!

To say I had personally reached 'Information Overload' is an understatement. I had very little time to actually THINK and to be creative. Basically, I was becoming a data zombie -- like most people are today.

So I Decided To Make Some MAJOR Changes...

If you've been on my newsletter list for the past year then you noticed many of them...

1. I deleted my Twitter account.

I came to the realization that using Twitter just wasn't that profitable for ANY of the projects I was working on. It was becoming more of a 'chat' service than anything and had me wasting a lot of my time.

2. I deleted my Facebook account.

Facebook had me logging in many times a day. (Like most people are doing right now.) It was like "Extended Email." Just another place people were bombarding me with messages. And to be honest, I was spending a lot of my time filtering through information about tons of people that I didn't care about. I don't mean to say I didn't care about the people, I mean I didn't care to see every 'update' that they were taking their kids to soccer practice, or how their dog just puked on their rug, or that they were excited that their husband was finally taking them out on a "date night" etc. I'm sure you know what I mean. Facebook is really the "TOO MUCH INFO" system of all systems. It exposes you, at least in my opinion, to too much info about people's lives.

3. Several months ago, I left all the 'mastermind' and 'brainstorming' groups I was a member of.

I used to have regularly scheduled phone or Skype chat sessions, usually multiple times a month. I had a little 'brainstorming' setup with a friend of mine that was in the software

business (not marketing related) and we'd do a call together every other week to talk about

our latest projects, what our bottlenecks were, and to encourage each other to keep staying productive (or helping solve problems). But I realized this was taking up a lot of my time and after a few sessions, there wasn't a lot to keep talking about. So I decided to stop

doing them, and my friend understood and actually was feeling the same way.

I was also a member of a mastermind group that mainly communicated via email -- like

an email discussion list where one person could post something and everyone would get it, then someone would reply and everyone would get the reply, etc. etc. This was a very influential group with some of the top marketing 'gurus' but it also included some other major infoproduct publishers - from fitness, real estate, stock trading, relationship advice, etc. The members in the same industries would try and support each other with cross-promotions and JVs, and the entire group would share test results and talk about their business goals, challenges, etc. It was tough making the decision to leave this group, but it was just another thing adding to my inbox load as well as just being another 'pipe' of information that added to my overwhelm. So I resigned from the group and everyone understood as I was moving on to other things in my life and was trying to 'downsize' everything I had going on.

4. I changed my email address.

I just couldn't take the amount of email I was getting. It was just too much. It gave me so much stress it wasn't even funny. Maybe you are dealing with the same thing? So basically I declared "email bankruptcy" and just changed my email address. And I only gave my new email address to my family, close friends, my employees & outsourced workers, and other 'mission critical' people. I still get 'some' emails from people that I had to contact for something (and they saw my new email address) etc. but overall I have greatly reduced my

email load.

Today I get less than *20* total emails per day. :)

And considering that 50% are probably from my Mom (Mom, I do like your emails!) I don't get a lot of email from that many different people. And I'm glad.

AFTER ALL OF THESE CHANGES, I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER.

I'm now 100 times more creative than I have been in the past 5 years. I have less stress

and most importantly I spend a lot less time on the computer. I never realized how much I was using the computer everyday. It's actually a pretty amazing thing to only be online a short amount of time each day. Go figure. :)

And as many of my long-time customers and subscribers know, for over 2 years I've been

"in motion" of following a lifelong dream... to be in the Video Game/Entertainment business. I've talked for years about making games and working on other 'fun' projects. It's a much different business than an Internet publishing business, but I really enjoy it -- even, though, the new company has been slow with generating revenue (we're getting there, though.) That industry has really changed in the past few years. You still need some capital to build a business there, but you no longer need $20MM to create a 'console' game for the

Xbox, Playstation, etc. Small indie developers are finding success with iPhone games and

Facebook too. I'd love to create the next "Angry Birds" or "Doodle Jump" but we'll see. :) For those that don't know, the 99 cent game "Angry Birds" on the iPhone/iPod Touch has now generated over $10,000,000 in sales! I think that includes their $4.99 version for the iPad too. But it's amazing especially when the game has barely been out for one year.

And they're already talking about leveraging the game into possibly a cartoon and other

merchandising opportunities. And that's just ONE game idea. I have tons of them. :)

I now have a little 'Game Studio' in the Philippines, and setting that up and my experiences with it is what really motived me to do my "Outsource Force" class earlier this year. I really think it's a HUGE component to building a scalable business -- leveraging labor costs and having others grow your business for you. We're also now in a position to do contract work where we build games (and other apps) for other companies -- another great opportunity. The demand for iPhone apps and other mobile application development is HUGE now. (And growing.) In fact, it's one of the fastest growing industries in the world. So I'm looking forward to our future. This is a really exciting time in history -- the 'shift' from desktop computing to mobile computing.

The outsourcing advantages are common sense really. Steve Jobs isn't assembling iPads in a factory somewhere. In fact, Apple itself doesn't really build many of their own products.

Almost all of their products are manufactured in China now. It just makes the most financial sense. We live in a Global Economy now and as a business owner you need to tap into all the resources at your disposal to have the best chance of survival.

So I'm spending most of my time on this little game/apps company now. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm now spending only about 10% of my time on this marketing business,

and I'll probably shut it down within 6 months -- all my employees are in the process of moving over to the new company and I just have less and less time to spend teaching. While I do love teaching (and of course all my great customers) I ultimately love being an entrepreneur myself. And I've made it no secret that I never wanted to be a 'guru' anyway. Just not really my cup of tea.

* I'm still working on the TS2.5 update that all TS owners will get for free. You'll get an

email when it's done with download instructions. (Thanks for your patience.) Aside from that I won't be producing any new marketing products.

I recently signed a 'brokerage' agreement with Sedo, one of the top domain name companies in the world, and they're in the process of selling my income.com domain. They've listed it at $1MM but think they can sell it for more. We'll see. I want to use the additional capital to build the game/apps company.

THE BIG 'TAKEAWAY' FOR TODAY...

I know my 'moves' aren't the best for everyone, but I do challenge you to think about minimizing your communication with your online 'friends' that you connect with on Facebook, Twitter, and via email. They very well may be taking away from your life and your business rather than adding to it. We really do only have just so many hours available to us in a day, and it's really hard to reach your goals if you spend a large percentage of your time "communicating" and "researching" and not "doing."

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese

  

Traffic Secrets Training Guide 1 

John Reese's Traffic Secrets: How to Flood Your Web Site with Red-hot Visitors Who Are Eager to Buy Your Products and Services: Training Guide 1, Training Guide 2, and Workbook 

3 Email Marketing Tips For Internet Marketers

Email Signature Sample

1. “Do Not Reply” Address? Don’t Bother

If you send emails from an address that doesn’t accept replies, you’re sabotaging your campaign and your relationship with subscribers.

This post and the responding comments explain the mistake you’re making and discuss the effects in detail.

 2. Be Concise

The sender’s header (the “From” field) should have a name, and you should use a company email address if you can. If someone sees stevies747@hotmail.com, they’ll suspect it’s spam. If the sender’s header reads, “Steve Stevenson – Mister Stevenson Design Company” <steve@misterstevenson.com>, they’ll know it’s a professional email from Steve, their trusted designer. 

3. Make Sure to Include…

• Your name,
• Your company and position,
• How to get in touch with you.

No need to include 10 different ways to get in touch with you. As in website design, less is more; and then they’ll know which way you prefer to be contacted. Go to two or three lines, with a maximum of 72 character per line (many email applications have a maximum width of 80 characters, so limit the length to avoid unsightly wrapping). An optional fourth line could be your company address, but use caution if you work from home.

Email Marketing 

 

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Hope is Not a Strategy - By Darcie Harris

A few months ago, I met a woman who left a lucrative (though unrewarding) job in another city and moved to Oklahoma City to pursue her dream of opening her own business. She told me that after a particularly bad day at the office, and one more frustrating episode with a miserable boss, she took off early, drove home, dropped down on the sofa and turned on Oprah. During that show, Oprah said the magic words: "Do what you love and the money will follow."

The woman quit her job the next day. Within a month she sold her home and moved. Trouble is the money didn't follow.

I know a lot of people who do what they love, and the money has not followed. I also know many people who are miserable with what they do, and the money flows. So surely there's more to it than an oversimplified catchy phrase.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I met a sales trainer and coach who likes to say, "Hope is not a strategy." The first time I heard him say this I couldn't help but remember the woman who, on hope alone, decided to risk her life savings and do what she loved, believing the money would follow.

So if hope is not a strategy, what is? As I began to make notes for this article, I realized it's a word we use often but it's a hard word to define. Do a quick thesaurus search and you'll find the synonyms for strategy include: action, approach, blueprint, brainchild, design, game plan, grand design, program, system, and tactics.

Strategy is more than a list of tasks that outline our plan of execution. When we talk about business strategy, we're usually referring to our overall approach. Strategy is the higher thought, idea or philosophy that comes before a plan or a to-do list. It's the combination of WHY, WHEN, WHAT & HOW. Your business strategy will be a description of how you approach to the unique combination of the key factors you compete on in your industry with regard to you products, services and delivery.

Sam Walton had a strategy: put large discount department stores in rural communities. That was his simple strategy. It clearly worked. Amazon.com had a strategy: use new technology to sell books on the internet for less than retail prices. Southwest Airlines had a strategy: combine frequent point-to-point departures with speed and fun, friendly service to make airline travel more attractive than driving for short trips.

Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, tells us that a real strategy has to pass two tests: 1) what we're planning to do must really matter to our current and potential customers, and 2) it must differentiate us from our current competition.

In their thought-provoking book Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne draw a distinction between red ocean strategy and blue ocean strategy. Red oceans are the bloody battleground of competition in an existing market, where strategy is developed around cutting prices or tweaking value to gain an incremental edge. Blue oceans are found by creating an uncontested place in the market and making the competition irrelevant, by driving costs down while simultaneously driving value up for the buyers.

Has it been a while since you've re-examined your business strategy? See if these few questions help you gain insight:

• What are the factors on which your industry competes? Price, quality, ease of use, speed, convenience, relationships? Get specific to your industry.

• What's the one thing that really matters to your current & potential customers? What do they really need?

• Have you asked your customers what's most important to them?

• What differentiates you from others in our industry? Do you have a completely new product or service? Or do you have a newer, better, different, faster way of providing our product or service?

• What one thing would make you more productive?

• What one thing will make your business more profitable?

• What one thing will make you have a great, loyal team of employees?

The answers to these questions, and more, all add up to your strategy.

We may know what we love to do -- that's a great starting point. Then we have to follow that idea with market research, competitive intelligence, & information analysis. We need a strategy, an articulation that defines our unique approach to business. We need to know in our core what will distinguish us from all the others out there.

Hope. Esperanza! It's one of my favorite words. It's the energy and the passion behind all things good and great. Hope has cured disease, provided compassion, built communities and businesses. Hope & faith provide the energy and inspiration to carry us through difficult times. Hope is an important part of the process, but it's just the beginning.

When hope is accompanied with strategy, the possibilities are limitless.

Do we need hope? Of course. And then we need a lot more.

About the Author:

Darcie Harris is an accomplished speaker, consultant, columnist, and media resource on women's entrepreneurship and the challenges faced by professional women. CEO of EWF International, Darcie can be reached at 405.205.1124, Darcie@ewfinternational.com or online at http://www.darcieharris.com.