Off the Radar Screen - Hunkered Down - Success Around The Corner?

Hello Reader! You have probably wondered if I 'fell off the earth', as I have not been posting for a while. Truth is I've been hunkered down in my modest bungalow, trying to figure out my next on-line marketing move. With the current economic turmoil out there you would think I would just give up my dream of a home-based, on-line marketing empire?

The news media would have you believe that the sky is falling. This is mis-information. A few 'criminally-greedy' wall street players, have brought this upon themselves and the world market.

The government, in trying to clean up the mess made by others, is only exacerbating the issues.

Emotions run the stock market. Bad news causes stock to rise, a perverse reaction for sure! Bad news should not cause investors to profit, but it has been this way since the beginning of the stock market. The wealthy people are only going to get richer because of the government 'bail-out'. Are you going to see any of this bail-out money? Not unless you are a large bank like B of A.

The BlogWorld Expo 2008 experience in Las Vegas, really opened my eyes to what is possible in on-line marketing. The presentations I saw there like Gary Vaynerchuk's, www.winelibrarytv.com really drove home the point that hard work, long hours, and dedication to your dream, no matter what or who may try to talk you out of it, is the only strategy that will bring you success.

If you truly have done your homework, are or becoming a recognized authority in your chosen market niche, and have a passion for your chosen products or services offered on your website or landing pages, and you post every day, you will eventually find that web traffic will find you!

Gary stated that he responded to every email or comment made on his website for an entire year. He engaged the customer for his wine products in a meaningful conversation, and others discovered his knowledge and dedication were the real deal. He spent years studying wines and food, so that he was able to answer every question posed to the satisfaction of the requester. He also visited other authorities in the wine business, left comments on their blogs or websites, and started a conversation that helped him to grow his business to a current value of over $60-million dollars!

If you are genuine, people will sense your expertise and want to do business with you. If you treat people poorly, your reputation will be ruined, as news travels faster on the web than any other medium today. Newspapers are printing hours-old news. The tv news is at least 2 hours behind real time to assemble the stories and air them in edited-down video formats.

The web is instantaneous, Twitter, My Space, Facebook and other sites are read by millions of people per day, and this is the new paradigm for Web 3.0. People want the truth, a space that the traditional news media cannot compete with, nor do they have the time or money to fully analyze the data, and provide a resultant meaningful story.

Currently, they report something very irresponsibly, like "extremely high fire danger today!" And the insane person with the highway flares goes out to wreak havoc on an innocent society by startng fires on the day with guess what? "The Highest Fire Danger". How stupid can they be? Why not announce that the fire department will be attending training today, "Gee, I hope there won't be any fires today"? (I got off-subject here, but that 'high-fire-danger news-reporting' issue makes me mad!).

The relevance of the web is so pervasive, that people like Matt Drudge are now followed by Presidential Candidates! Matt has become a hit because he publishes timely stories, that are controversial to traditional news-gathering techniques and institutions, and he is quicker to publish before the mainstream media even can discern that the story is developing. Matt has become an authority in his space.

How will you become an authority in your market niche, and how do you convince your customers that you are the real deal? Most important technique taken from BlogWorld Expo 2008. BE YOURSELF! BE HONEST! Be the kind of marketer people like to talk about in positive terms. Become the best at what you do. Outshine the competition by being as authentic as you possibly can be!

Truly successful marketers put their customers first. Need to exchange a bad product? Fed-Ex it overnight and eat the cost. You will have gained the trust of a customer who was unhappy, and now is very happy with the way you have treated and valued their business. Go out of your way to be helpful and you will beat your competitor's who do not do this or do not even care!

This customer will talk positively about you, and cause others to want the experience of the same level of service 'that they are not receiving elsewhere'.

How many of you are tired of voice-menus? Companies used to answer their telephones. Now it's all buried in voice-menus, hoping you will quit before successfully obtaining the ear of an actual human being! Make sure you place your telephone number on your contact information page, answer you telephone on the third ring maximum, and if necessary call your customers back promptly.

They will be totally shocked and surprised at the level of care this demonstrates to them, and you can usually resolve the issue during this brief telephone exchange. Use this time to ask your customer if the experience could be improved, or if they could pass along their positive experience in a forum comment?

Customer Service has been pushed to the bottom of the priorities of most of the companies I deal with. And yet they tell you in their advertising, how much they value their customers! If you only do this simple act consistently, you will see a tremendous boost to your traffic numbers, serving the people who are making your company grow! Imagine a reader seeing all of the positive feedback from previous customers! Goodwill will be established, and you will be successful.

Social Networking is the current buzzword. I know of one software architect that is releasing his product using Social Media, and 'viral-marketing' as his main marketing focus. In this way he tightly targets his potential customers, who are already savvy web users or successful Pay-per-click, Affiliate Marketers, and his software tool will be much easier to market to this selected group! By the way, the product is called iSpionage at www.ispionage.com

Please leave me a comment below, I will respond! Respectfully, Nicholas

My Dinner with John Chow and Shoemoney!

BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas! My dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow!

Nicholas Chase at Market Leverage dinner with John Chow, a very happy fellow!
Photo Courtesy Gary Ng - www.iphoneincanada.ca (c) 2008


Market Leverage dinner winners with from left, Greg Morgan, a winner!, Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Nicholas Chase, also a winner!, Darren Rowse 'The Problogger', Ryan Hupfer of Hub Pages.com, John Chow, Shoemoney, Gary Ng, a winner! and Debbie another dinner winner!
Photo Courtesy Zac Johnson c 2008

Hello!

I've had a life changing event this week.

Check out this photo of me at dinner with the 'thought-leaders' of Affiliate Marketing and on-line advertising! The Market Leverage dinner at Envy Steak house, in the Renaissance hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada at BlogWorld Expo 2008!

I started on Wednesday, trying to get a pass to BlogWorld Expo 2008 in Las Vegas. Just missed one from a Twitter person I was following. I'm fairly persistent when I have a goal, so then I found one of the BlogWorld partners on Twitter, and offered my videography sevices to the BlogWorld team. Not only did they accept, but I was given an unlimited-access pass to all of the events.

As a videographer, the challenge was to setup and record each panel or presentation, with minimal time between speeches to move and reset the camera, recorders etc. I lost some pounds schlepping my hand truck with my gear all over the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Everyone at BlogWorld Expo 2008 was kind and helpful!

Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin the BlogWorld management were simply amazing.

Thanks guys, you really helped me, I hope that I have been of assistance to you!

As a blogger and Affiliate Marketer, the information there was as cutting edge as it could be. A partial list of the presenters included, John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson, Brian Clarke, Jim Kukral, Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit, Patrick O'Keefe, Dave Taylor, Darren Rowse, 'The Problogger', Guy Kawasaki, Steve Rubel, Michael Brito of Intel, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, Robert Scoble, Doc Searls, Timothy Ferriss of the '4-hour Workweek' book, and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Guy Kawasaki and Nicholas Chase after the Keynote Luncheon with Steve Rubel
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

I visited with Guy after his Keynote Luncheon talk with Steve Rubel, very illuminating, especially how he expressed his feelings towards Steve Jobs and Apple Computer, and how for a mere $$$ five-million-dollar $$$ signing bonus he would come back!

As an added bonus, check out the photos! Yes, I had dinner with the thought leaders at BlogWorld Expo. John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson and Brian Clarke, Tyler Cruz and my Market Leverage team, including, Debby Phillips, Market Leverage's Digital Media Specialist,
my Affiliate manager Jennifer Fluker, Dina Riccobono, Marketing Manager, and the Market Leverage TV, Production Manager Judson Forman and the Market Leverage CEO!

The Unique Blog Designs team was there as well, Nate and the crew, as John Chow recently utilized their excellent services in redesigning his website at: www.johnchow.com

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park with Nicholas Chase after Sunday Keynote
Photo Courtesy Dave Cynkin c 2008

Meeting Mike Shinoda of the band Linkin Park was a real highlight on Sunday. He was accessible and candid about how blogging had secured a Warner Brothers record deal for the band. He related how all of the band members were artists, and the band name came about because Lincoln Park, a real park in LA had been registered previously. To get the dot com they changed it to Linkin Park, brilliant!

Mike was adamant in his opinion that emerging bands no longer need a large record company, with the power of the web they can self-distribute digitally, and bypass the management hassles.

Timothy Ferriss, author of The '4-Hour Work Week' was very well received by the packed audience for the Sunday Opening Keynote with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, and Rohit Bhargava the moderator. Timothy stated that to be self-published these days was practically impossible, as the store shelves are dominated by the book publishers. As a test, Timothy printed some books, and stealthily placed them in a prominent spot next to other hardback books in a bookstore and then watched the shelves for a day to test his theory.

The Market Leverage Dinner

I arrived late after packing my video gear away, and Dina Riccobono introduced me around the room. All of the legendary bloggers and thought-leaders at the two tables were very accessible and nice to me, a newbie Affiliate and blogger. Their words of encouragement and sense of humor were genuine and fun! I was fortunate to meet my Affiliate manager, Jennifer Fluker, and she offered her professional assistance to my on-line efforts.

John Chow came over after the meal, with a huge wad of cash, and asked who wanted to hit the tables! Check out the photo of John and I and that wad of cash! Market Leverage had a cashinator machine set up in the exhibit hall, and you had one minute to 'grab-cash' before time was up. Tyler Cruz wore a coat into the booth, and won the cash, to be donated to another attendee later.

John and I, we had a good laugh about Michael Kwan crashing a Segway, version 2 in Canada at the factory test track! It violated the known laws of physics to see Michael crash the Segway, and break the Flip Mino video camera he was holding when he crashed! I believe NASA Ames and the defense department want to study Michael's brain, to insure none of his synaptic neurons gets into any future space vehicles! We laughed for a long time about poor Michael Kwan.... John kids him on a regular basis on his blog. www.johnchow.com

Zac Johnson had some encouraging words for me, and even offered to help, handing me his personal business card. Thanks Zac! Check out Zac's excellent blog at: www.zacjohnson.com

It was exactly this kind of community and family approach that all of the panelists and Affiliate / Bloggers attending the show exhibited all weekend. How refreshing from the corporate, button down, need-to-know environment of some trade shows.

BlogWorld Expo 2008 was a life-changing event for me, all launched becuase of a simple act of kindness on my part to assist where I could. This is an important recurring theme for all of us working 'on-line' to remember and practice daily.

Jim Kukral was helpful to me all weekend, even though he was busy moderating panels and watching the time for the panelists. He made sure that each panel had sufficient time for interactive Q and A and the attendees asked some very well-formed questions. I hope I wasn't in your way too much Jim, with my sensitive microphones and all that equipment! Check out Jim Kukral at The Flip Daily, www.JimKukral.com

I have started following these smart people on Twitter, an application that permits 140 characters per small instant text messages called 'tweets'. When you send a message you are 'tweeting' someone. They can 'follow' you and you can follow them, sort of a 'what are you doing now kind of tracker scenario.

Today I discovered something strange and wonderful, some of the thought-leaders are now following me! Ok, got to stay on track here, so much is happening so quickly, it's a testement to the 'Power Of The Web', how quickly one can get recognition for a small act of kindness.

When tweeting, "I'm making cheese-balls" does not have the same impact as saying: "I'm having dinner with Shoemoney and John Chow, Jim Kukral, Brian Clark, and Darren Rowse, Zac Johnson and Tyler Cruz at Blogworld Expo 2008!!!"

Shoemoney has the record for largest ever adsense check, over $133,300.00 for one month's profit on Google's adsense advertizing program! He spent some time with me after the panel he was on, and discussed family and how the web community is strong and vigilent in it's desire for self-informing each other, and not depending on traditional news outlets who move too slowly for the web attention span!

Shoemoney gave some time to me, after the SuperPanel to be interviewed, discussing the web community and being a real person to constituent bloggers out there. He said that he would remember me next year, and wanted to hear about my successes online. I'm even more dedicated now to make this online business grow! I'll try to host the video here real soon!

I'm tired but elated to be getting assistance from the best in internet marketing in the world! Oh, and after Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit needed some assistance with his new microphone before his panel presentation, I assisted in temporarily mounting it to his tripod, we talked after the event, and he gave me a unlimited Platinum Pass to Affiliate Summit 2009!

www.affiliatesummit.com

I'm really just touching down after all of the excitement of the past five days. It's Christmas, and New Year's Eve, and my birthday all rolled into one fantastic present!

Keep tuned to these pages for more BlogWorld Expo photos, and how being authentic has certainly helped grow my on-line presence and reach.

Respectfully, Nicholas

IZEAFEST IN ORLANDO WAS AWESOME !!!

Hi,

Just finished watching two full days, of all of the live streaming from IzeaFest in Orlando Florida. Shoemoney gave a very moving Keynote about how he has come to his current level and success, John Chow presented, and sat on panels, a wealth of information for bloggers, site designers, video incorporation and great giveaways for the attendees!

The IzeaFest live streams were all recorded and can be played here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/izeafest-streaming-live-from-izeafest-in-orlando%2C

Came away with some great information about:

Social Media Networking,
blogging,
Wordpress plugins,
video production for blogs,
being a real person on-line,
using Twitter and SocialSpark to connect to your community
Blog design no-no's

The interesting part of the Ustream feed was the interactive, 'live-chat-window'.

Attendees and on-line viewers could pose questions to the presenters live during the Q and A period. During the presentations, the URL links were entered into the chat window by the production staff or attendees to check out these links for value to each individual.

Very cool to see live chat running during presentations, although some attendees forgot that everyone could see their comments! Hope there were no attorney's watching, as some of the comments were a bit questionable for a live stream.

I have a ten page word document capturing all of the links from Saturday and Friday, plus notes on things to avoid when blogging, including concern for 'ACCESSIBILITY' concerns for non-sighted or hearing-impaired web surfers.

I am ready to make the changes to my seven blogs, including moving them off of blogger to Wordpress on my domain. Total control of my blog is then obtainable for design and templates.

Check out www.izea.com and ask for Trevor, he is a really helpful person! And please leave me a comment if you liked this post!

Respectfully, Nicholas

Purpose Inc ThinkTank San Diego Contest!

A Truly Unique Opportunity!

Now we're talking!

Jeremy Shoemaker aka Shoemoney at www.shoemoney.com has an awesome contest running.

He will sponsor one winning blogger to go to the Think Tank in San Diego.

This post serves as my contest entry. The challenge is to describe what "I could offer the other attendees".


Nicholas's Top Ten Things I Would Offer While At The Think Tank

10. I would offer my undivided attention to anyone in attendence.

9. I would be a good listener, and offer a carefully considered response to questions, considering the attendee's are all thought leaders in Affiliate Marketing.

8. I would be willing to help in carrying, setting up, or tearing down, in any way deemed appropriate by the requester.

7. I would be respectful of those in conversation and would never interrupt or try to convince anyone that I was smarter than they are.

6. I would turn off my cell phone, during any speeches, or private conversations.

5. I would focus and concentrate on the information received, and when I have learned and practiced the techniques to financial success, I would at that time be willing to give back to the Affiliate Community as others have done who proceeded me in that regard.

4. I would participate in the Think Tank process with enthusiasm, respect and a genuine interest in the subject matter.

3. I would remember to thank Jeremy, in the future by sponsoring another Affiliate as he has offered.

2. I would renew my commitment to my goal to make Affiliate Marketing, and monetized blogs my sole source of income within one year from July 2008.

1. I would never forget what it felt like, to stand in a room with brilliant individuals who were willing to share what they know, with an absolute beginner in Affiliate Marketing.

Thank you in advance Jeremy, even if I'm not the winner.

Respectfully, Nicholas

PPC-Coach - Join them now!

Based on the post I read at Jonathan Volk's Super Affiliate blog, I have decided to change course on trying to dominate the blog-o-sphere with monetized blogs. All of my efforts have brought some traffic, but zero income. After almost three months of trial and error, I feel like I'm in the Wild West, and the town has no police force, (excepting Marshall Google of course!).

I have been through all of the ebooks, web sites, trade shows for SEO and PPC, read countless forum entries and have come to a conclusion. No one save for Albert Einstein could fathom all of the minute details, and excessive hours spent in front of your computer, trying to make an online income. It just is not going to happen my friends. So, how about using the services of a successful coach, a guru who has been down the road I've just described, and is successful.

How much would you be willing to pay to get all of the free software tools, videos, an awesome forum, and the true support of someone who does not even know you, but feels compelled to share his knowledge?

How does $54.43 USD per month sound? That's cheaper than Junior College, with books alone over $500.00 per year! In addition he will personally review your account and suggest changes that will improve your bottom line. OK, I've already convinced myself and joined, what's stopping you?

Even though I believe that Google has indexed my blog(s) now numbering seven, six of them are hosted by Google themselves on Blogger.com. By pasting the Google Analytics code into my .html template, my blogs are achieving increasing page views.

When I read Jonathan's review of PPC-Coach, and visited the website to watch some of the videos I was convinced. Without a focused, measurable pay-per-click or SEO strategy you are not going to be successful in the current marketplace on the web.

Way too many blogs out there, just check the real-time statistics on www.Weblogs.com, to see what you are up against. So then comes PPC-Coach. Firstly when you join, you are immediately given access to the first two months of his success path for profit. Instead of some lame ebook, he delves right in to how to use all of the rich knowledge that can be found in the member area.

One guy has achieved the $35,000.00 a month club that they claim you can also achieve. I was reading his well over 1000+ forum posts last night, and his story is motivating. PPC-Coach will guide you through the murky waters of setting up your online campaigns, including joining Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Search Engine marketing services, help you in setting up campaigns, and other marketing engagements, in order to insure that you follow the correct steps.

In addition, the Coach will truly be available to support you, answering emails, or IM messages in a timely fashion. Imagine, his email inbox as shown in the introduction video had over 3,000 messages in it, and only one unanswered one. That tells me that this guy is genuine and sincere.

You can visit the PPC-Coach here:

http://www.ppc-coach.com

You will be glad that you did!!

Respectfully, Nicholas