OK.  I have to admit up till now most of what Tony has been teaching in his course was fairly familiar.  I have been following along filling in the blanks as it were, using the course to be my mentor.  You see I know lots about all of Internet Marketing and have written ebooks, articles, designed web pages – all of it.  I guess you can say I just didn’t have a plan.  So the Internet Marketing Kickstart course is just that for me.  And it is excellent for that purpose.

Anyway, Lesson 13 – Lucky 13 has been the best so far for me.  Why?  I am trying to use any “free” means to get traffic to my sites and this lesson was specifically on how to write and distribute viral reports.   Now I have read a dozen reports on viral marketing but never have I learned as much as I did in this 16 pager.  Just the advice on writing titles was worth this month’s membership fee.

If you were wondering if the $27 a month is worth it?  Just remember that you are getting the equivalent of 4 detailed no nonsense reports for the price of one each and every month for a year.

If you haven’t met Tony yet, grab your copy of an interview I did with him recently.  You get it free when you subscribe to this blog.  Right up there to the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Anyway, I am off to do this weeks assignment – to write a viral report.  You’ll be the first to get a copy, too.

Wow! Has it been 3+ weeks?  Besides a short vacation and doing overtime with the in-laws, I have been away from the business side of the ‘net.  But I’m back at ready to hit the WWW big time!

Big set back with Tony’s Kickstart Course.  I found out I have a broken link in my sales funnel so I am plugging the leaks.  I am sure I would have seen some clicks by now but when I saw that big boo boo that explains a lot.  That will teach me to not check my loops before I get things running smoothly.  Hey I’m still learning!

Notice:  I am adding Tiffany Dow’s interview to the membership sign up.  Anyone on my list gets that goodie for free!  First it will go to my list then I’ll stick it in the auto responder for newcomers.  So be sure to sign up to get this awesome interview with one of the most professional women I know and am privileged to work with.

Next time I’ll give you the skinny on the Kickstart Course hopefully with some solid numbers for you (I am so embarrassed).

Well, on to lesson 9 and I am getting my post count up on my “forum” project.  You see, Tony has us visiting forums in our niche to create a presence in an attempt to become a perceived expert.  Kind of dodgy for me as I will never feel an expert on anything but changing diapers (I have had 9 kids).

After all, one could get philosophical and drone on about how article marketing is dying (no it’s not BTW) or the best way to sprinkle long tail keywords in content to please the human eye and the search engines,  blah blah blah

Back to being an “expert” on forums.  If from your own personal knowledge, not a guess or some imaginary blather, you can give real solid help, then do it.

I have to get over the fact that so many folks on the forums are groupies (sorry gang) and hang out for the kick of it like students at the local pub.  Most of what goes on is jabber but once in a while you have a guy in the corner quietly adding to the conversation and generally being a great guy.  He’s the one folks will remember later as the guy who made a tiny difference.  that maybe sparked something in someone else.

There are times to just hang out but for now I need to make my time count so I visit the forums to see if some new gal or guy is beggin for help and try to add by two cents.

Thanks, Tony Shepherd, for the great lesson on forum visiting.  This quiet wallflower will begin to take part to see if I can help someone else on the same road.

P.S. if you are wondering if I am making ann money from my projects, the honest answer is no.  BUT that is not due to the lack of help in Tony’s course – but my own busy life.  I have faithfully done the lessons and only just got my Clickbank product approved (yes!)  So now, I can say I am ready to proceed.  Sales letter is up at http://imtradesecrets.info for all to see.  I will have all the links checked and be live soon.

OK.  I am on lesson 5 of the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  One of the longest lessons, it is actually one of the easier ones, truth be told.  It mostly has to do with signing up with Clickbank and gives great tips on pitfalls to avoid.

I have to admit, this is where I get hung up though.  While I have a strong creative bent – it is easy for me to write and design web pages – I come up short with self confidence.  I begin to wonder do I have anything really worth, say, $27 to someone else?  So taking the Clickbank step is not an easy one for me simply because I have these voices telling me “make it bigger, make it better.  Don’t do it – it isn’t worth it…”

But I have a monkey on my back that is goading me on; no, two monkeys.   Tony Shepherd and Sara Brown.  They are my cheerleaders.  Then there is my husband that believes in me and my kids, too.

So get yourself a support team.  Whatever is keeping you from taking the next step, take my advice (which comes from Tony)

Just do it! (and clean up the mess later)

While you don’t want to offer cr** to your customers, stop with the analysis paralysis.  Just Do it!

Chill on the details and whether the formatting looks right – Just do it!!

You can’t sell it if it isn’t out there connected to a Paypal button.  Just get it out there and let your customers tell you how to “fix” your report.

OK. Now on to Clickbank!

As promised, I am going to record my progress here on the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  I won’t go into specific details as to what is in each lesson, per se, simply because Tony and Sara do a better job of explaining than I do.  So I won’t reinvent the wheel, as they say.

But I will tell you that instead of getting one lesson a week I have gotten 5 in the past two weeks!!

Week 1 is a general overview and picture of things to come just to get the creative juices flowing.  Even they say that those of us who are familiar with Internet Marketing can get going sooner than, say, a total newbie which I found to be the case with me.

The Week 2 lesson helped me to get a good idea of what to focus my niche on and for the first time I have a very really confidence to attack my plan.  The smaller steps and guidance were/are just the very thing I needed to see this thing through.

A surprise bonus report came  a few days later.  Worth the price of the course just by itself.  “How to make your report outsell the competition!!!”  Folks, it just doesn’t get any simpler and more straight forward than this!

What I did was to buy some really awesome PLR, as they advised.  I did some tweaking and reformatting so it is ready to “go public” ASAP.

By now I am putting my plan into action and while waiting for the next lessons I kind of get a jump on it by subscribing to Aweber and preparing my autoresponder series.   Then came lesson 3 AND 4!!

Do you want to know the one thing that made all the difference in my own business so far?  it’s this:

TAKE ACTION!

Stop planning and analyzing and just do it.  Get it done and fix it later.  Now some of you perfectionists are squeamish on that one.  I know I was.  But here is the sound reasoning behind it.

The sooner you get your product done “good enough” and then published, the sooner you will know if you have a winner or a dud.  Believe me, if it is done “good enough” your customers will let you know how you can add to or “fix” your product.  If something isn’t clear or thoroughly explained, they will let you know and you now can “update” your product which makes it even more valuable. But f it is a dud, then you will know not to spend anymore time on it.

Well, I am getting on with it – how about you?  See you next week when I tell you how I am coming with the next lesson #5!

Take a look at the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course here.

Have you been floundering in your online business, not knowing where to go… what to do?  Yes?  Well, so have I.  True confessions time.  I have been in the IM game for over two years now.  I call them my “learning” years.  I dabbled and designed and sold a few things.  But never really got a good ripping start.

At the same time, I had been eyeing Tony Shepherd’s and Sara Brown’s Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  But I put off joining as I thought, “I know what to do; I just need to do it!”  So, I didn’t join.  But then I didn’t “just do it, either”.

I finally knew what I had to do.  You see, even we creative entrepreneurial types need a mentor – someone who will direct you and advise.  And I knew  Tony and Sara would do just that.

I “joined” over two weeks ago and have never regretted it!!  It was just the “kickstart” I needed.  Already I have gone through the first 4 lessons and am chomping at the bit to get on with the next ones.  This is nothing but solid gold.

So, I thought I would record my progress here for anyone else who is thinking about trying out the Course. Just look for the category to see what I have been doing.

For you totally new to Internet Marketing, a resounding YES you will never regret your choice.  I have participated in a half dozen courses and webinars before and, well, Tony and Sara’s course is the most user friendly.  I would not hesitate to recommend it if you are new and want to see progress on a regular steady pace.

But if you are like me, and really need that kick in the pants, this is perfect.  While many of the lessons are stuff we already know, the simple progressive layout offers the nudge and guidelines I needed.

Yes, I am a Tony and Sara fan but for good reason.  They are “real” – no false fronts with them.  Head on over to the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course and meet them today!