I just finished reading an interesting article about Toyota.

As some of you may know, I’m a big a fan of their company.  Their approach to lean manufacturing amazes me.  There is an overwhelming amount of information that can be learned from them, even if you run an online business.

Here’s the article I just read:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24457074/

- Aaron Brandon

The April edition of my printed newsletter is ready to be sent out.

If you would like to receive a copy, all it takes is a simple subscription using the following link:

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

The April edition includes the following:

- A newsletter exclusive special for CBMerchantPro.  The normal cost of CBMerchantPro is $200.00.  As a subscriber to my Online Business Newsletter, you’ll receive a link where you can order this brand new software for just $50 dollars.

- I reveal a traffic method I’ve used to drive search engine traffic to free blogs successfully.  This one isn’t something to shrug off.

- Do you ever get the feeling you’re in a market that’s just too competitive, and everyone seems to be selling the same product?  No worries.  This article will clear up how one multi-billion dollar industry allows numerous companies to sell the SAME EXACT product, and what they do to set their product apart from competitors.

- You can add as many videos as you’d like to YouTube.  Whether or not they’ll be seen around the world is up to you.  After reading this article, you’ll end of with a clear picture on how numerous YouTube video publishers are able to get tons of viewers in a small time frame with just one source.

If you want to get your hands on this issue, you’d better hurry.  I’m sending this issue out at 3pm PST on Wednesday (that’s today!). 

Get subscribed now for only $25/month by using the link below: 

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

- Aaron Brandon

Richard Lee pointed out that my blog is two years old today.

Way to go, blog!

It has been a great journey, and it continues….

- Aaron Brandon

I just got word from Dotster.com that they will be holding a “Happy Hour” event tomorrow (Thursday) at 1pm PST where they’ll be giving away free .com, .net, and .org domains to 500 people “on a first-come, first-served basis (1 domain name per customer)”.

Maybe you’ve been wanting to get started with an internet business and just haven’t gotten around to purchasing a domain.  Or, maybe you’re just finishing up a new course and haven’t gotten around to purchasing a domain for it yet.  Well, whatever the case may be, this is your chance to get a free domain.  Their usual price is normally around $15/year for a domain registration, so why not get in on the deal?  That extra $15 in your pocket could pay your first months of hosting somewhere else…

Here’s some more information about their event:

http://emailer.emailroi.com/r.pl?tX1po5U1kPpuFSu4_0bf7e83747759803http://www.dotster.com

By the way, that’s not an affiliate link or anything.  I’m not making a dime for recommending this to you (obviously).  I simply copied it right out of the e-mail I received from Dotster.  I currently have a number of domains registered with them, and have only had a positive experience with their service, so I thought I’d pass this information along.

- Aaron Brandon

When was the last time you asked yourself:  ”Am I where I want to be in life?”

If you ask others, they’ll often lie to you.  They’ll basically shrug off that question and answer in the form of habit.

“My life is fine”, “I am happy”

But are they living their dream?

Everyone should have a dream of what they want to be doing.  And, if they aren’t currently at that point, they should be doing whatever they can to work towards it.

One commonly shared dream is owning a huge yacht.  There’s only one way to know if you’ve accomplished that dream.  Just ask yourself, “Am I on it?”

I have a dream.  To be honest, I’m not there yet.  That’s fine, I have time to get there.  I’ve seen others with far less time, and are so far away from their dreams, there’s a good chance they’ll never reach their destination.  That won’t be me, and I wouldn’t want it to be you. 

What are you doing right now?  Are you working a job, wishing you could run your own business and make more money instead?  If so, what’s stopping you?  I know others who work a full time job, and still manage to make available the time to work on their business on the side.  Their businesses are growing.  That’s a step towards most peoples dreams.  Working for yourself without a boss on your back.

Are you there yet?

- Aaron Brandon

Richard Lee’s headed somewhere…

He just posted a few videos on his blog.

Check this out:

http://richardlee.com/

- Aaron Brandon

I just came across a website with a number of “behind the scenes” methods which advertisers, magicians, movie producers, and photographers all use in their work.

Some of these methods rub me the wrong way.  Like food businesses which insert air into their products, selling you half the regular product and slap a different label on the product.

But I’m sure you can get something out of some of the other methods shown, and apply them in your own business.

Check them out here:

(link removed - no longer works)

- Aaron Brandon

A number of internet business folks have been mentioning mind mapping lately.  Some talk about it as being some sort of secret tool that will solve all of your problems.  In truth, it won’t.  But it is a neat tool, but that’s about all it is.

Think about how you create a PowerPoint presentation.

You know how it’s done.  You’ve got a topic, and a bunch of bullets.  Then, you might have some sub-bullets.

Sorry folks, that’s pretty much the same way mind mapping works!

Mind mapping simply changes how you’re visualizing those outlines.  Instead of a list, you’re creating a visual diagram of your notes.  Instead of a topic at the top, you’ll have a circle, or some sort of figure for a starting point in the middle of a page.  Instead of all of the bullets, you’ll have lines (or some graphic, like an arrow) pointing to each item in the list, and more pointing to the sub items.

Quite frankly, it’s more like a flow chart for a process, rather than having it in a written format.

But, I’m not actually bashing mind mapping .  To be honest, I use them for several of my own projects.

I believe giving myself the ability to visualize my notes in a more graphical way can help me be more organized.

Here are a few things I’ve used mind mapping with:

• Websites
• Business Procedures
• Instructions
• Presentation notes

I’ve even mapped out an entire online business.  The only problem I’ve had has been keeping it update constantly.  For example, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop adding more ways to get web traffic to a website.  I come across at least one new way every day!

That reminds me, I’ve been debating whether I should create a product for using mind maps. 

I’m interested in getting your input.  If I were to create a product which showed how I use and create mind maps, would you purchase it?  Comments are open.

- Aaron Brandon

Some of my newsletter subscribers have been contacting me asking questions lately, so I’ll take the time and answer them on here on my blog.

One is, when will I receive the March newsletter?

My March newsletter was sent out towards the end of March, so if you haven’t received the newsletter yet, you should very soon.  Sorry for the delay.  I was pretty ill during the month of March, so my first issue took me longer than expected to put together.

Another question was how to subscribe to receive my monthly newsletter.  I created a page just for that, located here: http://www.aaronbrandon.com/newsletter/

If you subscribe now, you’ll begin receiving my newsletter starting with the April issue.  I’ll have a blog entry up shortly describing what I’ve included in the April issue.

And last, I’m using USPS to send out the newsletters.  I was able to get the “Earn An Income By Publishing Your Own Printed And Mailed Newsletter” CD sent out to all of my March subscribers, so if you received that, you should now know exactly how I’m sending out my newsletter.

- Aaron Brandon

The other day, I was speaking to a friend about the new mail service I use.   I told him I used EarthClassMail.  He had never heard of it.   He joked around and said he didn’t know you could receive mail from other planets now.

So far as I know, you still can’t receive mail from other planets, but you can use a service which allows you to check your postal mail from anywhere on this planet, as long as you have a computer with an internet connection.

I noticed Stephen Dean now uses Earth Class Mail: http://www.stephensblog.com/?p=278

Obviously, he can see the importance of using their service.

It really allows for more freedom in your life.   You don’t have to worry about forwarding all your mail to a new address when you move.  You don’t have to worry about all of your bills going to the correct address.  And, you don’t have to worry about the wrong persons hands on your mail.

I’m not an affiliate of the Earth Class Mail service.  I don’t get a dime for mentioning them, I just highly recommend them.

- Aaron Brandon

Check out this special out that Marcus Hochstadt is running:

http://www.hochstadt.com/24-hour-special

It was only $35, so I thought I’d grab it.

Apparently he created this product while at the Tabacón Grand Spa Thermal Resort in Costa Rica.  Of course, if you follow my blog, you know how much I think that place sucks…  So much, that I can’t wait to go back there.  That place was awesome!

- Aaron Brandon

Is there such thing as giving too much of a reward to someone?

Let me think up an example.

Let’s say that you need some feedback for one of your latest DVD’s.  In order to do that, you can simply ask customers for a testimonial.

On the other hand, there’s a chance you’ll get a low response.

So, you create a reward/incentive.  You ask for their feedback, and in return, you tell them you’ll give them a course valued at $100.00 (or something like that).

What will happen?  You’ll get a large number of skewed feedback responses.  You will more likely receive positive feedback so they’ll receive the reward.

So, the trick is to prevent an overreward.

One of the best methods I’ve ever used for collecting feedback has been to just give the product away for free.  Then, ask for their honest opinion of the product.  Tell them you don’t mind whether their feedback is positive or negative.

It goes perfectly along with the same old “Give and you shall receive” methodology.

- Aaron Brandon

You know the feature in most programs that lets you undo and redo actions?

It sure is a great tool.  If you know you did something wrong, you simple undo a previous action and then correct it.

But, if you compare that tool to reality, it’s more like magic wand.  You can’t undo past actions in life.  Life is a forward progression.

Let’s say you have a goal in mind.  It’s to have made $100,000 dollars of additional income online.  The way to do that is to follow a proven path, and take focused action.

If we compare that to the undo/redo tool, it’s not too different, besides the fact that you still can’t undo your actions.  However, you can redo most actions multiple times.  You need to learn what works (like what’s profitable) and repeat the action if it’s proven to work.  If it doesn’t work, you need to move on and try something else.

But remember, you can’t go back.  The clock is ticking, and you can’t afford to waste any time.

- Aaron Brandon

Can you run a multivariate test for a soft drink? 

Yesterday, I came across a product which was obviously running a multivariate test for their product.  But, this wasn’t an online business.  This was a soft drink company.

For a number of years now, I’ve noticed some number and letters under the bottle cap.  Before that company was putting numbers and letters under the cap, they originally had a little message that said something like “free 12oz drink”.  If you won something, you could just take it to the store and get a free drink.  It was a little trick they played.  They did whatever they could do to get you to look under that bottle cap.  For a good reason…  You might have won a free drink!  But lately, I haven’t seen that.  I’m not saying they no longer give away free drinks, but instead, they just show some numbers and letters.

So how the heck is that a multivariate test?

Well, if you think about it, it’s no different than the new feature in MuVar which converts an IP address into an address separated by dashes to make it look more like a coupon code.  You can use that feature with any physical product you sell online through a website.

Of course, MuVar is a bit different because MuVar is using an IP address instead of a pre-made code which is placed on the product itself.  If you were printing your own bar codes, and manufacturing your own physical products instead of using a service, then I don’t see why you couldn’t set it up the same way as the soft drink company I noticed.

So, back to the soft drink.

You see the code under the bottle cap.  Then what?  Well, there are instructions on the bottle label.  It tells you to go to a website where you can enter your code to win rewards.  You sign up, and by the time you’ve entered your code, the company now has all of your contact information as well as the code of the bottle which was presumable purchased.  If they’re using the code for multivariate testing (and I’m only assuming they are, since I don’t work with them) then they now know which bottle label was profitable.

Interesting?

I thought so…

That reminds me.  Another soft drink company likes using quotes on their bottle caps.  While that does keep some people entertained (for like 5 minutes), it probably doesn’t help the company one bit in increasing their profits.

- Aaron Brandon

A friend of mine wants to start up a business.  He told me he’s going to just download a program, learn how to make websites with it, and then he can start up his own web design business.

Sounds pretty simple when put that way.  My nephew, who I sometimes babysit talks that way (very simply).  Since my nephew doesn’t have the largest vocabulary yet, and is 2.5 years old, he speaks in the simplest forms.

My friend has absolutely no experience creating websites.  But he did happen to find a hungry market in his area.  But without the experience of creating websites, how does he plan on pulling it off?

Of course, it’s going to be a much more difficult task than he first imagined.  But there is a way he could make this happen.

He can:

• Learn HTML and graphics design himself

That’s going to take a while.  I’ll just say at least a month for him to learn it.  But even then, he won’t be any expert.  Clients (if he can get any) may be unsatisfied with the work done, and will likely not use his service again.  On the flip side, clients may work him like a dog and he’ll be stuck working a second day job.  Oops!

• Outsource the work to someone else who already knows HTML and graphics design

This would definitely free up some time for him.  Considering that he still has a day job, I think this would be most beneficial to him.  He seems to have enough money for some luxuries (going to night clubs, buying video games) so I’m sure he can find a way to pay a contractor for work.

He can find contractors on a website like craigslist.org or elance.com, and there are plenty of other places to find freelancers.

I’ll monitor his progress over the month and see if he decides to take any action.  I do wish him luck, but wouldn’t be surprised if he were to forget his original plan and jump on something else.

 - Aaron Brandon

The person who sent me a modified receipt during my last special sent me an apology.

He said it was wrong of him, he’s ashamed of his behavior, enjoys reading my blog, is a customer of one of my courses, and said that he needed to read Terry Dean’s Internet Integrity book.

He said he is sorry, and promises not to lie to me in the future, and is asking me to accept his deepest apologies.

What do you think about that?

Currently, I do not have a policy set up for fraudulent behavior.  I have a some options though.

• Do I accept his apology?
• Do I just ban him?
• Or both?

What do you think?

- Aaron Brandon