On Sunday, May 27th, 2007 I quit my day job.

The reason for leaving? I need to experience freedom once again. The 9-5 (or 2-10:30pm in my case) work schedule took its toll on me. I knew it would after a while. I can’t seem to work more than 6-8 months without getting bored of what I’m doing.

Some of course will argue that I won’t have enough money to live now - and that I’ll have to just get another job once I’m out of money. No, not this guy. I’m going to be taking serious action to make sure I stay out of that day job BS once and for all.

I know my action plan now, and will follow it.

I do have a disclaimer though, for anyone else thinking about doing such a thing. Before leaving your day job for good, you need to think about the worst case scenario. What will happen if I can no longer afford to pay my bills after several months? What will happen if my internet business doesn’t make enough money? All of this should be planned out before hand.

Many think about the worst case scenario the wrong way. Some will think they’ll just end up in a homeless shelter. The truth is, most of them would likely end up in a friend or relatives household for a set time. Maybe you’ll even end up charging some expenses to a credit card. This is
temporary, and can be easily turned around.

If you want to experience freedom, the book: “The Four Hour Work Week” By Timothy Ferriss is all you really need. I just finished reading the book last night. I know I’ll have to read it again because nobody can simply absorb every piece of information in such a short amount of time.

Need information on how to create a product? The Four Hour Work Week includes that. Want to know where to take the best vacations for a lot less than you ever imagined? Just read the book already. Its got it all.

Recently I ordered 15 books from Amazon. Some of them were novels, and some of the books were informational books. I started reading the first informational book before any of the others came. The book I was looking forward to reading first came later on. The problem I ran into, is once the other book came, I immediately switched over and didn’t finish the first book.

It ended up being a hassle. I don’t really care if I never finish the first book, however, reading two informational books at the same time started mixing the information together.  I just couldn’t remember which book a specific piece of information came from. The other problem was that some of the information from the first book had contradicting information with the second book. I started to get mixed up.

(Online courses can also give you conflicting information, especially when it comes to a topic like search engine optimization.)

So, the second book, “the four hour work week”, I started reading more often. I then got to a point where it told me to read one informational book, and one novel at a time. This was just the kind of advice I needed just then.

So learn from my mistake. Only read one informational book at a time. Read a novel too…they make good bedtime reading.

Last week I ordered about $140 dollars worth of books. I decided to find every book James Brausch mentioned on his blog and buy it on Amazon. I’m receiving about 2 books a day in the mail on average. I love it. I haven’t had a good book to read in a while, so now I’m set. Yesterday, I received The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and Simpleology by Mark Joyner. I’ve already read half of No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy which has been an interesting read so far.

I’ll blog about the books I’ve received once I’ve read them. Maybe I’ll give some of them away to some of my blog readers when I’m done. Okay, it’s reading time.

- Aaron

In a recent article of mine, I wrote what a blog announcement list with a blog broadcast can do to retain your current blog readers. This is vital for your blog or your businesses success if you use a blog as the main website for your business. It’s important to create a list so you can notify your readers when you have new information to share with them.

I’m sure many of you who implemented my Blogcast course have had at least some success. But what if you have a blog and it just doesn’t have many readers? Your announcement list is simply not going to grow quickly. Traffic to your blog is vital if you’re going to get any readers to your blog.

So what can you do to get more visitors to your blog so you can have your favorite blog readers join your blog announcement list? There are several ways actually. Here are a few:

Articles

Using articles is a great way for people to learn about your blog. You need to write an article which is at least 600 words and submit it to ezines or sites which will publish them. I like using Isnare.com if I’m not submitting to ezines.

Commenting On Other Blogs

As a blog writer, you probably visit other blogs similar to your own. Are you leaving comments in their blog entries? If you are, are you using your blogs domain name in the URL field? I recommend you do that whenever you post a comment. The writer may notice your link and add your blog to their list of links. Or, more likely, their readers will see your link and follow it to your blog.

Blog Carnivals

A blog carnival is an event where one blog will host a carnival. During the carnival, they will write a blog entry and will link to several other blogs articles/entries. A carnival will usually happen weekly or monthly, and the carnival will move around from blog to blog. If you just submit one of your latest blog entries (in the form of an article) to several carnivals, you’ll see an increase in the number of visitors and blog readers on your website.

Products

In any of your products, at some point you need to tell your customers were they can find more information about your business. It takes only a few seconds of time to mention your blog or website. “Come visit aaronbrandon.com to learn about more of my products, and stay up to date by simply adding yourself to my blog announcement list.” or something of that nature.

Do you have any more recommendations to get traffic to your blog? This blog entry is open for comments. Feel free to post them below.

I need to add some testimonials for the sales page of my blogcastcourse.

If you purchased my course and found value in it, you can simply use the support e-mail address, or just post a comment to this blog entry.

Thanks!

- Aaron

I don’t even want to know what some people have to go through with their customer support…

My blogcastcourse has a support system set up so customer inquiries can automatically be resolved. I still receive and e-mail when someone does make that inquiry, just to make sure it gave the customer the correct response.

Yesterday, a customer asked for a refund. The product was simply not for him, for various reasons. I instructed the customer to use the support url and ask for a refund there. It simply takes up time I really don’t have to search for a clickbank receipt number and e-mail clickbank for a refund. I don’t even know how, nor do I want to know how.
The customer was not able to follow my instruction. The customer went to the support system, filled out the forms, and in the question box, typed in “refund”.

Now, if you were unsatisfied with a product, and needed a refund, do you simply say “refund” to a customer service rep? I wouldn’t, because it would be rude and probably wouldn’t be understood. I would simply ask “Can I please have a refund?” and it would be over with.

And a bit of advice, never tell someone how to run their business. Also rude.

Ok, that’s the end of my little rant. =)

Ok, I said I was going to show you some of the data from the 24 hour special. Below is a report that I saved from MuVar shortly after the 24 hour special was over. I’ve removed some of the data from the report. I’ve only left in the conversion ratio and the visitor value. I’ve decided not to share specific sales numbers and visitor data from the report.

Variable: Paper

Version: 1 - Standard Paper

Conversion Ratio: 26.32%
Visitor Value: $3.33

Version: 2 - black background - no fake paper - 150 margin

Conversion Ratio: 28.57%
Visitor Value: $6.25

Version: 3 - white background - no fake paper - 150 margin

Conversion Ratio: 24.07%
Visitor Value: $3.89

Version: 4 - dark blue background - no fake paper - 150 margin

Conversion Ratio: 21.31%
Visitor Value: $2.79

Version: 5 - nothing

Conversion Ratio: 35.48%
Visitor Value: $4.84

Variable: HeadlineFormat

Version: 1 - Standard Headline Format

Conversion Ratio: 24.44%
Visitor Value: $2.44

Version: 2 - Small Blue

Conversion Ratio: 25%
Visitor Value: $6.25

Version: 3 - Small Green

Conversion Ratio: 36%
Visitor Value: $6.8

Version: 4 - Large Grey

Conversion Ratio: 31.43%
Visitor Value: $3.14

Version: 5 - Large Dark Red

Conversion Ratio: 34.29%
Visitor Value: $4.57

Version: 6 - Large Dark Green

Conversion Ratio: 22.73%
Visitor Value: $2.27

Version: 7 - Large Dark Blue

Conversion Ratio: 28.57%
Visitor Value: $6

Version: 8 - Large Light Blue

Conversion Ratio: 18.75%
Visitor Value: $4.38

Version: 9 - Nothing

Conversion Ratio: 24.14%
Visitor Value: $2.41

Variable: Headline

Version: 1 - Standard Headline

Conversion Ratio: 19.44%
Visitor Value: $5.28

Version: 2 - Standard Headline 2

Conversion Ratio: 22.22%
Visitor Value: $2.22

Version: 3 - Standard Headline 3

Conversion Ratio: 32.73%
Visitor Value: $3.82

Version: 4 - Standard Headline 4

Conversion Ratio: 20%
Visitor Value: $4

Version: 5 - Nothing

Conversion Ratio: 25.45%
Visitor Value: $2.55

Version: 6 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 29.73%
Visitor Value: $4.05

Version: 7 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 33.33%
Visitor Value: $6.19

Variable: Description

Version: 1 - Standard Description

Conversion Ratio: 22.67%
Visitor Value: $2.8

Version: 2 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 26.73%
Visitor Value: $3.86

Version: 3 - nothing

Conversion Ratio: 30.36%
Visitor Value: $5.09

Variable: Guarantee

Version: 1 - Standard Guarantee

Conversion Ratio: 24.5%
Visitor Value: $3.51

Version: 2 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 29.93%
Visitor Value: $4.67

Variable: Testimonial

Version: 1 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 23.84%
Visitor Value: $4.17

Version: 2 - nothing

Conversion Ratio: 27.22%
Visitor Value: $3.73

Variable: CallToAction

Version: 1 - Standard Call To Action

Conversion Ratio: 26.88%
Visitor Value: $3.44

Version: 2 - Nothing

Conversion Ratio: 23.96%
Visitor Value: $3.65

Version: 3 - jb

Conversion Ratio: 30.3%
Visitor Value: $5.05

Variable: OrderLink

Version: 1 - Standard Order Link

Conversion Ratio: 27.72%
Visitor Value: $3.96

Version: 2 - Standard Order Link 2

Conversion Ratio: 21.92%
Visitor Value: $2.74

Version: 3 - Standard Order Link No Price

Conversion Ratio: 29.06%
Visitor Value: $4.87

Variable: Requirements

Version: 1 - Standard Requirements

Conversion Ratio: 19.3%
Visitor Value: $4.04

Version: 2 - Standard Requirements 2

Conversion Ratio: 24.64%
Visitor Value: $3.62

Version: 3 - Standard Requirements Sentence

Conversion Ratio: 34.95%
Visitor Value: $5.34

Version: 4 - nothing

Conversion Ratio: 22.58%
Visitor Value: $2.26

All of the versions with jb were added by James Brausch himself. You can clearly see on the report that he helped my sales pages conversion ratios…thanks to the magical e-mail address coaching he provides. However, some versions of nothing beat both my copy and his. It would have taken much more work using split testing to know that much. That’s why MuVar comes in handy.

I’m sure many of my blog readers want to know how the release of the BlogCastCourse went. And, I’ll be happy to tell you right now.

It did great!

I think I received about 80 sales in a 48 hour period. Most customers were able to purchase my new course during the 24 hour special for $10, however there were a few who didn’t make it and had to pay the normal price. I imagined that would happen. I also imagined I would get several unsatisfied customers complaining to me that they missed the special and paid too much. I guess I have a horrible imagination because that never happened.

There was one mistake though. While setting up my support software which is programmed to automatically to send customers the order link to their e-mail address, I added the wrong thankyou page into clickbank. I sent my customers to a page which told them to check their e-mail for the product link. The only problem was that no e-mail ever arrived. When my customers tried to reach my support system, it pretty much told them they weren’t customers. Oops! Pretty bad.
That problem was fixed shortly after the 24 hour special had ended.

There was one thing that did work though, even though customers weren’t receiving the product. That one thing was MuVar. The multivariate testing software I was using to grow the conversion rates of the blogcastcourse sales page. Because the sales were registering after a customer had been through the order link, MuVar was there to record that data.

During the 24 hour special, James decided to check out the stats on MuVar. You can see the post he wrote during that time here: Short Copy Rocks And Other Heresies.

Those were preliminary results though. The data probably did change a bit by the end of the special. However, the nothingness variable still was a winner in many parts of the sales page…believe it or not. Do you want to see the data? Stay tuned for tomorrows posts. It should be interesting.

When was the last time you decided to make life easier for yourself? That’s a tough challenge many people face. Our lives are so full, so busy, that we just simply forget that it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to do most of the things you do.

You don’t have to:

1. Pay bills when they arrive in the mail
2. Vacuum your floors
3. Wash the dishes
4. Mow your lawn

However, many people will say that if you don’t do these things, you’re just lazy, your house will be a mess, your yard will be overgrown…But I’m not saying they can’t be done. Many people simply can’t understand this concept.

All of the above tasks can be easily done by others. In other words, the can be automated.

1. Online Bill Pay
2. House Cleaner
3. Dishwater/House Cleaner
4. Gardener

My mentor James Brausch knows this already. He even uses an iRobot Roomba to vacuum his log cabin in the middle of nowhere. He only works three hours a day, and only four days a week. The rest of his time/life is spent with his family. He’s pretty fortunate to have that kind of freedom.

You can have that freedom too. Why not just ask James how he does it? He’s a lot more successful at it than I am. Right now, he’s doing a question time on his blog about Life/Time Management.

Here’s how you can ask him a question:

Write a blog post – if you don’t have a blog yet, go get one by going to Blogger.com, or you can use the course I’ve just created called http://www.blogcastcourse.com

In the blog entry, simply write as many questions for James about Time/Life Management as you would like to see answered. Then, add this hyperlink to your post: http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=629

It has to be a one line question though…follow the link above and you’ll see the full guidelines for asking a question.

That’s it!

Now, for my questions:

1. What is your method of scheduling important events into your life?
2. What do you do to make sure nobody is wasting your time/life?
3. How do you prevent 98%ers from wasting your time/life?
4. How many times a day do I have to brush my teeth before I’m wasting my time/life?

It’s been a while since James had his last question time at his blog. I think they appeared more often when he had a new product to release, and had the ability for users to comment on his blog. The last few question times didn’t get much attention, probably because people have to actually take some action on their own blog and post a trackback. The question times are always my favorite entries at his blog. It’s an easy way to get your question answered if you can’t afford to get your questions answered by James personally through the Magical E-mail Address program.

James just posted a blog entry asking what kind of a question time you would like to see on his blog tomorrow. I have some of my own questions I would like to ask about MuVar, even though I know I can ask him through the e-mail address. The thing is, he doesn’t work on his internet business again until Monday, so it doesn’t matter whether I e-mail him personally, or post a trackback to his question time…they’ll just get answered at the same time if he goes through with this question time.

Do you have a question about MuVar too? Do you have a question about Glyphius, or anything else that relates to an internet business? If so, help James and post a trackback to http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=625 with your blog. Maybe you even have a question about blog announcement lists? He can answer questions about that in a question time blog entry as well.  But you have to let him know or he probably will just ignore a question time all together.

Thanks for the help, =)

Aaron

It has now been 24 hours since the special started. I have raised the price for the Blogcast Course to $50. You can still purchase this course at http://www.blogcastcourse.com. I have added a link to the right side of this page. Thanks for all of those who have ordered. I can’t wait to hear your feedback!

The 24 hour special for http://www.BlogCastCourse.com for $10 is ending in just a few hours (11am PST which is GMT-8).

After it’s over, the price will go up to $50.

I have already received a number of e-mails with positive feedback. Thanks! I would like to get even more. I will add your testimonial on my sales page if you give me permission.
- Aaron

As you may have heard, James Brausch has released my product as a 24 hour special on his blog: http://www.JamesBrausch.com

While he was helping me out by offering my course for $10, I was at work. I was hoping to get home from work and see that everything had gone smooth. Unfortunately, the ClickBank data wasn’t getting sent to the support system which caused a massive flood of customer support e-mails into my inbox. Nobody received the link to my course videos. When I got back from work, I immediately imported all my customers order data into the support system manually, so if you have not received an e-mail from me with the order link, just go to http://www.blogcastcourse.com/support/, fill out all the forms, and ask for the product link in the question box.

I have finished creating my new course. I have finished adding variables. I’ve had an expert copywriter insert his own copy into MuVar. My clickbank account has been approved. My product is just about ready for its release. I imagine I’ll have it ready by tomorrow (Wednesday) or even Thursday.

If you would like to be the first to know about its release, and would like to be able to get my product for a very special price as a blog reader, just make sure you’re on my blog announcement list (the web form on the right side of this page). You will receive an e-mail notification when the special has started. The general public special price will be higher than those who are on my announcement list.