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

One of my previous j.o.b.’s was working in the refund department for a fortune 500 company.  Most of the time, the job was simple.  Most customers making a return either didn’t like the way the item worked, or there was some defect and they simply needed a replacement.  Detecting fraudulent returns was also part of that job.

The majority of customers making a refund were normal, genuine customers.  However, some were complete idiots, and I have to admit… there were a large number of morons who tried to return items.  Like the time someone tried returning a hair curler in a power drill case, or the time someone tried to return over $1000 dollars of used plumbing parts, or the time someone tried returning a generator after the power was back on after a winter storm.

Of course, you’ll find fraud like that in most places.  Even in an online business.

For example, during the last special I ran, one person thought it would be a good idea to modify his PayPal receipt in order to receive a product of mine.  I didn’t catch on to it right away, but looking at it a little closer, it was pretty obvious he had just changed the date.  I suppose some people just live that way, being fraudsters, hoping nobody will notice.

Unfortunately, there’s no bullet proof method for preventing affiliate fraud.  In fact, James Brausch is actually looking for help on ways to combat affiliate fraud.  He’s even willing to send a gift with a retail value of over $1000 if he decides to incorporate anyone’s idea in his new affiliate management software.  All that’s required is for you to leave a comment on his latest post titled “affiliate fraud” with your idea.

Here’s the link to that blog entry:

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/fighting-affiliate-fraud/

I encourage you to check it out.

- Aaron Brandon

Are you just part of the flock?  Or are you an outcast? 

If you’ve read A New Toy on James blog, this won’t be the first post you’ve read this week mentioning birds.

I just finished the first part of a new book which tells the story about a certain bird, an outcast, who doesn’t enjoy hanging around with the normal flock.  Most of his friends have a routine of flying around fishing boats fighting for scraps of food to eat.  That’s about all they enjoy doing.

But Jonathan (the bird character in the book) would much rather follow his heart and do what he likes to do.  He likes flying fast and high, improving his flying skills, and could care less about being unwanted by the rest of the flock.

Imagine being unwanted just because you’d rather follow your heart.  As you read the book, you’ll feel his pain pass as he finds new friends, and begins living a much more abundant and healthier life.

This book has got to be the easiest book I’ve read in a while.  Well, besides some of the books I’ve recently read to my nephew.  It’s “a story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules”.

The book is called Jonathan Livingston Seagull By Richard Bach.  It’s not new.  It was first published in 1970 (before my time) but this edition of the book was published in 2006.  It includes a lot of seagull photography which would be more appropriate for a child.

I will probably be giving this away to one of my customers as a gift.  But if you do come across it, it’s a good book to pick up.

- Aaron Brandon

There are very few things you shouldn’t leave home without.  But for an online business owner, there is one thing that should be the priority…

It’s a system.

I say that, and it’s a fact, but I admit that I haven’t yet completed it myself.  It was pretty clear no blog entry was posted here yesterday.   Just the thought of a daily blog entry not being posted stayed on my mind, all day yesterday.  I know a procedure that could have solved that for me.  It would have taken a lot off my mind.  This is the procedure that would have helped:

http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00QA2W19

I also just finished reading a great blog entry.  It was more of a survey, and the results (posted in comments) were interesting to look at.  In fact, almost all of the comments made were other online business owners who hadn’t put together their own systems yet.  However, I was really weirded out by one comment.

Apparently, it’s possible to say you’re “not happy”, “happy”, “not satisfied”, “would be happier”, and “happy enough” all in one sentence?  That’s pretty extraordinary actually.

Here’s that blog entry I read:

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/systems/

and a more recent one from today: http://www.jamesbrausch.org/systems-mean-freedom/

- Aaron Brandon

Have you seen James Brausch’s new newsletter called ”Testing”?

I highly recommend you check it out.  It’s a monthly newsletter dedicated to… testing.

If you subscribe to it right now using the link below, I’ll send you my detailed report for MuVar which shows you how to set up multivariate tests for opt-in forms… even on your own blog.

How do you think I’ve been providing the testing data in my protected blog posts recently?  Do you think people value that data?  You bet they do!

But… I’m only willing to offer my report until Sunday at noon, Pacific Standard Time.

I do not sell the MuVar report any other way.  So this is your only chance.

All you need to do in order to receive the report is to forward me your PayPal receipt to [This special has ended] after subscribing to the newsletter, and I’ll send you the link to the report shortly.

Here’s the link to subscribe to the “Testing” newsletter:

http://www.diegonorte.org/testing

- Aaron Brandon

Mark Russell just posted part 3 of his “Internet Business in a Nutshell series.  It’s a great article. 

You can check it out here:

http://www.markdrussell.com/internet-business-in-a-nutshell-part-3-affiliate-marketing

- Aaron Brandon

Check this out:

http://www.stephensblog.com/?p=247

That’s the link to Stephen Dean’s new product called Digital Scarcity.

I’ve already put into action many of the tactics used in his videos. 

They can work tremendously well if used in the right way…

- Aaron Brandon

What if you were to check your e-mail in the morning and see 90 notifications that your blog was submitted to related blogs, and to know that soon down the road, with no effort, you will easily get that many links back to your blog?

Well, that’s what happens to me.  I used to submit to blog carnivals on a regular basis.  It was fairly easy to do when I wrote only a few blog entries per week and up to one a day.  But eventually it becomes a tedious process to do yourself, and that task needs to get outsourced so:

1. you don’t burn out (lose your energy)

2. you don’t become less productive in other important business tasks.

So what do I do?  If you don’t want to submit to blog carnivals yourself, there are a few simple solutions.

The first solution would be to create your own intern program.

The next solution would be to outsource your task to a paid contractor. 

And the final solution would be to pay $100/month for a service which already has interns and contractors submitting blog entries to blogs related to your own on a daily basis.

I’ve done all three of those solutions listed above.  However, I’ve had the most luck using someone else’s service. 

Here’s what I use:

http://www.jamesbrausch.com/services/BlogCarnival/

I highly recommend it.

- Aaron Brandon