What’s a NAMS3 Workshop Minute?

By David Perdew 2 Comments

Whew, I’m about dead to the world here. It’s the end of the first day at NAMS3 – the third episode of the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop we’re holding in Atlanta. It’s been awesome today.

Here’s some numbers:

180 – people attending NAMS3
18 – incredibly gifted instructors
11 – outstanding Aides who are making the workshop run like clockwork
3 – microphones that went bad in the morning, but decided to come back in the afternoon
97 – the price of the http://NAMS4U.com of more than 50 hours of audio from the first three NAMS workshops
1 – the outstanding sales person who will win the grand prize for selling the most copies of the Strategies4SocialMarketing product we’re creating a lunch on Day 2

3 – the number of NAMS3 Workshop Minute videos created and uploaded today.

Check out these short snippets direct from the NAMS3 workshop Friday.

Jeff Herring spills the secret on the key to driving web traffic

Kevin Riley reveals how to make affiliate sales on Twitter

Willie Crawford on immersion approach to Internet Marketing

What’s your big goal?

By David Perdew 1 Comment

What’s your big goal?

Yesterday, in the article about finding your niche, we talked about fun ways of combining your passion with your expertise.

It was fun. The Prosperity Scrabble game was an especially fun way to get the creative juices flowing. I hope you tried that out. And I hope you’re talking to other NAMS members about how it worked for you in the forum.

I hope you felt a little excited and a little uncomfortable as you tried to imagine your passions and your expertise. You should have seen possibilities that you haven’t seen before.

But today, I want to get serious! Real serious. We’ll start with one very important question…

Why in on Earth are you doing this?

What’s the point?

If you just want to make money, go get a job. If you’ve got a job, focus on doing a better job. We love people who do a good job. If it weren’t for those who do their job well, the big ol’ machine we call The Economy would come to a screeching halt.

But why are YOU so focused on building an independent business that may be risky, hard, and even require some investment? It may even require you to fail a little bit. Success is not guaranteed.

Everyone eventually fails. But how you look at it determines your success. (Topic for another day.)

You better have a Big Reason Why (BRW)you’re jumping into this world. Here’s mine above – one of mine. You’ll meet the other when you register at NAMS3 on Friday a.m. She runs the registration desk for me and much, much more.

It’s easy to say, “Well, I want to make money.” Or, “I’d like to quit my job.” Or, “I want to be able to travel.”

AND THEN WHAT?!

Many years ago, when I had a brick and mortar business, I sat with a coach who ask me that question for nearly four hours. I paid him a lot of money to ask me the same question over and over.

If I came up with an answer like:

“I want to make a million dollars.”

He immediately said, “Okay, it’s done. You’ve made a million dollars. And Then What?”

The question is maddening because it forces you to drill down to your core values and find a purpose for your business quest that goes beyond anything you ever dreamed. Sometimes, it can get way out there, but you’re discovering more about you and what’s important to you.

Ask Kathleen Gage, Mark Hendricks, Kevin Riley,Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins, Denise Wakeman, Jeff Herring…anyone who is on our instructor staff what their BRW is and you’ll find that it usually has nothing to do with business or making money. They’ve discovered a way – their business is the tool – for reaching the ultimate core goal.

In the forum yesterday, I posted a link to the Prosperity Scrabble handout. In that same zip file, you’ll find a handout to help you realize your BRW and ask that BIG question:

AND THEN WHAT?

Talk about your results in the forum or below.

With Freemind, organize your business and your life…

By David Perdew 5 Comments

With Freemind, organize your business and your life…

I’m organizationally challenged.

It doesn’t appear that way to friends and colleagues until people get to know me when I reveal “my process” – or lack thereof. Then, they are totally shocked.

The problem is that I don’t think like most people. My mind jumps from thing to thing. I think if they’d known what Attention Deficit Disorder was when I was growing up, I would have been diagnosed. Years ago, I realized that if I didn’t have some method for collecting my thoughts in a non-linear way, I’d lose the ideas. It’s all about the good and bad ideas, right?

As a freelance writer and photographer years ago, I captured ideas on 3×5 cards and kept them in a drawer until I had time to work on them. Often, I couldn’t find the cards, so the ideas were lost.

Freemind software tutorial from Bob The Teacher Jenkins — Traffic Mindmap top level hierarchy

Then someone told me about mindmapping software. “Mindmapping! What a ridiculous concept,” I thought. “How can someone map their mind – and in my case, who would want to.”

Little did I know that mindmapping software would become one of my prime success secrets. But choosing the right mindmapping software can be very tricky and expensive if you’re not careful.

With many mindpmapping software tools available, you can spend anywhere from $47 to $497 on tools such as:

iMindMap
Creately
Inspiration
MAPMYself
MindGenius
MindJet
MindManager
XMind Pro

The key is to get the tool that you need. And if you don’t need something fancy, Freemind – an open source, free mindmapping tool may be exactly what you need.

Mindmapping is not the best descriptor of this tool. Capturing brainstorm is more accurate. Without a tool to structure and focus my tasks, I’m flailing at different things all day because I’m constantly brainstorming.

The central benefit of a mindmap is speed and spontaneity. A mindmap reflects what you think about a single topic, which can focus brainstorming into actionable ideas.

With Freemind, I jot down thoughts, projects, ideas, tasks and rearrange them into coherent step-by-step processes as they gel. Now, I use it for all kinds of activities like:

Personal coaching with my clients: I use it real time to work with clients via a webinar so that we organize and build out the goals and actions live so the client understands exactly what needs to happen before the next session.
Product creation: I outline features of a software or information product before I create it in a Freemind mindmap. Then I have a basic prototype that I can share with my own coach to get additional input.
Process improvement: Everything is a process. Going to the grocery is a process. Some processes need diagrammed and immproved. For example, creating a workshop like the Niche Affiliate Marketing System consists of multiple processes. I mapped each of those in Freemind.

Since I began using Freemind, I have made thousands of dollars both in the corporate world and in my internet business because mindmapping has become my first step. For example, every product I’ve created starts as a mindmap diagram. Each NAMS workshop is a mindmap first.

Every corporate project can exist first as a mindmap. And every person on my corporate team now uses Freemind to “think” outloud.

So, why haven’t I created a product to teach you how to use Freemind (a free mindmapping tool, remember) effectively. The answer is simple: Bob The Teacher Jenkins has already done that.

If you don’t know Bob, he’s a great teacher. In fact, he was a classroom teacher for years until he realized he could teach more people using the Internet to deliver his lesson plans. Lucky for you and me, he’s teaching more than junior high history now.

That’s why I invited him to be an instructor at the Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop in Atlanta.

I went through his training even though I’d been using Freemind for years (and thought I was pretty good at it). Man! I’m glad I did! He showed me tips and tricks that really extended my use of Freemind.

Now, I’m even faster and more efficient in capturing my ideas, but more importantly, I can find those ideas and work on them at will.

So, discover how to use Freemind mindmapping software to make sense of what goes on in your head and improve your productivity at the same time. You’ll be glad you did.

What does Memorial Day mean to you?

By David Perdew Leave a Comment

I hope you’re doing well and looking forward to a beautiful weekend.

It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. – usually recognized as the first true hint of summer. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, it meant fun times ahead.

School was out or soon to be – always worth celebrating.

The public swimming pool in my hometown would open on this weekend and I’d beg my parents to drive me into town so I could meet my friends there – and please, don’t make me take my little brothers, I’d beg.

Boy Scout camp would be in just a few weeks – the two weeks in the woods with my troop seemed like an eternity away from home, but I had so much fun…even with the poison ivy and the chiggers.

And summer baseball – my first love – was in full swing until August when it got so hot, that my wool blend uniform hung on me like a wet blanket. The ball got heavier and heavier as the innings wore on until it felt like throwing a 10-pound weight to the catcher.

The Memorial Day weekend was topped off with a ceremony at the public cemetery where veterans, bent and graying, stood at attention, saluting as a bugler played played taps in honor of those soldiers and sailors who’d fallen in battle years before just as it has been celebrated since the first Memorial Day after the Civil War in 1868.

That part of the weekend took a back seat to the fun I was anticipating as a skinny 12-year old. But my dad – a veteran – dragged the family to the cemetery regularly. I stood quietly and patiently. And after the ringing of the bugle wafted through the trees bringing tears and memories to all, we all walked away solemnly.

Today, Memorial Day means much more to me than just having a good long weekend sharing barbecue with family and friends.

I’m a veteran too – 3 years, 8 months and 13 days in the Air Force during the Vietnam war, although I never traveled beyond Germany in my tour of duty.

When I fly from my home in Alabama to Seattle regularly for business, soldiers returning home for good or for two weeks relief from a tour in Iraq surround me. Often the flight attendants ask that we let them off first when we arrive. Always…always, they are escorted off with gratitude and applause.

While driving into town this morning, I was listening to our new President Barack Obama giving a commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. As he spoke of the new crop of ensigns and lieutenants who had committed their lives to our defense and national service to ensure peace first and national security, he said that they had chosen a life of sacrifice that most Americans can’t imagine.

I got tears in my eyes.

I wasn’t overcome with emotion by the speech nor the man although I admire him greatly, but the sacrifice…and my two boys.

Ryan and Matt in uniform

Matt, 31, is serving his 11th year of service, now stationed in Alaska as a full-time member of the Alaska Air National Guard where he transferred to pursue a commission after 10 years in the U.S. Air Force.

Ryan, 29, is in his third year as a Naval petty officer on a submarine at sea hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean most of the time.

These are my boys – the same boys who celebrated past Memorial Days long ago with soccer tournaments, baseball games and outings to the movie theater for the first of many summer blockbusters with their dad.

These are the same boys who, at times, made me wonder if they’d ever grow up to become responsible contributing citizens; the same boys that brought pride and joy with their sensitivity and devotion to friends, family and each other.

And now they serve selflessly to protect us in any troubling situation – domestic or foreign.

Am I proud? You bet. Never more proud, never more devoted.

So, if you need to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day in this country, think of my boys – Matt and Ryan.

If you served, thank you.

If your father or mother served, hug them.

If you are in another country and you serve the cause of peace worldwide, thank you.

And if you want to share that gratitude with your friends and family, feel free to forward link to them.

Peace & Prosperity!

David Perdew

Keyword Research: New Wordtracker Tool Coming Soon…

By David Perdew Leave a Comment

Wordtracker is about to make things a lot easier…

From their blog:

The new tool will allow you to look at keywords through three important metrics – frequency, competitiveness and commerciality. We believe these three metrics give you the most useful picture of the potential of a keyword, and allow you to uncover profitable keyword niches for your PPC and SEO campaigns.

I can’t wait. Keyword research is murky at its best. But with more information, you will be able to really hone in on the most profitable keywords…and frankly that’s what has to happen some how for you to be successful online.

So, the Wordtracker folks are moving quickly. Already the 800 pound gorilla in the keyword space, they will certainly be the dominant force after this new tool is released. By the way, you may already have access to it if you’re a Wordtracker customer:

Our new tool will fit easily with the work you do, and add to your experience as you find what people are really searching for online.

We’ve given access to the new tool to roughly one third of our customer base and will be contacting everyone else in the next few weeks.

Keep watching this space for more info…