Ready, Steady … Take your positions.
Well yesterday I said I was going to put up a bit of a controversial post and here it is. You see, it looks as though that amongst the Fortunate 500 there are only about half of those that have chosen to go down the recommended route of creating a blog (BIG, BIG mistake for those that haven’t as they have totally missed the main benefit of the Alex Jeffreys Coaching Course and the social media aspect of it. But that’s a discussion for another time and not the purpose of this post. They will fail, strong words I know, but sorry you will or at the very least not maximise your potential).
But what about the other half? How can I best serve them on this Blog? Well, right from day-1 I have maintained a student Blogroll on my site. At the start it differentiated me from many of the other student blogs that started to pop up because I made sure it grew and grew as new people came along. As a consequence people came to my site because they knew they could navigate to all the other ‘known’ students, Hey, even Alex Jeffreys himself has said on many occasions that he visits my site everyday for that very reason. The point is a Student Blogroll is useful, but as you know a few weeks ago it became impractical to have new entries added to the Blogroll in the left-hand side bar and thus I started an ‘overflow’ Blogroll on a separate page. Obviously, this doesn’t have the prominence of been on the front page but it was the most practical thing I could think of to do.
Now the time has come to put in place a system to allow ‘promotion’ and ‘relegation’ between the eminence of a front page position to that of the overflow page. Until now it has been on a first-come, first-served basis. You see, I want to make this site as useful and practical for all visitors and part of this is ensuring that the most useful links (those that offer valuable content and contribution to the community) are placed on the front page for easy access.
So I haven’t decided exactly how many I am going to have on the front page and would appreciate some feedback. My thinking at the moment is between 25-50 students. If I go for the larger figure I may even have some sort of star-rating system or highlight the best-of-the-best in red for example. So what do I want you to do? Well, obviously I have to decide who goes where. So here’s your opportunity to persuade me, plead with me, bribe me, lol
Contribute to this post and let me know where you deserve to be? What great posts have you added to the community? Have you helped others out or have you struggled initially and your contribution to the ‘peeps’ has been by asking questions? Or would you like to recommend someone else who has really gone out of their way to make a worthwhile contribution? If you started late, then don’t worry I will take this into account. In fact, there are already a few new individuals who have only got there blogs off the ground in the last few days or so (certainly less than a week) and who are already making there presence felt.
So come on do a sales pitch for yourself (okay – just a line then if you want!) or make some generous recommendations for others that you absolutely want to see on that front page. So don’t be shy, let’s hear from you and remember the all important positioning is crucial within the Internet community and having a link on my front page plays an important part in that.
Happy Christmas to you, your families and close ones.
PS. If you haven’t got your Blog up yet then I can still get you up and running in just a few hours for FREE!!
Filed under: Alex Jeffreys
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Garry,
You should go with what makes sense to you. If I’m first on your list, or 499th – it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. All I try to do at MY site, is provide useful, quality content with a bit of humor thrown in. I’ll leave it up to other people to tell me whether what I’m providing is of value.
Have I helped people? Yes, I enjoy helping people where/when I can. Do I want recognition for my efforts ? No — I ‘know’ when I’ve helped someone..it’s internal recognition.
We are all feeling our way. Some are farther along than others. For me, I have a heaping plate of tasks to accomplish. Right now, trying to figure out how best to implement a blogroll that recognizes those who post, while not offending any of the others who would like to post but don’t have the time — well, I’ll put that one on the back burner.
It is not my intention to alienate anyone or in any way throw cold water on the blogroll dilemma that you face.
I say go with your gut – I’m sure people will let you know soon enough whether you’ve implemented the popular solution.
That being said, you are a tremendous contributor to this group – I know it and
so does everyone else. Deep down, YOU should feel ok with yourself, my friend !
Cheers,
Dan
Hi Garry,
Wow, It took me forever to read through all of these comments. I’d like to put everyone’s mind at rest about the potential Google problems with the blog roll.
After Joe brought up the issue on the brainstorming session the other day, I posted a solution on my blog with a little video on how to implement it.
http://www.jtmartin.net/how-to-videos/alex-jeffreys-coaching-students-your-answer-to-the-blog-roll-issue.php
All we have to do is append the “nofollow” attribute to your blog roll links. This is easily done with a plugin. I have been doing it from the beginning to keep from “leaking” page rank.
Whether Google will “slap” us or not, only Google and God knows, but it is best to be cautious because the Google Gods are unforgiving.
The whole idea behind a blog roll is to provide links to websites that you feel are excellent resources that will help your readers. I see nothing wrong with rewarding the students that contribute the most with prime real estate.
Well established blogs charge a monthly fee for front page space. There are certainly students that have gone out of their way to contribute and I also realize that there are many who are pressed for time.
The truth is that the students that go the “extra mile” are the ones that are most likely to have the greatest results.
250 people is a large number and I can already see small groups forming which is only human nature. If you are going to go with an “A” list as Gary “I always put my last name in caps” Simpson is, then you make the decision on who has made the most contributions to your blog.
We are all very early on in this adventure so the people who are just getting their blogs up need not be discouraged but should also be aware that they have some catching up to do.
I myself got here to comment on this thread pretty late because I have had family in town for the holidays and that is number one priority for me.
Garry, I have to hand it to you. You have come up with yet another comment pulling thread that is sure to add a nice little spike to your Google analytics
I was watching Mike Filsaime speak at a live event and he said something to the effect that “whoever is first to market reaps the biggest rewards”.
By being the first with the student blog roll, you have positioned yourself as the “authority” blog amongst Alex’s students. Even Alex comes here to see what is going on.
I think you are probably a shoe in for the traffic contest and all of the “late starters” should take notice of the methods you are using.
Shoot me an email about possible topics you would like me write about in the next newsletter. I have had a lot of feed back from people wanting to know about how to put a video on their blog although I have done a video about it and I know you have too.
Catch you later,
JT
Joe Truman spent the whole day helping me on my blog, and, with his, super attitude and generous support, I want to recommend him for your front page listing.
He really has adopted the “Spirit of Alex”.
Dan
Hi Gary,
I fall into the category of asking questions that hopefully help others.
In the long term, why are visitors going to click on the links in the blog roll? Will it be a fellow student or new student in the next coaching course looking for someone in particular? Or, is there a way to highlight someone who is offering something very special?
When I click off someone’s site it is through the comments because they wrote something that helped me or said something very interesting and I wanted to learn more from them.
Joe Truman, JT, Dean Holland, Mark Austin, Dean Hohn, Nigel Yip, Debbie Foster, Thomas Northrop, Gary Simpson, Martin Lodey have all been very helpful and I think deserve to be on your front page.
Garry, you are an inspiration. Thank you for all your efforts to create a very useful resource.
All the best,
Theresa
Hi Folks,
Thanks for all your contributions. Taking quite some time to read through them all. I’m still not able to spend much time during this holiday season to do ‘Internet’ stuff due to the revelation I made in my prior post “Win the Traffic Competition” but it really is nice when I pop back now and again to have so many usefully comments to read.
>Wendy – welcome newbie
appreciate all comments here as all experience levels have something to contribute and different angles to view things from. I’ve dropped a comment on your blog too.
>Anthony – I personally think it would be a mistake to totally remove the blogroll. I think a combination of some of the things mentioned already would be a better approach. And yes, I’m getting hit with spam – think it is a hazard of doing business online and I just delete it.
>Colin/JT – Can someone explain this “nofollow” on links? What is it exactly? If you read Austin’s post here http://nicheweapons.com/dofollow-blogs/ it seems to me that the exact opposite seems useful. Help, I don’t understand all this ?????
And how do I check my Page Rank in Google? And Colin how’s the “BlogFu” ebook coming along – let me know when it’s ready and I’ll give it a mention here? Wonderful title, folks don’t you think?
>Denis – Your “Exiting News” – I’ll have to check it out later as like I say time limited at the moment, and it will take me sometime to digest all you say!
>JJ & Jason – Comment added over on your site (but whoops looks like I pressed submit twice on it, so sorry about the duplicate)!! I agree with what you say about people adding value when they are posting on their own sites plus commenting on others is the best way to go – Rather than just saying “Please add me to your Blogroll” and that is it!!
In fact it is worse than that!! I’m going to go into a bit of a rant here, but I need to get it off my chest. I have people who repeated comment saying “Please add me to your blogroll” then the following day, do exactly the same thing. In some cases they then go on to email me direct asking, no demanding sometimes (I kid you not), why I haven’t added them to my Blogroll yet. Now the frustrating thing here is I do all this freely and it takes a considerable amount of time to maintain the Blogroll and I don’t ask for a reciprocal link in return, that is for each individual to decide and do if and when they choose to. The last update at the weekend took me over 3 hours to add the outstanding entries to my ‘overflow’ page. Hence why I instigated the system where I will do block updates at regular intervals now when a backlog has built up as it is a more efficient use of my time. But they ignore this and want to get on immediately and then will email me (which I have stated repeatedly that I will not answer email support questions direct due to the reasons I have stated before). All of this protocol about the blogroll and emails I have reiterated on numerous occasions. And it is on my FAQ page as well. The only thing I can conclude is that these people only give a cursory glance to what is written which is frustrating to say the least but they obviously miss out on loads of other more useful information as well. They also miss the ethos of what Alex promotes – think about giving rather than the receiving first! Anyway rant over, I know I am not the only one to experience this as others have mentioned it on their own blogs but it is still a little surprising that after so long people do this and on top of that compound the ‘error’ by emailing for support as well. Unfortunately, I just ignore it now as there is only so much I can do in a day.
>Nikki – the kind words are deserved and no worries about talking to Gaz-man here. I think he feels a bit lonely if he ventures outside Gary-land and people ignore him, LOL! He got a bit of an inferiority complex with his avatar but his therapy classes have helped him no end!!
As for Austin Delaney’s excellent link I think there is an issue with the way it is compiled and it is missing stuff off at the moment. I have highlighted the issue with Austin and hopefully he can get to the bottom of it.
>Gary – You’re a bit slow on the avatars Mate – they’ve been
In fact, I think I’m going to start a campaign – bring back the dweeb, stuff the Blogroll this is far more important!!
enabled on my site for weeks. Ever since you were allocated that blue spindly dweeb thing as you affectionately call it. I think it looks better than the current pic
Right caught up to comment 41. Have to respond to the rest later !!
Gary,
This is your blog and you should do what ever makes sense to you. Your blog will eventually be seen by lot more people not in this program than who are. Those are the ones that will grow your business.
I think you may have started what was going to happen sooner or later anyway. This coaching group will break up into small groups and these groups will hopefully pair up into some great and prosperous jv’s.
You know that people all have there own talents and there own way of doing things. And they may not be inclined to blog. I put up a blog because Alex suggested it to us so we could network and help each other. And I thought I could really help out. Some people are not going to build a blog no matter what you do.
You have offered to install there blogs for them and they still do not have one up. I have uploaded over one hundred videos for this group to learn from and not very many people have been over there. There so many people in this group that have stopped working on there business when Alex slowed the training down and offered to help everyone they could to catch them up. I even sent an offer to the help desk offering my help. No response.
Gary you are very talented in creating buss on your blog and I enjoy reading all the post. However I am not very good at expressing myself so I tend to not say much. That does not mean I don’t want to be a part of all the excitement that goes on over here because I do. I just don’t have the gift to gab.
If you are a student that does not have a blog yet or is not going to put one up don’t let Gary’s post turn you away. I know when I first read it I had a feeling that Gary was saying you are in or you are out. After I had time to think about it and since I have been reading his blog from early on I think he is just trying to to tell us to get busy and be a part of all this. And maybe by offering to keep your link on the front page of a high traffic blog would be a good way to do it.
Having a blogroll is very controversial in regards to SEO. I think if you want to be on the first page of Google for the competitive keywords in this niche you probably don’t want a blogroll unless it is two way links if then. If you are going to drive traffic other than Google than by all means set one up. It will help you get traffic from the other students and you will also be sending traffic to them.
I think it is just a personal preference and everyone will do what they think is best for them. Dean Holland does not have a blogroll and is getting a good amount of traffic. It all depends on what you are good at and doing that. I am not good at talking and have always seemed to say things wrong when I do.
For example on the brainstorming session the conversation came to having time to go around and post all the time. I typed in comment box and told Alex That I work 10 hours a day and drove over one hour one way to get there. And is a true statement. I sent that part fist and then sent the follow up comment about how I do a couple of things a day and am further ahead than many. But I think Alex only saw the first part and may have come across and complaining? That is why I keep my mouth shut most of the time.
Gary I hope you understand where I am coming from and don’t take it the wrong way. There are lots of us that are not real sure about this social media stuff. I have not set up a Twitter account yet because I afraid I would end up being a twit before it is over.
Thank you Gary for helping everyone and generating the excitement in this coaching program. I know I enjoy it and have learned a few things along the way from you.
If you set up a star system I hope you are open minded when you set your criteria for being on the front page of your blog. Otherwise most of us are doomed from the start. Ok you have done it again and now I will have to come back to see how you do it. Maybe it’s what your doing I should pay attention to not what you are saying.
David Smith
http://www.anotherdavidsmith.com
Hi Garry,
You raise valid points, as have many of those who left comments. I’ve also been frustrated by what to do about the blogroll.
After reading Joe Trueman’s post, I’ve been tempted to pull my whole blogroll down, and create a separate page, like others have done.
With everything else that needs to be done, I’m finding time is my worst enemy. This is not the only project I have, and trying to visit each student’s blog even to post one initial comment is becoming increasingly more difficult.
To get through 500 blogs even once will take a couple of months or more, never mind trying to revisit and make follow up comments, or see additional comments on blogs I’ve already visited. It becomes nearly a full time job.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I know I haven’t found a suitable solution.
In fact, I’m not even sure I understand the point of visiting every blog and posting their links on a blogroll.
They get no link love passed on…the comments get no link love passed on…and if we’re trying to build traffic, surely we want more than just the students in the coaching program.
I can’t even imagine how those still working an outside ‘regular’ job are doing it, unless maybe it’s the only thing they have to work on.
Hopefully someone can help me understand how all this (what I perceive to be) “busy” work is helping, and what we hope to accomplish by doing it.
I apologize if this comes across as negative…it’s not my intention. But I feel like the only traffic and comments I’m seeing are from other students, and while that’s certainly welcome, I’m not finding much time to do anything towards developing a list or driving ‘outside’ traffic to my blog.
And isn’t that the primary reason Alex told us to start by creating a blog?
Still hoping to find an answer,
Honey
Wow David,
I just had to respond to your post the instant I read it. It is one of the best posts I have read on my entire site. No kidding. Full of useful feedback and value for others to read. “NOT VERY GOOD AT EXPRESING YOURSELF” – David, David David ….You are totally underselling yourself in a BIG way. I cannot believe you think that way. What you have said and the way you have expressed it is brilliant. You have a certain knack believe me and you’ve got to believe that. Please, please all the other readers tell David that he has a talent. Hopefully the more people that tell him, the more he will believe, because he is a definite giver in a big way – 100 tutorial videos !!!
Now, David may I suggest where I think you are going wrong though. Now if I had 100 Videos I would be screaming and shouting about it at every opportunity, but this is the first I have heard about it. Now, I know I have been extremely busy with the recent release of my Newsletter so maybe I missed you promoting it but I tried to keep abreast of things. If you did promote it you need to do it in a better way. Also, just been across to your blog and to be honest I struggled a bit in locating them and had to search about a bit. The point here; you have created unbelievable value here for the other students but you have them hidden away and not really advertised them thoroughly enough (or if it all) on the student blogs. You could have the best product in the world but if no one knows about it, nobody will be able to use it. Folks this is where the videos can be found http://www.101marketingvideos.com/ but David you need to have a link back to your blog so people can easily comment.
I hope you don’t mind me saying but you definitely need to improve on the marketing front. What you have to say is fine – more than fine, your words are great – but you need to get your message out more. As you say, some people will not do anything even if you ‘lay it out on plate for them’. Like you say, I offer to do FREE Blog installations and yet over 250 still do not have a blog. You need to take that message to heart and realise that though you have these great videos it is not enough on its own – you virtually have to kick a*ses to get people to look at them. I know it sounds bizarre, but that is human nature.
This leads me to your reference to my post about ‘turning people away’ if they haven’t got there blogs up and running. This could not be further away from the truth. Think about it, there are more than 250 people who have not passed the first hurdle on Alex’s Coaching Course and we are now over a month into it. It was my attempt to jolt these people into action – to give them the kick up the back-side. Quite honestly, I stick by my statement; if after all Alex’s efforts and all the other Students they have not even got to first-base or decided to do their own thing, rather than copy the model offered by a mentor then they are doomed to failure or at the very least will not maximise the full benefit of what Alex teaches. And regarding Social Media, a lot of it is gobble-de-gook to me too, but if someone successful is telling me to do it (Alex)
I worry about the understanding bit later. I hope these 250 and not using excuses like this for not getting on board, because that’s all they are excuses. By the time they’ve worked it all out they are years behind and something new will have come along. I’ll put it another way – who as the most chance of success these non-active 250 who makes NO MISTAKES or the active 250 who make loads of mistakes everyday???? The answer to that will tell all those who are reading which camp you should be in. I sincerely hope that I have made some of these inactive-250 sit up and take note – even get a little angry as I fear that is the only way they are ever going to be jolted into action – when the mirror is turned on them enough times that they run out of excuses and see the real cause of there lack of success. Only then do they have a chance. I hope I bring that time closer for those that read these words. This is sincerely written from the heart with passion and determination, but theses are qualities that must be ignited in very single one of us, I just hope that I provide the ‘spark’ to start some of these inactive people and inspire others as well onto greater things. In the end it will benefit us all.
David, in the end I take nothing you have said the wrong way, in fact I welcome it. I hope others reading this do not take what I say the wrong way, if they do and conclude all I am doing is trying to alienate these inactive-250 then I urge you to read again my words as I hope that the opposite is true – they become part of the growing family of Alex Jeffreys’ students.
I hope I am not fighting a lost cause.
OH MY GOD!
This just took me half an hour even to READ and there are so many excellent points made by so many people. So, I am just gonna be real brief – ha , ha!
@ Gazza – Jeez, man, you have caught it. I have INFECTED you. You are now verbose, prolix, oratory, rantish and downright wordy. You are now at a whole new level! LOL
@ Nix – Mike Dooley may have said that but I still remember Bob Proctor hammering the point home that “thoughts ARE things” in his “You Were Born Rich” seminar that I have been to TWICE – the second time because it was so good the first time.
@JT – man… one R and changing my surname to all caps because it is obvious to me (and to Parkesy) that so many people are “doppelganging” us – ie they think we are ghostly images of one another. That is why I do that and also why I have “Gravatared up!” As usual you have a great solution for the dilemma on blogeroos.
@Dave Everett – I think Parkesy can make that statement because it has been well publicised by Alex that there were 500 people sign up for the course. But I DEFINITELY agree with you when you said… “we are becoming an almost incestuous group.” Very true. That is why I am gonna bust out soon and “spread my wings.”
@David Smith – I can’t agree with Parkesy more! …Dave! Your words were most eloquent. Where you been dude? You have over 100 videos uploaded? HUH? How come I didn’t know and Parkesy didn’t know? I reckon nobody knew. But NOW we do. 100 videos! WOW! Have you catalogued them? Smithy… prepare yourself for a flood of visitors!
Oh dear. Too many comments. I just picked the eyes out of this lot. Well said everybody!
Gary (just for you this time JT) SIMPSON
http://motivationselfesteem.com/talk/
—–
>Colin/JT – Can someone explain this “nofollow” on links? What is it exactly? If you read Austin’s post here http://nicheweapons.com/dofollow-blogs/ it seems to me that the exact opposite seems useful. Help, I don’t understand all this ?????
—–
Nofollow tags are really just a means for a webmaster to control how their pagerank is spread but restricting the google spider from following links or pages with the nofollow tag used.
So by placing this tag on links in your blogroll, you are telling the google spider not to crawl them.
As opposed to dofollow which the spider would crawl.
So why would you want to use this tag? Either to prevent the spider from spreading your pagerank to specific pages that do not need it. For example, if you say has a privacy page, terms of service page or even your wp-login.php page. By doing so, more of your pagerank will be focused better on the pages that you want to have your pagerank on.
The syntax for implementing this tag on links for reference would be:
anchor text
—–
And how do I check my Page Rank in Google? And Colin how’s the “BlogFu” ebook coming along – let me know when it’s ready and I’ll give it a mention here? Wonderful title, folks don’t you think?
—–
If you are using Firefox for your default browser, there is a toolbar extension you can download and add to your browser which would display this information for each page you visit.
http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/
Alternatively there is also the same thing for Internet Explorer:
http://toolbar.google.com/T5/intl/en/features.html
Appreciate the ebook plug. I’m looking to finish it by tomorrow – Working on it right now actually, but i will let you know so you can browse it and determine whether or not it’d make a suitable recommendation for your readers.
Colin
http://www.marketingwithcolin.com
Hello Gary,
Here is a Christmas Present for you and all of Alex’s students
I just spent the last two days writing and mapping out how to get free traffic to your website or blog within days. I have actually showed Alex’s students and my friends one of the techniques I use to get over 1000 + unique visitors a day to my car audio site for the last 4 years. I also show how they can get listed on the first page of Google within days. These are proven tested white hat strategies. I hope you like the post.
Vince Craine
http://www.vincecraine.com/blog
Hey There Garry!!
Now I see why your getting all the wonderful publicity from Alex.
This is a wonderful blog I wish you all the success that life has to offer.
I have added you to my new blogroll and will be looking forward to reading much more from you in the near future!
Kathy Baka
Hey Garry,
First things first. David Smith, what are you talking about? I agree with everything you said except one thing. I think you express yourself perfectly. And as far as those 100 videos you created, I never heard about them. Maybe I missed it. I guarantee as soon as I’m finished here I will be at your blog.
Garry, I believe I have a way for you to decide who get’s on your front page.
I’ve installed on my blog a WordPress widget called Top Commentators. You won’t need to use the nofollow attribute and that way you can pass along some link love to some of your fellow students. Basically what it does is it posts the names of the people who post the most comments on your blog. I’ve set mine up to show by the month but you can chose whatever you want.
It’s simple. Just take the top 10, 25 or 50 people that leave comments on your blog and post them on your front page. I won’t drag this out like I did on Joe Trueman’s blog. Just go to my blog and see what I’ve done. Look on the right sidebar for “The Elite Five” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
My blog can be found at http://budurl.com/66yp
Download Top Commentators widget at http://budurl.com/duvb
Another quick note. WordPress by default assigns the nofollow attribute to all comments. I explain more about this on my blog at the link I provided above.
As far as pleading my case to be on your front page. If I don’t visit your blog enough and leave valuable content then I don’t deserve to be on the front page. I believe the way this game works is you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
Basically I’m not worried about it.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
its just taken me 45 mins to get to where i am right now lol
theres some interesting things being talked about especially about the google issue. I wouldnt like to say what could, might or will happen but i guess the best person to get some advice on this issue is alex.
i have added quite a few of you guys to my blog roll already and im slowly getting around to all of u but it will take time
I would be very very interested to find out if any of you are feeling confident about winning the competition!!!
and it would be cool to find out what your best day is on your blogs for getting traffic
mine is just over 100 unique visitors in 1 day
does anyone know when the next call is going to be??
keep up the great work
paul
Gary you are not fighting a lost cause. Your response to my comment has got me over to Twitter and I set up an account. Now I am ready to be stalked or is it followed?
You have made me decide to just do as I am told and try to post any where I see someone needing help.
Thanks for the encouragement.
David
Hi Garry
Perhaps the answer to your dilemma lays in creating drop down links. You could have something like ‘a – d’, ‘e – h’, type set up, running through the alphabet so that when visitor click on a specific link associated with that part of the menu they would be able to view students whose names fall into that category.
At the end of the day Garry, your blog is your shop front and so you should be displaying your wares for sale……. not neccesarily student names.
Gary Simpson, as always had a valid point when he said that many students visit once, request to be added to the blogroll and then they are never heard of or seen again. The point of being added to a blogroll is reciprocal linking to build rankings, but it’s possible that many students don’t fully understand this.
In all fairness it could also be that because our blogrolls are so big many students have not worked out a suitable approach so that they can visit all blogs.
In an effort to overcome this I began a strategy wherey I visit x amount of students each day and then work through my blogroll over the course of a week……still tough even doing that from a time point of view.
I noticed that there are a hand ful where I particulary learn vaulable lessons, so I return to those ones repeatedly for the specific purpose of learning.
Now, those things said, your focus is on creating a profit for you and your family, so anything that will do that should be on the front page with all other things categorised and listed accordingly.
As for your profit pulling project and your list builder……that should be on every page so no matter what page a browser is on they have the opportunity to do one of two things:
opt-in to a list
or opt-in to a list for the specific purpose of purchasing a product.
If you take a look at my site, you will notice that no matter what page you visit, the browser has the opportunity to opt-in to any of my products displayed through either the top navigation bar or through the left hand side where each individual product is advertised.
Garry, at the end of the day the reality is that even though your blogroll is so big mate, you have got to focus on
“how is this going to improve my bottom line”.
Is this student, the least amount of trouble for the most return”.
“what returns will I or am I gettng from this student?”
“What could be the potential life time value of this student”.
“Do I see myself doing a joint venture at some point with this student”.
It’s all about business Garry. Remember, your blog is is your store front, so prioritise your items for sale and display them accordingly.
Take care Mate. I look foward to the next edition of your Newsletter.
See Ya
Coleen
ps. on that note: it would make sense to have your contributors listed separately along side your newsletter advertisement as direct associating contributors to your newsletter.
Garry my man…
I don’t think these students should be worried about where they get placed. I’ve been on page two since I was added and I have received referrals from your site!
THANK YOU… I don’t really care where you put me. I’m thrilled to be a link on your blog.
Set it up according to how you benefit the most. If the rest of us have something worthy to contribute, the outsiders (and insiders) will find us no matter where you put us.
It is very thoughtful of you to try and make it more fair. But in the end, having students jockey for the front page will create constant activity which is good for business (traffic).
And quite honestly, it’ll be fun. Everyone NEEDS to realize that you’re offering us a chance to be active. This is not a high school click. It’s an opportunity to be involved with a group of like minded people.
Some of which are more sophisticated with the internet than others… I am an other. And I welcome the challenge you give me.
In the meantime, I am putting together a student directory for outsourcing. Garry, I know you do the hosting and can set up blogs and the PPP. Is there anything else I should note about you?
If anyone provides a service, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Mrs Renee Olson
http://www.marketingwithrenee.com
Hi Garry,
Just got back on the computer after spending a few days with the family, I hope you had a good holiday too.
I’d obviously love to keep my position on your list, and I’d like to think I’ve helped fellow students from the start with my blog and comments.
Whatever system you come up with I’m sure will be acceptable to everyone. As we all branch out and increase our traffic sources, your blog will become one of many sources for us all.
Looking forward to the next newsletter mate.
Cheers,
Carl.
>Dave – Sorry Dave, guess you missed one of the calls with Alex – he stated himself there are 500 on the course. The ‘Fortunate 500′ is not just a number I picked out of the air, in fact that term, the ‘Fortunate 500′ is something somebody else coined and I like it to use it often. (Can someone remind me who it was as I must have lost some notes somewhere?)
>Vince – I’m definitely going to check out how you have managed to generate so much great traffic over the course of 4 years. Just had a look at your site and can see you have a totally different approach to the Blogroll problem – cut it off after the letter ‘D’ !! – certainly a novel approach – one the Aarons, Bens, Chriss and Daves will love though I’m sure you won’t win too many fans with the letter E to Z, LOL!
>Kathy – Yeah, ‘all the wonderful publicity from Alex’ is great – but it is a two edged sword. Each time he recommends my site I get an influx of visitors and invariably more work to do!! It’s a nice problem to have though
>David – That’s great. I love it when I’ve inspired someone to take action. It really feels good to know that my words have been read and somebody has done something as a consequence. But friend, you definitely deserve credit as you are a true giver – 100 Videos – I’m still staggered by that. Like I say some (all) of the most active members in this community knew nothing of this as reinforced by Gary Simpson’s comments. You need to start addressing that and the fact that it has been drawn to people’s attention here is a start but not the end of it. Keep up the great work and tell everyone about it. Stick with Twitter – it still confuses me but is something I will continue to dabble with.
>Coleen – A lot to think about in your post. Over the last couple of days I have begun to think along many of the same lines and am close to deciding the way forward with not just the Blogroll, but many things as a direct result of the feedback on this thread. BTW, just got your email – wonderful – I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, though out visiting friends for rest of today. Still in Christmas mode in our household.
>Renee – Glad to see you are getting traffic direct from my site, even though you are on the ‘overflow’ page. In the end, I think if you add value on your own site and/or for newbies get involved by asking questions you are adding value. I think this is something the newbies overlook. There contribution is asking questions. For every 1 person that asks a question there are at least 10 others that wanted to ask it but for whatever reason don’t. So any answers posted back helps not just the individual that asks it but a whole array of other people as well. This leads me on nicely to the question you ask of me – what do I offer (I like the way you turned that around on me
)? I would hope that the way people have seen this blog develop it has turned into a key hub or focal point for people asking questions or getting there messages out there known to all. I try to answers all questions as time permits, or if I can’t manage it there are other students who visit here who help by posting advice here too. So my service or my contribution is my Blog! Obviously, I also think the “Profit Pulling Project” newsletter will build into a key resource for everyone to refer to as well.
>Everyone – Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback in the way forward with the Blogroll issue. I have virtually decided what I will be doing; a combination of various techniques based around finding some useful plugins (that work!) to help me out. I notice in all of the constructive feedback that one thing has got ‘lost’ to a large extent – Recommendations. In the spirit of what Alex promotes – one of giving rather than receiving – what other students’ do you personally recommend and feel deserve to be on the front-page? All suggestions welcome. So in this time of year when it is all about giving, which fellow student(s) would you like to put forward?
hi garry again, thanx so much for responding..your blog is on fire well done!
garry how do i get an rss feed happening on my blog can anybody help i think i need to outsource this..ive been a busy fool i think..hehe i would like to put the list building with alex on my blog and i just have no idea can the fellow students please visit http://www.adrianslide.com thanx garry and every1.:)
Garry,
Thanks for such a wonderful and long (true “Gazza” style comment) over at Gary-Land. I KNOW how utterly and frenetically busy you are.
I’d just like to re-iterate something very PERTINENT that you said just above that may get buried in all the other info (hope this works):
BRILLIANT – couldn’t have said it better myself. THAT is what this first phase of the teaching is all about.
Regards
Gary SIMPSON
http://motivationselfesteem.com/talk/
It worked – LOL! GS.
Hi Garry,
plenty of discussion to consider. Here’s my tuppence worth…on my own site I will be showing on my front page those blogs who have been having the greatest influence on me and who I think will benefit others the most too.
It’s not to say that other blogs are lesser in any way, but with so many students, an avalanche of actions to take to generate wealth out of this and limited time, I’ll just not get around to everyone’s blog on a regular basis. So it’ll reflect those that catch my eye and deliver good content that is useful to me.
I’m finding the http://www.workingwithalex.com site great for seeing new posts and clicking on those of interest.
Great words of encouragement for David – well done, I was thinking the same thing, and Gazza from Downunder also said it well in his description of eloquence. I’m definitely heading over to his blog to look at the 100 vids. I was working on a post rounding up some of the best contributions I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, but will postpone that till I get a chance to check these out!!
Lastly, you emailed me last week about a contribution for the next edition. I’ll explain why another time, but for now I can’t get to that email anymore, only new ones. I’m still up for contributing. The article I had in mind will be about motivation drivers and how to maintain progress towards our goals.
I can explain more in an email if you are still interested for the next edition and a reminder of your deadline.
Cheers,
Bernard
http://www.fovojourneyman.typepad.com
Hi Garry,
Apologies for posting this here, as I know it isn’t hugely relevant to this particular post – but I have 2 small questions and I know your blog is one of the most popular so there’ll be lots of experts around to assist.
I’m working on sorting out my Profit Pulling Platform (I know, I’m SO behind!).
1) The web URL that you put into the ebook when branding it – should that be the new one that you set up, or should it be your blog URL (i.e. should it be NikkiStephens.com or should it be whatever I pick as my new squeeze page URL)?
2) Paypal vs Google – I know Google have their own payment system, it is worth doing that instead of Paypal, or is it better to use Paypal?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Nikki
http://www.NikkiStephens.com
Hey Garry!
How are things going?
You`ve got things rollin over here I see! Super great
I just wanted to pop by and say hi.
Keep it up!
Regards,
André T.
–Quote–
1) The web URL that you put into the ebook when branding it – should that be the new one that you set up, or should it be your blog URL (i.e. should it be NikkiStephens.com or should it be whatever I pick as my new squeeze page URL)?
–Quote end–
I am not sure on this one, but i assume you are creating an ebook yourself? Why wouldn’t you put both urls inside it?
–Quote–
2) Paypal vs Google – I know Google have their own payment system, it is worth doing that instead of Paypal, or is it better to use Paypal?
–Quote end–
Depending on what you are doing, it might be a good idea to setup both. Paypal is great for most people who buy online that do not want to use their credit cards. Google checkout on the other hand appears to use credit card as the means for payment.
If you look at stores like buy dot com you’ll notice that they use both themselves.
Colin
http://www.marketingwithcolin.com
Hey Garry,
apologies for the copy & paste job but I am indeed exhausted and I wanted to get this going ASAP for everyones sakes so here is my taking on this debate + my update for today. Take care mate. Sandra
Hey Mark and everyone, how u doing?
I am exhausted, it’s past 3 in the morning and I am trying to catch up after x-mas. When you have small kids you have no option but stop over the hollidays and then work like mad afterwards to try and compensate for it..
Anyway, interesting debate. I wasn’t very happy to beggin with to have a large blogroll on the site. I did because I felt it was adding value to the community but I also feared from the beggining from a different perspective.
Rich tought us on GPS about having a persona attached to your clients/viewers/readers and I have always done that as a tactic to write my posts and make it very personal. This target should have a name, age, character and as much info as you can add onto to make it real. So I did.
I have to personas I address in my blog and to be very honest my general public is the one I started with in mind. So I thought about this person coming to my blog and being as curious as I am when I surf around a new IM blog/site to suss the person behind and then I would find a huge blogroll of just students like my prospective (coach/mentor/marketer), which in this case is me, Sandra – you Mark and so on.
Then I would find out that every one of these students is offering exactly the same advice, life journal, PPP (free report). Of course we are hugely different therefore would offer the same things in different ways.
But do you follow my logic? Me, Sandra Rodrigues would be inclined not to join this opt-in, which in fact I just provided hundreds of exactly the same exclusive, time sensite, one time offer all over the hundreds sites on my blogroll.
Just another perspective to add salt and pepper to the confusion, as we say in Brazil. I don’t know how to solve it either but I can tell you that I am inclined to do a separate page for all the students and use my blogroll to recommend sites I feel are important to my followers and add value to them. Having said that there are quite a few FROM THE STUDENTS BLOGROLL that I would add to this valuable resource. Maybe the problem needs to be sorted in a natural, organic way. By writing here I am sort of deciding to go down that route.
I came here to let you guys know that in fact I have a new sort of list for us to have it and I am calling Tweeter Land Page.
The basic idea is to create massive buzz around what we are doing and generate great traffic trhough tweeter.
I have spent quite some time visiting everyone that posted a comment to me since the beggining with the intention of retrieving their addresses for the list but honestly I am shattered and I only went through 2 pages so far worth of comments.
Can I ask you guys to be very kind and pop over to send me your addresses, please? Some of the sites don’t make it obvious for us to get it, I had to keep cliking links to find out hte url, etc and as I said, I think I had enough for today.
If you guys can spread the word as well I would appreciate very much.
Lot’s of love,
Sandra
In Joy With My Self
http://www.motherlymarketing.com
Hi Colin/Nikki,
Thanks Colin for answering Nikki’s earlier question. I overlooked it. I think Niki is asking about the rebrandable ebook Alex gave us as part of the PPP.
I guess it’s down to personal choice Nikki, but I put my URL as my blog http://garryparkes.com. I think it gives more control and flexibility going foward.
As for the Google v Paypal question – Can’t comment as I only have Paypal and it works for me
Well here I am, late for the party again. I’m having a real hard time keeping up with all this blogging and social networking stuff. I’m all over the place with it and get all confused. So, unfortunately, I wouldn’t know who to recommend for your front page.
But I do have something some readers may be interested in–if they read this far down. Just today I came across a free report on Twitter (Module 4 with Alex) and how to use it to boost your blog traffic.
I put it up as a free download on my site here:
http://plivingston.myccblog.com
If anyone grabs it and it helps them, please leave a comment.
Thank you.
Paul Livingston
Hi Garry,
There are several people I could nominate for the front page and I would only be restating what everyone know already.
I try to put valuable content in my posts, not only for those in the group, but for anyone following me from outside that is just learning as well. With my limited knowledge, I’m willing to share that and help anyone that asks for help. If I can’t help them, I’ll do my best to point them in the right direction where they can get the assistance required.
I find that I’m struggling to learn what I need to know as well and if I come across information that helps others I’m quite happy to post about it and pass it on.
With this in mind, your consideration will be appreciated.
Cheers
Dean Hohn
Hi Garry
Dumb links with no comment don’t do much at all compared to links that have some descriptive text added, that the search engines can get traction on and catalog. The challenge is getting people to submit a few words that describe their specialty.
If you decide to go that route, my specialty is Web coaching, coached hosting, and postcard sites.
By the way, as soon as you send me your blurb and a 50×50 mug shot, I will add it at http://monetsite.com/AJ-students.html
Have FUN!
DearWebby
Garry,
What a great time I have had reading your post as well as the comments. I learn everyday from your blog as well as many others.
I have had my blog set up since Alex told us to, and I continually update mine to offer insight and help to others who visit. Of course like most time is my enemy. I work two full time jobs (one I get paid for and the other I do not..) I try to post everyday and will get better and better with the help of all my fellow students.
My goal is to continue down the path we are all on and bring my fellow newbies along with me. I am a newbie and I love when people visit and give me feedback and help. I will continue to provide value and help to others as all of you have helped me.
This is very new to me and I look to people such as yourself to help us all. You are on the top of my blogrole because of this.
I would also recommend the following based on the oil rig hopping I have be able to do.
Gary Simpson – his stuff is great – Gary is a fellow Martial Artist also
Joe Trueman
Dean Holland
These are just a couple I can think of off the top of my head.
They truly deserve a spot on you role. Me I want a spot so I can do the same kind of things for others that many of you do for me.
As Benjamin Franklin said a long time ago “If we don’t hang together… We will certainly hang separately”.
Thanks again for all you do
Thom
Hi Garry,
Before I start promoting myself I want to recommend a few people:
Coleen Cook, Harry Harris, Mark Austin, Nigel Yip, JT Martin, Will Lim, Garry Simpson, Mark Call and YOU
There’s lots of other great ones (almost everyone!) but those are what pop up in my mind now.
Writing isn’t my best skill so I’ll make this short: I update my blog every other day with extremely helpful content.
(and I’m going to do something BIG soon that everyone will want to be a part of… stay tuned)
happy new year,
Nadav Saltsman
P.S. Be sure to check out my AMAZING holiday gift if you missed it
http://nsaltsman.com/2008/12/happy-holidays-amazing-gift/
Hi! Are you interested in getting a banner/ header/ logo/ template/ business cards/ directory or article submissions, for your site for no money, in return we require text links from your site http://garryparkes.com. Approaching you through this form since I could not find out the email address. Please get back to me if you are interested. This is a special “New Year offer” from us.
Friday I was searching for blogs related to Web Promotion and specifically quality traffic rotate web site promotion and I found your related blog.
I strongly recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.
I’ll watch Google Webmaster Tools, and if the links don’t show up after a couple of weeks — I won’t go back to that blog again.
Another suggestion: you should have a Top Commentator widget installed.
Do Follow and Top Commentator will ensure that you have a successful blog with lots of readers!