Ask Gina Gaudio-Graves’ … About Internet Marketing & Strategic Alliances

Before I get to the lesson, I’ve got to share a short story with you …

About a month ago, I met a young marketer quite by accident.  It was about 4:30 in the morning and my phone rang.  So, I answered it.

Now, you have to understand … I have 2 separate lines.  One is for customes and one is my personal cell.  (It doesn’t matter which one rang, though, because at that time of night,  would personally answer them both.)

Anyway, I picked up the phone with my usual, “Gina Gaudio-Graves, may I help you?” 

“This isn’t ‘the Gina’,” he said, “is it?”  somewhat shocked that I would answer my own phone.  (Well who else would answer it at 4:30 in the morning?)

As it turns out, the caller was simply inquiring about when commissions would be paid from a recent promotion.  After answering his question, I of course had to find out a little more about who it was that would be calling me at that time of day.

I learned that his name was Koorosh Vahabi and that he was just getting started in marketing, but he had already put up a blog.  So I asked where I could find it.

He told me it was at:

www.kooroshvahabi.com

That seemed to make me chuckle, though.  I just had to inquire about WHY he would name his blog something so difficult to spell!

He explained that he used his name because he’s seen so many other marketers use their names for their own blogs, and he figured that was the right thing to do. 

SIDENOTE:  That is NOT what you want to do with your blog.  Only use your name as your URL if you are trying to brand yourself ie. you are a coach, a speaker, an author, etc.  If you are none of these, then use a domain name that is tied to the theme of your blog.

Well, I just couldn’t resist offering “a few” helpful suggestions and before I knew it, I was rattling on and on!

Ok, so here’s where “the Lesson” comes in …

Tonight, I was going through my email.  In it, I found a “Google Alert” for my name and I clicked on the link.

SIDENOTE:  If you’ve never tried Google Alerts, you should!  Google will actually send you an email any time that new content is posted anywhere on the ‘net with your keyword in it.  If you want to watch for information being put up with your name in it, simply put plus signs between your name and select the frequency you want (they let you choose immediate, once per day, or once per week).  For my name, my alert would read: gina+gaudio+graves

Can you quess where that Google alert took me?

If you’re thinking “Koorosh’s Blog”, you’re WRONG!

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I’ve always found that before you can succeed at something, you have to really understand it first.  How can you succeed in business if you don’t know what business is really all about?

So let me ask you a question …

Do you know what business really is, at it’s most basic level?

Very basically, business is really about exchanging value in some way.  It’s a trade of some sort.  In other words, when you are in business, you are a merchant.

And, as a merchant, you’re saying “I’ll give you X if you give me Y.”

X is your product and Y is the money.

If you’re an affiliate marketer selling an ebook, then X is the ebook and Y is the commissions you earn.

If you’re a copywriter writing a sales letter for someone who pays you $5,000, then X is your copywriting service and Y is the $5,000.

If you’re giving something away, then X is the item that you are giving away and Y is a person’s name and email address.

How can this make you more moeny?

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This is a very interesting question, isn’t it?

How could making an extra $100,000 NOT be something that’s GREAT for your business?

Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been around for a few years, if you are NOT already making money on a CONSISTENT basis, every single day, and every single week, and every single month, making an extra $100,000 can actually HURT your business.

I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again …

Especially with those putting out their first products.

You get a big chunk of cash that comes in, so you sit back and think “Ahhh, this is the life!”  And after a few weeks, you decide, “Well, I can get back to work next month.  I’ve got enough money to last at least until then.”

Then the next month you sit back and say, “That 4 weeks off felt SO good!  But now I need another month to get myself prepared to go back to work.”  So you take another month off.

Well, before you know it, you’re down to your last $5,000 and you haven’t even come up with the next idea for the next product, much less actually started working on the product itself.

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I frequently talk about finding your “profitable passion”. I talked about this extensively on my teleconference calls over the last 60 days and again at the event that I co-hosted in Sandusky, Ohio.

Many of those who attended the conference were there specifically to figure out the answer to one question only … “What market should I go after with my business?”

Why is this question so important?

Well, it is the ONE thing that can truly guarantee your success in business!

You see, what I mean by choosing a market, is finding a market that is already BUYING what it is that you are selling.

It’s not enough to know what people are searching for … you must know that they are actually BUYING.

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I’ve lined up 3 phenomenal teleconferences this week.  You’re going to want to mark your calendars for:

“Millionaire Cash-Vacuuming Secrets”

• Monday, October 8th
• 9:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm PST
• GUEST:  Mark Joyner
• DETAILS:  http://www.abundancegroup.com/mj

Mark Joyner is almost considered the grandfather of the internet marketing scene.  Personally, he is one of only a few (as in less than a handful!) of people whose opinions about marketing I respect more than any others.

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I’m writing this at 4:10 am on Sunday morning.  I just woke up and realized that I hadn’t posted to my blog once since I’d gotten to Big Seminar on Thursday.  There goes my goal of a post per day!

What woke me up, though, wasn’t the thought of my blog.  What really woke me up was thinking about a man that I had met at the seminar.

Now, I’m not going to use his real name here as I don’t want to embarrass him.  So instead, let’s call him “John Newbie”. 

“John Newbie” is no different than about 90% of my subscribers:  he is dooming himself to failure in his business without even realizing it!  If only he’d take the RIGHT action, his failure could be avoided and he could see the success he desires!

What could be dooming John to failure?

As I share the following story of John Newbie, see if you can spot the two gigantic mistakes that John is making.  At the end of the story, I’ll share the advice that I gave to him.

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My husband, Bill, and I have no children.  And it shows!  Our only “child” is our 14 1/2 year old terrier, “Cary Dog”.

Now, this is embarrasing to admit, but we even call ourselves “Momma Dog” and “Daddy Dog” sometimes.

It gets worse …

When we’re joking around, we like to pretend that Cady D. is taking part in the conversation.  Sometimes I get to talk for him in a cutely little, high-pitched voice, and other times Bill gets to talk for him in the same little squeaky voice.

Tonight was one of those times we were joking around.

Cady D. (Bill) had just said “Mom, I LOVE to give you lickies!  Especially when you give me cookies because you liked them!”

He went on to ask, “Mom, if I teach other dogs how to give good lickies, can I get even more cookies?”

When I heard this question, I immediately had a vision of little Cary D. becoming an infoproduct marketer and I burst out laughing!

But then I got to thinking …

If Cary D. wanted to become an info product creator, what would he need to do?

Well, it wouldn’t be any different that if he were a human, actually.  To become an infopreneur, both a dog and a human would start in the same exact place.

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I’ll bet you didn’t know that there is ONE thing that can improve your business more than any other, did you?

Do you know what that ONE thing is?

Let me give you a few hints and see if you can guess …

HINT #1:  That ONE thing is responsible for Louis Burleson’s success.  He went from struggling in his business to make $500 per month to launching his very firist product successfully, bringing in over $50,000 in a single week, in only about 7 months time … all because of this ONE thing!

HINT #2:  That ONE thing is responsible for Jeff Dedrick’s success online.  Jeff was a very successful offline entrepreneur who decided to sell both of his gyms and his pizza business to strike out online.  This ONE thing allowed Jeff to launch his very first product, bringing in over $40,000 in monthly income, in less than 3 months!

HINT #3:  That ONE thing is responsible for the success of more people online than any other!

Are you stumped yet?

Am I going to have to just tell you the answer?

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It’s not very often that you get an opportunity to learn about marketing by studying a rock band.  But that changed today.

If you haven’t heard the news yet, let me fill you in …

Each year, there are about 12,000 record albums released.  Until now, all of these albums were released by artists through record labels. 

The record label acts as a distribution partner.  Obviously, that means that the label takes a cut of the sales.  In fact, that’s usually a pretty large cut.  This leaves the artists to share the remains among what is often many people.

One entrepreneurial band, though, is changing this model.

Today, a group known as “Radiohead” announced the release of it’s long awaited album, “In Rainbows”. 

Ordinarily, such an announcement wouldn’t make me even read the entire notice.  (I’m much more into the rock ‘n roll of the ‘70’s than the current stuff.)  But this headline caught my eye …

“Radiohead Says:  Pay What You Want”

What the heck?  How can the music industry let you pay what you want for an album?  Especially with so many players in the ring with their hands out waiting to be paid?

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Well my blog has suffered greatly these last few months as we prepared for “The Marketing Seminar” — an event I co-hosted with Henry Gold and Socrates Socratous in Sandusky, Ohio this past weekend.  The event was a smashing success!

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