This is going to be candid blog post.

You see, over the past few months, me and my wife Laura have faced some of the most challenging battles in our short entrepreneurial life.

We were overworked…  Toiling 12 hours straight nearly every day…  And were on the verge of throwing in the towel.

It was as if we were sowing so much seed, yet seeing little fruit for our labor.

Yet 6 weeks ago, on the verge of hitting rock bottom… We stumbled across a startling secret that saved our skins and put us back on the track of rapid profitability.

I’ll reveal what this revolutionary principle is in a moment, for now I just want to lay the foundations.

Here’s a Biblical concept that the world readily agrees it…

“You reap what you sow…”

In other words, the more time, resources and energy you put into something, the bigger the harvest you’ll reap — be it financially, relationally or spiritually.

So if you put in your elbow grease and late nights, you’re guaranteed success right? WRONG!

Or more rather, the Sowing and Reaping analogy is only a half truth.

You see, we followed this principle to the tee… We “slaved like dogs”, yet we were “rewarded” with disappointment, stress and relationship strain.

Have you ever wondered why sometimes you work so hard, and yet don’t seem to reap the bountiful harvest you deserve?

Here’s something that may come as surprise for you…

There’s a missing dimension to the concept of sowing and reaping. If you miss this, you’re potentially setting yourself back months, even years from where you’re supposed to be.

In one of the Biblical parables, Jesus talked about the parable of the sower.

The gist of it was that the farmer was scattering seed across the land. However, he was rather indiscriminate about it and the seeds fell on stony paths, thorny soil, shallow earth and fertile ground.

The seeds that fell on the former 3 types of soil ended up with stunted growth, or worse… Not growing at all.

Here’s the awesome part…

The seed that fell on fertile ground produced a magnificent harvest of tenfold, hundredfold… and even a thousand-fold!

What made the difference?

It’s about WHERE the sower threw his seed.

That’s right. WHERE you sow is probably more important then HOW MUCH you sow.

It’s a principle we call STRATEGIC SOWING. And we believe it’s the single most important trait of mega-successful entrepreneurs.

Once you master this, you’ll get a return on investment that’ll blow your socks off. Because every ounce of blood, sweat and tears is going to give you a windfall.

One of the biggest bittersweet lessons we learned is that Laura and I may be world-class marketers, but we’re still newbies in terms of building a long-term sustainable business.

The single most vital trait that separates entrepreneurs from marketers is the ability to effectively allocate one’s limited resources. Unfortunately, it’s an ability that comes from hard-worn experience rather than any $997 home study course.

But hey, since we’re nice people and all, we’re going to reveal to you the top 5 areas you should strategically sow in (from our admittedly limited experience).

1) Alliances

As maligned as the whole “Guru Club” in our industry seems to be, it doesn’t change the fact that JVs work. In fact, I attribute networking to be the no.1 driver why the Puppet Master is where he is today in such a short time. However… Do note that you need to screen through the people you intend to partner with. Some are a complete waste of time. Some are middling. A few will deliver the breakthrough growth you crave.  Just don’t be over-eager especially if you’re new.

2) Content

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, it’s about articles, articles, articles. Google cares more about frequency of unique content than about the quality. So invest in a reliable ghost writing team, a spinning service like HumanSpinner and submission services like Easy Push Button Traffic, SENuke or Unique Article Wizard. As article marketing guru Jeff Herring says, “the bigger the number of articles, the bigger your other numbers will be.”  So get crankin’.

3) Basics

Ignore the fads out there. Marketers have made pushing your emotional buttons such an art form that they can make any product “the next big thing”. Learn to resist. Stop grabbing at every push-button solution. Most of it is crap. In fact, 90% of what I study seems to be just rehashed information. Master your internet marketing basics.

• Are you doing PPC?
• Are your sites optimized properly?
• Heck… Are you even using the right keywords to promote your site?

As a sidenote, keyword research is the most important skill you need to master. Get this wrong and all your efforts will be flushed down the loo.

4) List

Social media seems to be the craze, but honestly, the best response rates seem to come from the humble email mailing list. Even though open rates may be down industry wide, your autoresponder service is the most potent income-generating asset you may have. Build up the numbers and you can honestly pay off your mortgage, go for a safari in Kenya or buy yourself a new car with just ONE email blast.

Of course, don’t make it a pitchfest and give good content to build up the relationship you have with your list.

5) Character

This may sound surprising, but according to Seth Godin’s excellent blog post on the Hierarchy of Success,  without good character your strategies, tactics and execution are going to fall flat on its face.

I mean… If your mindset is “I’m doing this on the site for some (hopeful) part-time income”, you’re not going to make a million dollars online, are you? I knew a guy who was eager to learn so I hooked him up with some of my $1997 products. Guess what? Because he has such a crappy attitude, he’s now worse off than where he started. Read the Bible or listen to Dan Sullivan (my entrepreneurial guru du jour).

Whew, that comes to the close of my rather lengthy blog spot. Hope the Strategic Sowing principle impacts your business the way it did for the Puppet String Marketing business.

As an aside, I’m going to introduce something remarkable that’s worth the strategic sowing. I may not be the biggest fan of its title or its positioning but the principles inside contain some of the biggest shortcuts to running a super-profitable business.

Indeed, what I’m about to introduce is fertile soil, and every dollar you sow in WILL result in a bountiful harvest if you do what it says. Just opt-in to my mailing list by clicking on the button below to get further details soon.

So back to this post… What do you folks think? What are the biggest areas of strategic sowing you think I might have missed out? Feedback is most welcome, as always.

I cried during my birthday.

I mean, don’t get me wrong… My wife Laura planned a heck of a celebration, and it was a fun day.

Still, it was bittersweet. Maybe it was the realization that life isn’t as easy as we like it to be, or reflecting back on the ups and downs of the year that was. Maybe it was just the built-up toll of a year’s worth of hard lessons.

Maybe I’m just a drama queen. But these are 28 valuable lessons on marketing, entrepreneurship, social media and copy that I  learned over the past 1 year. Read it, take action and reap the financial rewards.

1) The More You Mail, the More Money You Make

Here’s something that may surprise you, the more blasts you send out, the more monetizable your list becomes. Keep making offers to your list with emails written in your own voice, and you’ll make money while filtering non-interested parties through their unsubscribing.

2) Twitter is Adwords-of-Mouth

If PPC is AdWords, Twitter is AdWords-of-mouth. PPC and Twitter’s similarity is that they’re really good lead generation tools, but really crap when it comes to sales pages. Like PPC, use it to build your list, not direct linking it to your affiliate link and hope to God for some sales. Twitter is pre-selling, not selling.

3) Work Ain’t Life

There were times during the past few months that I approached burn-out. Setting up a business from scratch is like giving birth to a baby… You invest your heart and soul for relatively little return. Remember that if you fizzle so does your business, so keep tabs on your mental health by taking constant breaks and vacations to stay refreshed.

4) BAD NEWS!

Through extensive testing, paparazzi headlines in the vein of National Enquirer or the Sun works wonders for your response rates. The press knows that well, negativity sells. Human nature is just inherently attracted to train wrecks. Inject a dose of doom and gloom into your sales letters and emails and enjoy positive returns.

5) The Answer is “Yes”

What’s the best traffic generation method? PPC… CPA… SEO… Banners… The answer is yes…. yes… yes… yes… All marketing techniques work, you just need to know the best practices. Master them one at a time with careful testing but master them all. The more mediums your customer encounters you, the more response they will be.

6) The E-Myth Revisited

Michael Gerber wrote what experts deem the “entrepreneur’s Bible” many years ago. The main thrust was most entrepreneurs work in their business, not on their business. This means most business owners get trapped in the day-to-day rather than doing things that actually bring profit like sales or maintaining JV relationships. Work towards outsourcing and begin to focus on the things that matter.

7) Your Online Marketing is Already Outdated

By the time you’re reading this, your closely-held SEO and PPC strategy has already halved in effectiveness. The internet marketing scene changes at the speed of light and you need to keep up. Keep track of the trends and what guru’s tout as the Next Big Thing because you know what? Cut through the hype you realize they’re right.

8.) Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket

Twitter is notorious for going down when you need them the most. I was in the prickly spot of having my rice bowl cut off simply because I could not do any money-getting efforts on my one-and-only marketing medium. Ouch. Diversify. Stop relying on ONE traffic method and you’ll be invulnerable to Google Slaps, Twitter Fail Whales and other system failures.

9) Above-the-Fold Placement, Above Average Results

When it comes to anything email marketing related, anything above the screen where the reader does not need to scroll down is the most optimal. So set up squeeze pages and landing pages that are strictly one-pages. Short emails tend to work better as well when you place all your copy above the fold. Test it and let me know.

10) The Microcosm Traffic Method

What’s a microcosm? A microcosm is a mini-ecosystem that’s a representation of the larger ecosystem as a whole. Google loves that–a huge network of sites that’s a hub of activity as a representative of that niche. When I implement this scientific principle into my traffic generation strategies, my results went through the roof. Watch this space when I unveil my master secret to the world.

11) Twitter is Better Than Conferences

Most experts say JVs you find at conferences can boost your profits through the roof. I say Twitter can have the same effect–minus the travel and accommodation expenses. I had not left my native country of Malaysia, but I’ll been securing speaking gigs and strategic alliances nearly effortlessly. Put your social skills to work and see the results.

12) Cling On to The Vision

The online marketing world works very much like the bricks-and-mortars one… There’s a lot of elbow grease involved and a lot of hard work. You can make money in your underwear, but that doesn’t reduce any of the blood, sweat and tears involved. In the times of maximum effort and minimum return, you need to hold on to Magnificent Obsession of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

13) The Magic Ratio

Getting responsive leads isn’t really a mystery–Give them things of value to soften up their credit crunch-harderned defenses, and then make an offer relevant to their needs. The ratio of value to offer differs from medium to medium For emails its 1:1. for Twitter is 5 value-laden tweets for every 1 self-promotional one. Your results may vary.

14) The Medium is the Message

You can’t take what works in one medium and apply it to another. What is acceptable as sales letter copy is downright intrusive as an email. That’s why you may be getting poor results with your social marketing. Each medium has its own tone, manner and language. Learn them and you’ll see stellar results coming from every front.

15) “You” Rock

Human beings are essentially self-serving creatures. That’s why the word “you” is the most alluring one in the English language. Good copy is about them, them, them. What your product or service can do for them. In fact, the easiest way to hypnotic copywriting is to use “you” as much as humanly possible in your copy. Try it.

16) Twitter = Traffic Domination

Once you mastered writing compelling tweets (something taught in the Twitter Salvation System), driving traffic to your website or blog is one of the easiest things on the planet. ReTweeting gives you viral traffic you otherwise can’t tap, and its all FREE traffic anyway. That’s how I own 60% of the entire Most Viewed Articles on EzineArticles for all my categories. Unfair advantage, I know.

17) Step Up Your Bum Marketing

Bum Marketing was one of the big buzzwords of the past few years… Write an article, direct them to your affiliate link, collect commissions. Unfortunately, this method has lost a lot of its effectiveness over the past year or so due to the massive increase in bum marketers. So ramp up your game, outsource your articles, spin them all and submit more unique articles to as many article directories and web 2.0 properties as possible. Which brings me to the next point…

18) Quantity, Not Quality

Quality content may be nice, but unfortunately, Google does not really distinguish quality content from mediocre ones. Google rewards consistency of unique content rather than the awesomeness of them. Do ensure that they’re somewhat passable in quality, but eschew Dan Brown quality writing for just loads and loads and loads of content in as may websites as possible.

19) Purpose Attracts

Humanity is repelled by purposelessness. Give a reason why to every aspect of your business–from the existence of your product to your offer to the tribe you created. Give your customers a purpose bigger than themselves, and you’ll raise yourself an army of word-of-mouth evangelists to spread your cause to the ends of the Earth.

20) Positioning Matters

One of the key reasons the Puppet Master has risen up the ranks in record speed is because of the unique personal brand I’ve created. If I were to become yet another Beach Bum or Everyman Marketer, I’ll probably will not experience the kind of results I’m getting, even with the same content. Ask yourself… What is the ONE THING you want to own in your prospect’s mindshare? And take the steps to own it.

21) Tweet in Blocks

This was one of the main breakthroughs in my Twitter marketing efforts. In the Twitter Salvation System I’ll reveal what blocks are the most effective and what content proves to convert the best. All I can say is that it has drastically simplified my Twitter lead generation and affiliate sales processes and increased overall profits by 34%.

22) The Other Side of Social Media

Most experts harp on the personal branding and customer connection side of social media. It’s all well and good, but you’re probably only experiencing a puny 17% of the upside if that’s all you’re using social media for. Google LOVES social media sites, and they’re amazing for backlinks. That’s one of the components of the Microcosm Traffic Method I’m working on, and you’ll start seeing social marketing in a new light real soon.

23) Twitter for SEO

On the subject of SEO, Twitter is often overlooked by Search Marketing experts because they don’t give any link juice. However, like Youtube and Facebook, their PageRank score is through the roof. Just do a few RSS submissions and social bookmarks and you’ll start seeing your tweets rank in the SERPs. My personal Twitter account is a Pagerank 5 site at the moment from this method.

24) Transcription Riches

Article writing can be tedious process. Unfortunately, it is also an essential one, because it is one of the key ways of getting traffic. Here’s a trick, record yourself talking, send your audio to Elance and get transcriptions done. Now you can cut-and-paste portions of the transcrips for instant articles!

25) The Fortnight of Fandom

Studies have shown your leads are hottest starting from the day they sign in and start tampering off after the 2 week mark. This apply for Twitter, Facebook and autoresponder marketing. That’s why the first 2 weeks should be the site of your most vigorous promotions. Strike when the iron is hot, that’s the most effective window of opportunity you got.

26) Facebook Followers are Different from Twitter Ones

Even in similar sites and the same niches, your followers respond differently to different topics for the different sites. That’s why I don’t really encourage the Twitter-to-Facebook app that’s so popular. You could be wasting your hot links on Twitter on a Facebook audience that’s disinterested. So find out what each of them want individually, and give it to them.

27) Even in Social Media, It’s About ROI

My pet peeve with the whole social media phenomenon is how much hype is thrown around but people have little results to show. When it comes to Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Youtube,etc… you still need the numbers… A marketing channel is only one when it can be measured. By all means jump on to the bandwagon, but have your metrics in place.

28) People ReTweet Before They Read

This is killer. People tend to retweet stuff before they click on the link. It may sound insane but with the amount of noise on Twitter, they make snap judgements about what they pass on to their followers. Retweetable content includes lists, quotes, and weird/curiosity type tweets. Try constructing your blog post as a list and experience a surge of viral traffic.

Bonus Tip:

29) Never Compromise On Your Marriage

In the midst of busyness, it is possible to neglect your spouse. It was a wise pastor who once said with a strong marriage, you can conquer the world. But if you have a weak one, even minor obstacles seem like major ones. Keep your marriage strong and you’ll rise above the pressures of life.

That’s the condensed version from me, we can sit down over a cuppa if you’d like to hear more Do let me know your thoughts –for example, which of these tips do you find the most helpful? Would love your feedback in the Comments Section below.

Also… as a related aside, there’s only 24 hours left till we close out our Puppet String Marketing Birthday Promotion….

Get up to 41% off all Puppet String Marketing products.

Click here to get yours NOW!

P.S. If you already own one of either Twitter Mind Control or Twitter Salvation System, please email me at puppetstringmarketing [at] gmail [dot] com. We’ve had a few such requests and so we’ve prepared an extra special “ala carte” deal for you.

Frank Kern -- Hot or Not?

You know something? I personally believe Frank Kern spells the death knell for the internet marketing community as we know it.

But before I go on, here’s the disclaimer:

I’ve got nothing against the man. I respect him as a stunningly brilliant marketer. In fact, he’s still one of my marketing heroes. And his branding for Mass Control was the inspiration behind Puppet String Marketing, the Puppet Master and my range of Salvation System products.

But here’s the thing–there is such a thing as too much marketing genius.

Let me explain.

What’s good marketing?

Good marketing is finding out what your customers want and then giving it to them.

Do the research. Tap into the right emotions. And presto, you’ve just maximized the chances of your promotion’s success.

The more precisely you execute this principle, the better a marketer you are.

Frank “Superbad” Kern is the maestro of finding out what his customers want, and then giving it to them. In fact, his “Core Influence” presentation is one of the key scriptures in the internet marketing community.

So what does Frank Kern’s audience–which encompasses nearly the entire online marketing crowd–want?

They want to push a button and have money suddenly rain down. They want to work a 4-hour-work-week while making millions of dollars a month. They want to cut-and-paste one of Frank’s money-getting emails and transform their autoresponders into a lucrative ATM machine.

Like Frank, a ton of them want to be the 9th Worst Surfer in La Jolla.

But here’s the problem…

What marketers want may not be the best for them. What marketers want may not be best for the marketing community as a whole.

That’s why you get the noise pollution in your inboxes, with emails screaming “Bad News”. Or the irritating phony-friendly way marketers now twist arms and scribble “talk soon”. Or the endless home-made videos that seem to be pale imitations of “Frank’s Greatest Hits”.

And those are just the established ones.

Now, there’s a bunch of freebie seekers who devour every free video and execute these strategies without knowing the forest and the trees…

Frank’s Army of the Clueless.

Whether deliberately or not, Frank Kern is responsible for creating a homogenous generation of knucklehead pseudo-marketers who are allergic to greasy elbows and grinding noses. Even Frank Kern slaved away into the night once upon a time.

My point? Internet marketers really need to grow up and realize that old-school direct response marketing will always trump cut-and-paste fads.

Unfortunately, the problem with the internet marketing niche is ironically, brilliant marketers like Frank. As long as there’s money to be made from human nature, it will not go away. Heck, I’m not expecting social responsibility. As a marketer and copywriter myself, the worth of my work is judged by my response rates, and my response rates can only come by pressing the right emotional buttons.

What happens is a vicious cycle of emotional buttons triggering the need for quick fixes, triggering a marketing community that’s fighting for the scraps underneath Frank Kern and his merry men’s tables–attempting adult marketing stunts with an infantile mentality.

Fascinating, really.

My encouragement? Actually BUY Frank’s stuff. Like Mass Control 77.6 or something. That’s how you’ll get those marketing basics. Look beyond his persona and go into the principles of why he’s projecting the image he’s showing off. (You’ll know when he’s releasing or re-releasing his product due to the usual gang promoting the heck out of it.)

Surprising suggestion? Hardly. To be as successful as Frank, you need to not only imitate Frank’s actions, but to know the motivations behind those actions to begin with. That’s how you can stop getting suckered into a cycle of lies and become a brilliant marketer in your own right.

More importantly, what do you guys think? Do you love Frank? Hate him? Agree with his methods? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments Section at the bottom. Thanks!