The snow is coming down in Atlanta (!), and that's quite a novelty for us.

But it makes me wonder what I would do if it was below ZERO and my heat
was off, like the guy in this video.

He was really and truly left with nothing… but he learned
some of the most valuable lessons possible in life.

No reason to spoil any of it – it's worth your time this afternoon.

Best regards,
Brad

P.S. This is pretty thought-provoking stuff. How about letting
me know what you're thinking down below?

Boom! Pow! Expand! "Blowing up" Your eCommerce Business In The New Year by Audrey Kerwood, StomperNet Faculty Member I like to start each New Year by looking over the past and evaluating what was good and the not-as-good over the previous three hundred sixty-five days. I break things down into categories like sales, advertising, promotions, search positioning, and other things like that. By going through all the major aspects of my store and seeing where things worked (and where they didn’t) helps me gauge what I want to spend time working on in the coming year and what I want to either spend significantly less time on or remove entirely. For me, the beginning of the year is the time for expansion – growing the things that are making me money and diversifying my business to make it stronger and more secure. For me, eCommerce is about sustainability. It's about creating a business with a solid foundation that only becomes more stable over time. That’s why this type of year-end reconciliation of your store tactics is important for you to do. Of course you don’t have to do it in January if that doesn’t make sense for you, but for many, the holiday rush is the biggest buying season. So, once it’s over, it makes sense to start planning and implementing so you can increase your profits when it comes back around again. Figuring out where your tactics and stores stand is the first step to take when looking to expand. So once I’ve figured out what areas are working I then look into ways to expand them and / or grow them. I make the distinction between expanding and growing because I see them as related but ultimately different ideas. "Expansion" I define as making something bigger, while "growing" I consider more as cultivating. And cultivating can sometimes entail actually culling. They often go hand in hand but separating them makes them easier to talk about. Expanding Tactics For instance, one of the things I'm going to be expanding this year is my AdWords presence. I now employ a near full-time Pay Per Click manager, which allows me to triple the amount of AdWords ads I have running. I’m also going to be able to grow my AdWords campaigns by more narrowly focusing efforts and cash on Ad Groups that are already paying off and removing campaigns that have been deemed outdated. So yes – PPC is one of the big areas I recommend eCommerce storeowners spend more time on in the New Year. You’ll want to do the same with your natural search optimization tactics, your article marketing efforts, store blogging, sales / promotions, and your site conversion. I also do the same with my vendors. If something isn’t working the way I want it to with any of them, I call them up and discuss it with them. If it’s a big enough issue and they won’t bend, I just grow my business…by firing them as a vendor. Expanding Products Now I want to talk about expansion in terms of your products and your store(s). If you have a product or product line that consistently sells well, finding more products like it might be a way to expand on a current success. This might mean simply adding more products from one of your current vendors or it might mean finding a new supplier in order to expand your product line. Finding new vendors is a great way to expand your business – though it can be a daunting task. Before going out and searching for new vendors by hand, I like to go through the World Wide Brands drop ship source directory at NewVendors.Info. Even if I don’t find a vendor for products to expand my current line, I usually find a few that I’m interested in dealing with, in some way or another. Finding a new line of related products is a great way to expand your store and using World Wide Brands is an easy way to find quality drop shippers and wholesalers without putting in hours of search time. Now let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say your most profitable product line is pretty large in terms of number of products. Let's say you’re looking to expand it by finding another vendor. So you find one, and the line they offer is also very large. What then? Consider this. Instead of adding it to your current store, what about opening a new store centered around that product line? I do this all the time. Over the past few years I have opened a new store every year – it has become one of my yearly goals. The more income streams you have out there, the more stable your business. But a new store doesn’t have to be completely different than your current store(s)! There is nothing wrong with opening a spin off niche site selling some of the same things you’re already selling. Say, for example, that my Civil War weaponry and costumes are selling like hot cakes. I would happily open a second weaponry store designed for the Civil War niche. I would use the products I get from my current vendors and find a few more that I could source from to fill out the store. Niche sites are great and they are easier to rank with and maintain than larger stores. Breaking out your successful products in this way will grow your business in a relatively easy way. It’s nice to start a new store knowing you have a product that sells because you’re already successfully selling it. You don’t have to get rid of the products on your first store when you open the new store either. In fact, I would recommend NOT removing them from you first store. By creating a niche store around items you also sell in your big store you’re creating even more competition for your competitors. That’s a cool idea, huh? You’re expanding your market reach, getting on your way to dominating the search engine listings, and giving yourself more chances of getting the sale. Competing with yourself is a strategy I also recommend eCommerce storeowners work into their planning. This year I am opening a brand new store (in a brand new market) and starting a spin off store. The spin off store is going to take much less time to create and I already know where to focus my efforts in terms of SEO and paid advertising. So I’m going to create that one first. I’m confident it will be making money as soon as I get my PPC ads rolling so I’ll begin the brand new store pretty much the day after the spin off is open for business. If you’re looking to open a brand new store, it’s a good idea to test your market before spending the time and effort it takes to build a whole store. Testing with AdWords is one of the best ways I have found to test my market research and make sure the market I want to dive into is viable. Setting up a few test ads around your main products doesn’t take very long and the numbers will start coming in right away. I recommend this type of testing to anyone looking to open a store. Reaffirming your market research is always a smart move. Now I’d like to talk a little bit about diversification and different ways of expanding. Diversifying Your Business To create a strong, sustainable business you want multiple streams of income, not just one giant income source. You just never know if something is going to happen to jeopardize that one source, which is why having many sources creates a much more stable business environment and adds to your personal financial security. Diversification doesn’t mean you have to open a new store; any new stream of recurring income that you can bring in is diversifying. In my opinion the more revenue streams the better. I’d rather have ten sites bringing in $1000 each per month than four sites bringing in $2500 each per month. That way if a couple markets take a dip, my income isn’t as effected. So I have four main online stores. As I mentioned, this year I’m opening two new ones. My stores are my main sources of revenue. I also have in the ballpark of 100-150 affiliate / AdSense sites out there. I don’t make nearly as much with these as I do with my stores but they provide a nice passive income every month. That’s what I set them up for – passive income. I could make more with them if I spent the same amount of time working on and promoting them as I do my stores, but I don’t want to. They are not my main business because I don’t want them to be. I like being a storeowner and spending my time and effort promoting the things I actually sell. But it makes sense for me to take some time to create affiliate sites and spend a little more time getting them ranked because once they are going to stay going for a while and produce consistent income. Passive income is fantastic because it doesn’t require much work from you and gives you a nice monthly cushion. When you begin diversifying, I suggest you start by opening a second store. Building your second is a lot easier than building your first. You already know what to do and you’ve done it once – it’s a faster process the second time around. These are the things I focus on every New Year and I’m always looking and open to new ideas for generating and optimizing income streams. The deeper you look into your existing business the more areas you’ll find where you can optimize and the better ideas you’ll have for diversifying your income. Audrey Kerwood is a StomperNet Faculty Member and is our eCommerce expert. She has 5 eCommerce stores, such as A2armory.com and European-Wall-Tapestries.com. She's coming out with "eCommerce Incubator" product in the next few weeks, a comprehensive eCommerce training course, so keep an eye on your inbox for that. Enjoy this Article? Get an entire Trial Issue of "The Net Effect" (plus a special free bonus!) for only $1 Copyright © 2006-2009 StomperNet, LLC. All rights reserved.

Hope you've all gotten back into the swing of things 
after the Holidays. I think we *finally* got the "Tornado 
of Wrapping Paper" at my house cleaned up.

I need to apologize in advance – this post will NOT be 
100% content (but we'll resume that next week). But stick
around, I think you'll still like the "Free Line" 
discussion below.

"The Net Effect"

In the meantime though, the reason this is not 100% 
content is because I want to share with you some of the 
exciting things we're doing with our premier online 
marketing magazine "The Net Effect" to keep it the best 
available, and be of more benefit to you.

If you read any of the 100% Content Friday stuff we've 
sent you over the last couple months, you already know 
about the quality and depth of the articles in our magazine.

But as we're about to go to press with Issue 16 (!), there 
are a couple things you may not know about:

• We're ready to send TNE – the physical magazine - 
  anywhere in the world again. So if you're outside 
  of the US and Canada, you can now get your copy 
  delivered to your door (and we think there's really 
  nothing better than having that meaty magazine 
  right there in your hands.)
• We're also creating Video Articles now for every 
  single article each month – with full animation and 
  voice over – so that the articles literally 'come to life' 
  on your screen
• We're beefing up the magazine a lot too – Issue 16 
  will contain 14 articles from our world-class faculty, 
  and if you know TNE, there just aren't very many 
  ads to distract you.

Special Offers

We have a couple special offers of The Net Effect today.

The first is: you can get an annual subscription  to TNE today 
for a 38% discount on our per issue price and we'll throw in 
an extra issue of TNE and our "Best of TNE" edition.

14 issues total for under $300 – hard to beat that deal!

Lots more information on that here.

Also, if you're not quite ready to spring for the annual 
subscription, you can get your first issue of TNE for 
just $1, and we'll STILL throw in that "Best of" edition 
for you just trying it out.

The "Free Line"

You probably hear us talking all the time about "The 
Free Line" or "Moving the Free Line".

If you don't know what that's about, it's really pretty 
simple – basic psychology that many people use, but 
only recently has it been explained and given a "name".

The idea is: give away your BEST STUFF to your 
prospects for FREE.

Seems counterintutive, huh?

Ah, but then Human nature kicks in.

Your prospects think: "Hmmm, if they were willing 
to give that great stuff away for FREE, imagine what 
I'd get if I paid for something!"

And if you're in a competitive market, who do you think 
your prospect is going to think of FIRST when it comes 
time to buy?

If you've followed StomperNet for any length of time you're 
very familiar with this without even knowing what we were up 
to:

We did it first in the original launch of StomperNet over 3 
years ago – gave away long videos in the prelaunch that we 
probably could have SOLD for hundreds of dollars each.

We did it last year when we gave away Stomping the Search 
Engines 2, which we easily could have sold for $1000 or more.

We did it in the Stomper 999 launch – giving away complete 
courses from our archive to all the prospects that showed up.

And we've done it the last couple months in our Friday emails.

In every case, it's always been our Best Stuff.

And we do it because it's good marketing and it really works.

So be thinking about what YOU can give away - 
what does the Free Line look like in YOUR niche, 
and where can you move it?

From now on, instead of "100% Content", look for the subject line 
starting with "[Free Line Fridays]" for more great articles from 
TNE, and other awesome Free Line content we'll be sending you.

Looking forward to a powerful (free) 2010.

Best,

Brad

P.S. Reading Assignment: If you do not read another business 
book this year, you have to read "Free" by Chris Anderson.

Although he doesn't name it the Free Line like we do in the IM 
world, he clearly has his finger on the pulse of this phenomenon 
(same guy that wrote "The Long Tail", so he's got creds).

Outsourcing Secret #1: Making Smart Hiring Choices

By Melanie Benson Strick, StomperNet Faculty Member

"Delegate, outsource, build a team."

It’s the message drilled into so many entrepreneurs who are ready to grow big. But what happens when the team you have is causing you to spend too much time micro-managing – and you’ve literally become an overworked manager?

It’s hard to be the focused on achieving your big vision and making money when you keep getting pulled down into the weeds. Hiring other people to help offset your weaknesses is supposed to help you grow, not make you resent having people to delegate and outsource to.

So what the heck went wrong?

Oftentimes it starts when you are ready to grow. Think about what’s happened at your business over the last few years. You start out, you have a certain goal or mission, and you know you have a certain budget to invest in your growth, so you hire someone who meets your budget and can do a satisfactory job of completing the tasks.

Then it happens.

Woosh!

You take off at lightning speed – orders fly in, new programs are created that serve your high-end marketplace, customer service challenges arise more frequently, the level of detail management required has increased and your expectations have escalated to a whole new level.

You grew…but:

Did your team’s approach change with the evolution of the role?

Did your infrastructure shift to handle the expansion?

Did your systems and procedures progress with the increase in demand and quality?

Well, when I’m working with an entrepreneur’s business as their coach, I evaluate many different parts of the process to uncover the real problem.

Often it boils down to one of four areas (or a combination of them):

1. The skills and competencies of the team don’t match the role as it evolves.

If you experience a lot of breakdowns, miscommunications, or a regular inability to complete the task on time, and as the saying goes, you may be trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip.

You can’t expect someone whose is new to internet marketing to be a whiz at getting savvy squeeze pages up in a day. It’s an unrealistic expectation. Often when we outsource and delegate tasks in the beginning we hire for the current needs versus hiring someone who has the ability to expand and grow as you do.

This issue can be resolved if both parties are willing to identify the gaps and create a plan to increase the team members skills.

ACTION: Educate your team on your new vision and how the role will change in order to achieve new goals. Meet with each team member to decide if they are willing/able to fulfill new role.

2. The systems, procedures and technology necessary to perform at optimum speed are not up to date, creating tension and frustration for the person responsible.

For three years we knew we had a poor system for managing customer purchases and lead follow-up. But the investment and time it would take to fix the problem kept it on the back burner.

This year we knew to make the leap we desired we’d have to bite the bullet and make it happen. The result is less duplication of effort and more marketing efficiency. Not having the ideal CRM system over the years caused so much frustration, angst and breakdown between my fast-paced team that the cost of NOT upgrading the system became too great.

ACTION: Assess areas of breakdown, frustration or inefficiency. Invite your team to share their insights too. Then make a list of what needs to be upgraded and prioritize based on budget, time and cost. Don’t forget to evaluate the cost to NOT upgrade as well…

3. The contractor or employee being delegated to does not have the habits and behaviors necessary to sustain growth with the new role.

A heart-breaking moment is when the entrepreneur recognizes that their breakneck pace cannot be sustained by someone on their team. Or, when after repeated breakdowns, we finally realize the reason why certain tasks are always late is because the person doing them is not a good time manager or is distracted with multiple priorities and can’t focus well.

The good news is that habits can be changed, if the team member is willing. I’ve found that just like us, our support teams are bombarded with requests, changes and conflicting priorities so creating a new system to handle time management can often resolve the problem.

It’s important to create a time frame in which the necessary changes must take place, then be willing to end your working relationship if they can’t make the shift. In order to grow you must have a team that can keep up.

Keep in mind – if one person in the equation is not happy, then it’s not a win-win and neither of you will be happy over the long run.

4. The preferences, needs or attitude of the team member are not aligned with the business today.

A client of mine had a major breakthrough in my Virtual Team Building TeleBootCamp when she recognized that she had hired an online business manager (OBM) whose vision for himself was being a well-known internet marketing super-star.

When she finally realized that, for the level of growth she was experiencing, she needed full-time contractors dedicated to HER vision, she breathed a huge sigh of relief and let the OBM go.

Another client was struggling with an intern straight out of college who was bright and promising but routinely was confused and overwhelmed by trying to take on more responsibility. After probing through the diagnostics, we uncovered the intern really wanted to be on the road in more of a sales job vs. being an admin type person.

You can’t change someone else’s preferences, needs or attitude – and if their focus is not in alignment with yours, then it may be best to let them go. Using this four step diagnostic tool will help you separate your emotions from the facts.

Many of us become friends and grow attached emotionally to our support team (that’s quite natural) but you have to remember – you run a business!

If the team member is not a positive impact to the bottom line, you can’t afford to continue to invest in them. As this excellent unknown contributor has said in this quote, “If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs!”

It’s our job as entrepreneurs to have the best talent we can invest in to propel our mission forward!

——-

This article is 2nd in a series by Melanie Benson Strick, virtual business building coach and StomperNet Faculty Member. Look for the 3rd installment next week.

The New Year is just around the corner and with it comes all kinds of great advice about what you should be doing to achieve your goals. How about what you should not be doing? As the go-to person in this industry on productivity, profit explosion and business optimization, I’m here to say that some people just SHOULD NOT delegate. Curious? Here are four reasons why you should absolutely, positively NOT delegate or outsource to expand your business this year: 1. The idea of making more money is revolting. Why allow other people to help you get more money making tasks done? That’s just silly! You love staying stuck exactly where you are because you must do everything yourself. I mean come on, money doesn’t grow on trees so why should you wisely invest it in capable, hard-working, efficient associates who help you achieve more in a week than you normally do in a year? Even if you could see proof that learning how to hire “A” players to manage your social media, update your website, handle your organic SEO strategies would free you up to triple your income, why bother with stuff like that when you’ve got so much to do today, right? 2. Doing tasks that suck the life out of you is the highlight of your day. When you wake up you are ecstatic knowing that you’ll get to update your bookkeeping records or spend 2 – 3 hours answering routine questions from tire-kickers who never plan to buy. But the highlight of your day – filing! Why, cause it’s an excellent use of your time. Who wouldn’t want to spend countless hours putting papers in folders when they could be putting together a launch strategy that could results in over $100k in revenue? Then there are your personal favorites…the tasks that make you feel like a Mac truck ran over you. You know the ones ….you feel completely exhausted afterwards. As you dig into these tasks (if you ever get to them) you think how luck you are to be an entrepreneur with all this freedom. Why would you ever want to spend most of your time doing things that make boat-loads of money? 3. Perfection, not progress, is the only route for you. You are committed to getting things done yourself — correctly. Can you really trust someone else to do things right (I mean really what does Bill Gates know about delegation…he’s the genius in the business.) As you release every product perfectly with great pride, you somehow overlook the consequence of this choice – it takes you 5 – 10 times longer to get things done. Even though you are frustrated with your slow progress you fear handing things off to someone else. You witness your peers who have discovered the secrets to hiring “A” players soaring to new heights and wonder what must be wrong that you can’t get these same results. The last option is to buy the content straight-out.  You can get a ghost-writer to produce it and still make a hefty little profit in the process. Again, no matter what path you take, make sure you're producing content that people are actually willing to pay for. 4. Sleep and a social life are highly over-rated! Who needs sleep, right? There is so much to do you can barely get a few winks at night let alone actually meet your friends for a nice evening out. Family? Who are they? Oh those people who walk up and down your hallway waiting for you to come out and have dinner together. Don’t they understand that you have hundreds of tasks to accomplish in record time and you don’t have anyone to help you out? Not that you couldn’t – you just have your head in the weeds and you haven’t yet seen the brilliance in slowing down, hiring some capable people and multiplying your accomplishments in record time. All silliness aside, why on earth should an entrepreneur delegate or outsource? Because it’s how you create a business that can grow into six figures and beyond, profitably, without losing your mind! When you pay attention to the business owners who consistently generate high six and seven figures, you’ll notice the one thing they all have in common is: they don’t do it alone. The key is not just delegating to the cheapest labor either. What works is learning how to hire people who will take tasks off your plate so you can focus on doing what you do best! And that requires a system of identify the right tasks to hand off, the right people who can do the job, and the right delegation techniques to ensure the tasks are done correctly the first time. Stay tuned over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing with you some of my insider secrets to exponentially growing your revenue and results through delegation and outsourcing!   Copyright © 2006-2009 StomperNet, LLC. All rights reserved.

The key to more sales isn't always getting more traffic. Sometimes, just improving conversions on your existing traffic is enough to produce staggering results. In this article I am going to share some simple design tactics that will explode your business, just by turning more of the visitors you're already getting from browsers…into buyers! All you need to do is master some tried and true, old-school direct response design tricks. I am going to cover three of them right here in this article. So let's get right to it, shall we?             StomperNet Design Tactic #1: Understand F-Patterns Several eye tracking studies have revealed that most website visitors don't read website pages the same way they read books or magazines. That is, top to bottom, left to right. Instead, website users tend to read pages in an F-Pattern… That is, they read in horizontal “sections”, and read less and less of each line as they read down the left side. Here are some examples: Notice the pattern? Although it's more pronounced on some pages than others, it's still unmistakable. So how do you apply this to Sales, Squeeze or Landing pages? Here is an example of a page I designed recently for a launch: PPC Classroom Sales Page, February 2009   Notice how much attention I paid to F-Patterns as I laid out the most important elements of the page? Starting at the top left, the first thing people see is the company logo (My clients were building a long-term brand with this business, so this was important to them. Then, as you “F-Pattern” the rest of the page – notice what sticks out… “Discover the secrets”… “Interactive eLearning system”… “Claim your Free DVD”… “Proof Positive”... These four things (along with the logo) were the five most important items we wanted to communicate with the entire page. The platform (the eLearning system) was a huge selling point, and the Free DVD was integral to the offer… And the entire offer hinged on the massive proof that we had from students who had previously taken the course. So of course “Proof Positive” is in the headline. (By the way, this page converted well over 12%… And I bet my bottom dollar our close attention to F-Patterns was partly responsible for the massive conversions.) Here is an example of the exact opposite: (Some random site I found on the Internet… YIKES!)   It looks like an e-Book threw up on this page. What happens when you F-Pattern this page? Nothing! You get the word “Congratulations!” This page is simply too busy and too poorly designed to work well. The bottom line here is that understanding F-Patterns can make a huge difference in your page conversions. Just keep the following in mind…users won't read your text word-by-word. You need to make the first three-five words of each focal point really, really good. The first two paragraphs should state the most important information. Make sure to start subheads, paragraphs, and bullets with enticing words that users will notice when scanning. StomperNet Design Tactic #2: Give People What They Are Used To. Famed Madison Avenue Advertising Legend David Ogilvy once said: “The eye is trained from an early age. Move away from what the eye is used to, and you stop readership.” I couldn't agree more, and all my testing and tweaking over the past three years has proven it time and time again. You have to meet people where they are and give them something they are familiar with. And in many cases, this means building an “Internet Marketing” looking page… Even if it's NOT a sales letter. Build your blog posts, and content pages the same way, too. Create your product content in the same format. People are trained to read bigger, bolder words… so make your headlines bigger and bolder. Make them red, too… so they stand out (More on the color Red in a minute) from the rest of your text. Give your sub-headlines and paragraph titles a bit more emphasis than your regular body copy… And use plenty of whitespace so your page doesn't look crowded. Keep is simple and create a familiar hierarchy with your content. When it comes to font use, I suggest you use Sans-Serif fonts for your headlines and sub-headlines, and Serif fonts for your regular in-line body copy. Sans Serif fonts are fonts without those little doo-hickeys on the tops and bottoms of the letters. Serif fonts have the extra little “embellishments. So for headlines and sub-headlines, use fonts like Impact, Tahoma Bold, and Helvetica Bold. For your regular in-line body copy, use Serif fonts. Serif fonts have been used in print for years (Magazines, Newspapers, books) and have been proven to create higher readability. This includes fonts like Courier New, Georgia, and Times New Roman. StomperNet Design Tactic #3: Use Colors! Most marketers throw a couple outsourced “mini-site” graphics on their page and hope for the best. But not you, my fellow readers.  Because you're about to understand the unlimited power of using the correct colors to market your products. You see, colors create immediate subconscious reactions in people. Some colors set off warning bells, others trigger the libido, or even make you feel safe. And just like with well-written copy, you can often use color theory to slide right in under the radar and get into your prospects minds to influence their buying habits. I know, I know… You might be thinking “That sounds creepy” but I assure you it's not. You will simply have an edge because you understand how people tend to react. Take Blue for example: Blue is, obviously, the color of the ocean, and also the sky. It should come as no surprise then that Blue is proven to work well when promoting air and sky products (airlines, air conditioning units, fans, air filters, etc. etc.) and also water and sea products (cruise vacations, water filters, boats, bottled water, etc. etc.) Blue is often associated with depth and stability. It automatically evokes emotions of trust, security, intelligence, peace, and loyalty in people. On the other hand, avoid blue when promoting food and cooking products. Blue suppresses the appetite. Red is often associated with passion, desire, war, danger, strength, power, and love. Are you surprised that Red works well in the dating and seduction niches? You shouldn't be. Red also works well with products like energy drinks, automobiles, and items related to sports and action. Most traditional designers (Print designers, for example, working in design houses or advertising agencies) understand Color Theory… But the average person who puts up a blog or website most likely doesn't know these things. They might put up a blue cooking blog and never understand why they aren't getting sales. It's because of color. Want some more examples? Bright yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxis are painted this color. When overused, yellow can have a disturbing effect. Tests show that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; which is why this combination is often used to issue warnings. Men tend to see yellow as a lighthearted, 'childish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men. This explains why you don't ever see Yellow in high-end watch advertisements, or advertisements for expensive cars. I could go on and on about color use, but it's probably about time for me to wrap things up. Here is a short list of common emotions associated with other popular colors: Black – Power, class, seriousness, drama, sophistication, and boldness. (Prestigious products) White – Purity, peace, cleanliness, freshness. (Great for medical products and weight loss products) Purple – Sophistication, royalty, mystery, spirituality. (Great for Yoga products) Green – Freshness, safety, growth, vitality, calmness, prestige. (Great for Drugs, Medical products, and Nature and Natural products as well. Use Darker Green for Financial or Make Money products) Orange - Enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success. (Works great for toys and puzzles.) Hopefully this quick look at color helps you start thinking about these things when you design your marketing collateral. Keep in mind that this is only a rough guide: There are hundreds and hundreds of books about the psychology of color and how it affects buying habits. I will include some additional resources at the end of this article for you Stompers who want to learn more. Summary Pay close attention to where you position things on your pages. Follow an F-Pattern with your layout to make sure the highest number of people possible sees your vital information. Use fonts people are familiar and comfortable with, and above all else make sure your creatives are easy for people to look at and consume. Use colors that create positive emotions with your audience and frame them towards buying what you are offering. Resources Renowned web usability expert Jacob Neilson has published some excellent research on F-Patterns  for you Stompers who want to learn more: http://www.useit.com/eyetracking To learn more about fonts and typography without getting bored to tears, Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger's “Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works” is a great place to start. Interested in Color Theory? I recommend starting with "The Elements of Color" by Johannes Itten and "The Art of Color” by  Johannes Itten. Both are excellent books and can be found on Amazon.com. One last tip. Buy some comic books! Comic book writers and artists are experts at capturing complex ideas in very few words and limited space. It's a great way to study how to market to today's attention-fragmented society. Enjoy this Article? Get an entire Trial Issue of "The Net Effect" (plus a special free bonus!) for only $1

Copyright © 2006-2009 StomperNet, LLC. All rights reserved.

Escape from Broad Match Hell!

by Dan Thies, StomperNet Faculty Member

 

The Net Effect | StomperNet

You’re here…

The fact that you’re here tells me that you know enough about StomperNet to know a touch about what StomperNet is and have found some value in what we do and teach.

For the last (almost) 3 years, we have created over 100 millionaires due to the fact that we offer the best training on Earth related to how to grow your online business. There are a bunch of reasons why StomperNet has been able to give people the crazy results we’ve helped others create for their businesses:

• Our World Class Faculty delivering cutting edge techniques
• Professional Coaches ensuring members establish and work toward their goals
• 1400 hours of Focused, Expert Training across every online topic
• A Community of Brilliant Members happily helping each other
• The Best Live Events around
• Ultra-Focused Premium Level Courses

The thing is that it isn’t any one of those things that creates millionaires. It’s the combination. The system. All of these things together are the key to creating amazing success stories. Beyond the system, it’s the members that spend the time to find the answers to their questions inside of our massive library of training that make the difference. The actions they take dictate their level of success.

We know StomperNet works perfectly for the members we have.

I still became upset over where StomperNet stood. I realized that the time had come to make some changes.

The Elite level of membership we’ve maintained at StomperNet has left out thousands of people due to the cost of our Membership. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying StomperNet has ever been overpriced. You could ask any member and they’d tell you that just isn’t the case.

I KNEW there was a way to make StomperNet available to ANYONE that wants to be successful online.

If that’s you, get ready.

Everything will become clear tomorrow – from our brand new set of Stomper Tools to the other crazy changes we’ve added into the program – know that it’s strategically designed to push you to success faster than you’ve ever imagined before.

Be here: http://stomper999.com at 9:09 am on Wednesday September the 9th.

You’ll be glad you did.

Brad Fallon,

CEO

StomperNet

It's Your Front Row Seat to StomperNet
LIVE 8 – Without Leaving Your House!

StomperNet LIVE 8 Keynotes
All 14 Videos Now Available For Instant Access

For 3 jam-packed days, almost 700 people were riveted to their seats by the best lineup of the year. And they took notes, copious notes. One after another, presenters from around the world took the stage and enthralled the crowd of information-thirsty entrepreneurs and Internet Marketers.

These speakers, some of the brightest marketing minds on the planet (including our vaunted StomperNet Faculty) were handpicked by us to talk about topics that ranged from “How to Get Super-Affiliates to Promote You” to “How to Make the Most of Twitter”.

If you were there, you know how it went down. If you weren’t, here’s your opportunity to get all of the Keynote Addresses for StomperNet LIVE 8 (and we’ll throw in a month of StomperNet Elite membership to boot!) Either way, don’t miss this limited time offer to get a front row seat – without leaving your house!

With the LIVE 8 Keynote Special Edition DVD You Get:

• INSTANT ACCESS to ALL 14 of the LIVE 8 Keynote Presentations
• The full DVDs of all 14 will be on their way in the mail shortly
• PLUS – 30 Days Full Access to StomperNet (a $797 value)

Stay Out Front with over 20 hours of cutting-edge, no-pitch training from the top Online Marketing minds on the Planet – AND a month of access to StomperNet

All for just $399!

You’ll have immediate access to the Live 8 Keynote Presentations right after you order – that’s over 20 HOURS of pure content about the things that the top folks in the game have on their minds right now.

Then, in the next 30 days, those presentations will also be shipped to you on DVD, so you'll have them forever!

During your 30-day Elite StomperNet Membership you can:

• Train yourself using our 1,400 videos and audios on all of the cutting-edge Internet Marketing topics that our faculty covers.

• Can join Faculty Office Hours, where you can ask your Burning Questions about your business or your site to the top SEO, Conversion, Analytics, Social Media, and Business Building experts around!

• Answer almost any question about Online Success from the over 200,000 Forum posts

• Work with one of our Professional Coaches to ensure you start on track and STAY on track to achieve your online goals.

Check out who spoke at LIVE 8, and what they talked about:

Jeff Johnson

“How To Get Super Affiliates To Mail Your Stuff” by Jeff Johnson.

• Who better to explain what motivates affiliates than a super affiliate themselves?
• Reveals some helpful tips and insights from his own personal experience as an affiliate .
• Shows you how to get better results from yours.

Dan Thies

"Six Things You Must Know To Survive in Online Marketing" by Dan Thies.

• A veteran heavy hitter in the SEO world who's known around StomperNet as “THE keyword research Guru”.
• Dan Thies shares the most important things that you need to know about Online Marketing.
• Learn from his long-time experience and secure your place online.

Russell Brunson

"Taking your Business to the Next Level" by Russell Brunson.

• Go "behind the scenes" and look into a business that generates 8 figures a year in online sales.
• He shows you the little tweaks and changes that helped him jump from 6 to 7 to 8 figures in revenue.
• What could those changes do for YOUR business?

James Shramko

"Affiliate Pounce" by James Scramko.

• James Schramko tells you not to expend time and effort until you KNOW that your niche is profitable and sustainable.
• Learn how to identify profitable niches and the products that satisfy the needs of those niches.
• Learn about strategies and automated profit systems for affiliate marketing, list building, SEO, and traffic generation.
• James introduces you to ‘Affiliate Pounce’!!

Brad Fallon

"Create Massive Leverage with Mafia Offers" by Brad Fallon.

• CEO of StomperNet.
• An active member of an elite Mastermind Group of CEOs, Brad takes you to the top of your business.
• Learn how to successfully fulfill a role in your own company that will allow it to grow rapidly- beyond what you thought possible.

Paul Colligan

"Social Media Roundtable" by Paul Colligan.

• Join Web 2.0 Expert Paul Colligan, as he dives into Media and Web 2.0.
• He'll challenge everything that you think you know about media for Web 2.0
• Once and for all, learn how you can do it the right way- to maximize your profits.

Dan Hollings

"Twitter Twenius" by Dan Hollings.

• Think you know Twitter? Well, grab hold of your cranium because you're about to undergo an intensive Twitter brain transplant with Twitter Twenius, Dan Hollings.
• Dan will uncover things like: how to build not just followers, but "listeners”.
• Using Twitter can be your 24/7 TV channel driving never-ending targeted traffic.
• Creating viral testimonial engines, automating without the annoying robots.
• Repurposing content for perpetual social marketing.
• Yes, you'll move at the speed of light as Dan reveals the E=mc² of the Twitterverse.

Andy Edmonds and Dave Bullock

"Split Testing" by Andy Edmonds, David Bullock, and Rodney Trotter.

• That which cannot be tested cannot be improved”.
• In this presentation Andy Edmonds, Dave Bullock, and Rodney Trotter explain the value of split testing on conversion.
• Provide an outline of Taguchi testing.
• And also give a preview of an amazing new StomperNet split- and Taguchi-testing tool!

Ross Goldberg

"Where are your New Customers Hiding?" by Ross Goldberg.

• Learn the psychology of your customers.
• Learn a proven and effective way to market: covering every possible avenue to reach customers.
• He shares a system that can be easily implemented and that generate measurable results, within a week.

Leslie Rohde, Jerry West, & Dan Thies

"SEO Triple Play" by Leslie Rohde, Jerry West, and Dan Thies.

• Watch these three put on a stellar presentation (they're also known as the "SEO Triple Threat".)
• Here are three of the deadliest SEO experts in the WORLD together in one place, and with one common purpose: "To change the way these people think about SEO forever and destroy ALL the misconceptions that are making them fail again and again…"

Scott Hallman

"The Windfall Profits Workshop" by Scott Hallman

• Scott is known as the 'Master of Implementation.
• Learn his rapid growth success practices.
• Modeled from leading global firms.
• Shows you how those same practices can be applied to your business.

Joe Polish

"Time Management Marketing" by Joe Polish.

• Entrepreneurs constantly reference mastermind groups as one of the most useful tools for enhancing their success.
• Learn about the Genius Network Mastermind group, a marketing brainstorming group for highly successful entrepreneurs.
• You can supercharge your success with a mastermind group.

Mike Koenigs

"12 Mistakes Most Online Marketers Make" by Mike Koenigs. (Traffic Geyser)

• Learn about how to get explosive results with online Video.
• Recognizes 12 Major Mistakes that you might be making.
• Watch how you can use content syndication techniques and strategies to revolutionize the way you grow your online business.

Don Crowther

"Increase Your Traffic By 25% in 90 Days Or Less" by Don Crowther.

• Are you intrigued by the power of social media, but concerned that it would require huge time investments and generate little return? That’s all about to change!
• Learn a simple, proven system that: can increase your traffic by 25% or more in 90 days or less;
• Is easily executed in just minutes per day .
• Positions you as an expert so that other people turn to you as the premier source for information and products.
• Generates significant increases in search engine positioning and profitability.

With the LIVE 8 Keynote Special Edition DVD You Get:

• INSTANT ACCESS to ALL 14 of the LIVE 8 Keynote Presentations
• The full DVDs of all 14 will be on their way in the mail shortly
• PLUS – 30 Days Full Access to StomperNet (a $797 value)

Stay Out Front with over 20 hours of cutting-edge, no-pitch training from the top Online Marketing minds on the Planet – AND a month of access to StomperNet

All for just $399!