A million posts? Let's get some perspective here...

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1,000,000 posts. In just over a year? That's huge.

I had a thought today. (I know, Riley and Taylor are going to scoff at the... well... thought.)

I came out with my first "big" product in 2002, at just about the time Allen moved the forum from Uni-sol to Snitz. As far as I know, it was the first ebook ever done on the subject of building a list of subscribers.

No, this isn't an ad. The thing isn't even for sale any more.

I dug it out today, and was surprised at how much it's like the Warrior Forum in some ways. Lots of things have changed, and some stuff has become a lot more advanced, but everything important is still pretty much the same.

There are some things in this critter that are still glossed over or missing in a lot of list building books. And some stuff you'll probably laugh at, because it seems so basic. It was written in 2002, after all.

Some of the links are bad by now, but surprisingly few. The subscription address at the end doesn't work any more. Still, it's a look at how far we've come in the past 7 years of the business, and you might find that part interesting.

No opt-in. Not even a page. Just the download link.

http://www.talkbiz.com/ListMachine.zip

When you hear people talking about how much of a difference your own product can make in your life, believe them. This silly little thing changed more for me than you might think.

When you read it, consider how much of it is familiar. That's the stuff that's based on principles. And look at how much things have improved, and how many more ways there are for you to make money now.

That's progress. A whopping great chunk of it happened right here, in the Warrior Forum.

If anyone else wants to throw something in that helps give the new people some perspective on how far we've come, join the party. Sometimes a bit of the long perspective can help folks see something that can make a difference for them.


Paul
#million #perspective #posts
  • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
    2002, that's the year I started online

    And I do believe your book was one of the first I ever bought Mr Myers

    Cheers
    Kim
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Kim,
      I do believe your book was one of the first I ever bought
      Smart lady.
      Mr Myers
      "Mr Myers?" Careful, ma'am. Papa spank.

      So, as you see it, what's changed, and what's stayed the same since then?


      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
        lol 7 years is a lifetime on the Internet.

        I was looking at one of my old ebooks only last night that I first sold online, and I was cringing.

        What's changed online hmm

        I'd be inclined to say it was a lot easier to sell online in the wild west days. You could throw a website up, drive some traffic to it and within a few days you could be earning a nice little income. Having said that, it was pretty darn complicated to get it up there

        I remember when video first came in and it was absolutely huge because it was so new. (How many people said it would never take off lol). Vids also took a huge amount of storage and were pretty complicated to upload. Look how easy it is now to upload something from your cell phone to Youtube etc.

        I'm sure we would all agree that Web 2 revolutionised the Internet, Hell I'm not sure I ever got my head round web 1...

        I've just done my grocery shopping online for it to be delivered tomorrow night. Can you imagine that luxury in 2002!

        Folks are also a lot more Internet savvy now and much more discerning and I'm sure that must be a good thing.

        Kim

        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        Kim,Smart lady. "Mr Myers?" Careful, ma'am. Papa spank.

        So, as you see it, what's changed, and what's stayed the same since then?


        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author kf
          Hmmm. Myers and spank in the same post ... be still my heart.

          Okay. I'll play. Here's a look at a site I built in '96. That's over 13 years ago!

          You could call it a portal, or off-line marketing, or directory ...

          It was monetized by selling directory space - I sold space online and in person, where I would do the standard 20 calls, 4 sits, one sale routine.

          It also brought in money through banner ads and ezine ads, plus affiliate links ...

          It had an opt-in (and opt-out) box for a weekly ezine/newsletter ...

          It even had an affiliate program!

          It's funny to look at it now. It had a folksy feel to it even then. However, compared to a lot of sites online, it was professional and clean looking with decent graphics. You saw a lot of white pages then with multi-color font headlines.

          Fast forward 13 years and things haven't changed that much.

          I lost interest in this site and even (gasp) didn't bother to renew the domain at one point.

          So some things to put it in perspective:

          Find your target market. Provide a service. Build a community.

          In this case, this site built in '96 was ahead of the curve. If I'd held on a while longer, it would have been a much easier sell. At the time I spent more time educating prospects about the power of the Internet (and holistic health providers and the Internet were not such a great match at the time - think microwaves). So ... preach to the converted. Sometimes being in the lead is not the best place to be.

          I should have sold the site, or sold the business. So if you have something, consider it an asset and sit on it if you need to.

          I could have left the site up and let it earn some money passively through banner ads, etc. I could breathe a whole new life into that site today, or even 5 years ago.

          Never let go of your domain names ... unless they're absolutely crap.

          Traffic was easy to come by if you knew your way around a meta tag or two.

          BTW, domain names were $70/yr ... and the hosting, until I got it out of Canada, was costing me almost $100/month. LOL. Online merchant accounts ... please.

          In summary, I think working online then was more of a business decision. It cost money. You had to be sure the returns were there.

          Now we can grab a domain and hosting for under $20 and gamble on an idea.

          The ezine was delivered manually ... by cutting and pasting the addresses in text in ISP manageable chunks to send it out. Subscribes, unsubscribes, all forms .... handled manually. Aweber is well worth the fee IMO.

          ~ Kate

          ---
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          Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything. ~ Alexander Hamilton
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          • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
            Did I hear spanking going on in here?
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            "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author Martin Luxton
        Paul,

        Interesting seeing the old formating with the indents at the beginning of each paragraph.

        Because of your economical writing style, in a funny kind of way the layout makes it look like a book of poetry.

        Martin
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          Martin,

          I'm not often accused of having an "economical writing style."

          You're a relative newcomer to the game. What do you see as having changed in this business since you started, and what's still the same (and likely to stay that way)?


          Paul
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          • Profile picture of the author Martin Luxton
            Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

            Martin,
            You're a relative newcomer to the game. What do you see as having changed in this business since you started, and what's still the same (and likely to stay that way)?
            Paul
            What's changed?

            1. The sheer proliferation of choice and the speed with which it's happening. In some ways it seems it was easier in the beginning of the net because there were few tools to work with. Now you could spend half your life trying to work out which tool to buy/use and by the time you've made up your mind it's been superseded by something else. I read a while back that people working on the technical side of the net/computers find that half of their knowledge is out of date within 6 months.

            2. The rapid acceptance of the internet. I think it's in a large part due to automation of mundane and time-consuming tasks.
            I remember the first time I used the internet. I was writing down useful URLs and thinking it was such a hassle remembering all those http's and dots and slashes people wouldn't bother with it. I hadn't reckoned on the phenomenal speed of technological advances. Bookmarking seems such a simple concept but it so powerful.

            3. The older generations (people WAAAAAAAY older than you and me )
            are becoming early adopters. In the UK now silver surfers are becoming the dominant demographic online, both in terms of numbers and average time spent on the net.

            4. Those are all external things but I'd like to mention one important internal factor. It's important to make note of how you, yourself, have changed.

            8 years ago, my wife had to show me 5 times how to set up a Yahoo email account. Now, I'm teaching people the ins and outs of gmail.

            What's going to stay the same?

            People


            Martin
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            • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
              Lots of good points here.

              John's PDF on testing gives some great examples of the things that don't change in principle. Sure, there are better tools these days, but they don't do much good without understanding what he covers in that product.

              Interesting that John points to testing. One of the bonuses for my book was the first version of Paul Hancox's "Small Changes, Big Profits."

              As far as it being easier to sell in 2002, I'm not sure if that's really true or not. The market was much larger than when I started, but still nothing like the size that exists today. There was still a bit of the "early adopter" going on, which meant you had more zealous prospects.

              Probably a wash in that regard.

              Kate's point about the lower cost of entry is a big one. That's a good thing, in the sense that it lets a lot more people into the game. It's got some down sides, too. For starters, it lets people with nothing useful to offer in the way of value or ethics pollute the market.

              A worse problem is that people associate the ease of getting into the game with their chances of success. The folks who've made it work also make it look easy. So, people with no technical or business experience jump in with big hopes. They have no plan and no awareness of what's involved, and they make no effort to develop a focused business model. Most of them fail - badly.

              The low cost of entry is also why we see so many desperate people getting into the business. They start running numbers they don't understand, and pretty quick they've got themselves out of their jams and onto the beach.

              On paper, anyway. When their assumptions collide with reality, everything folds around them. They're worse off than when they started.

              Of course, the folks who deal with reality on its own terms tend to do well, assuming they can read the numbers and believe what people actually do, rather than insisting that markets behave the way they want them to.

              Those people benefit a lot from the lower costs.

              Steve F ... Thanks. And yeah - I do need to update that list. There are a lot more people who need to be aded than are on it now.

              Steven W's comments about building a list are spot on. The part of it that's changed is that you don't actually need the physical list of addresses any more, as long as you understand what it represents: An active and engaged audience.

              There are a ton of vehicles for developing that kind of audience. The list is still the easiest, but it's no longer the only way.

              The key point he makes is that you need that easily reachable audience, and a way to keep expanding it. That's all about value.

              Martin pegged the whole thing when he said the one part that's not going to change is people.

              When I first got online, I was using a machine that would be considered primitive compared to a couple I've got sitting downstairs that are way out of date. The numbers are amazing.

              I have 2 terrabytes of hard drive storage on my desk at the moment. That's 40,000 times the space I had on the first machine I had with a hard drive in it, at less than half the price of that drive alone.

              The rest of the numbers aren't quite as large, but they're still in ranges I wouldn't have believed back then.

              I used that old system to send out newsletters that looked very much like the ones I send today, and which went to folks with the same ambitions and motivations. (And even to some of the same people.)

              I could send out the very first article from 1996, and it would make as much sense and be as useful today as it was back then. Maybe more, given the topic and the current economy.

              The thing that doesn't change is also the thing that determines your success online: People. If you focus on the person reading your content or looking at your ad or viewing your videos, you're going to have a lot better chance of long-term success.

              The technology is just a way to get them what they want. Don't view it as anything more than that, or you'll get caught in the trap that kills more people's hopes online than anything else.


              Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Fullman
    Buy Paul a Beer

    I did

    Again...(maybe one day I'll get on the buddies "list"!)

    Thanks, Paul. Worth a lot more than I paid!

    The fact you're giving this stuff away is a testament to how dedicated you are to helping this community.

    7 years old...totally relevant today.

    Thanks,

    Steve
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    Not promoting right now

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  • Profile picture of the author John Taylor
    Paul,

    An "interesting" excercise.. Not the thinking! ;-)

    As you so rightly pointed out, the basic foundations
    remain the same, the technology has moved on quite
    a bit and it's got its fair share of dud links from 2003:
    http://www.test-and-track.com/revpdf...ack_Report.pdf

    John
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    John's Internet Marketing News, Views & Reviews: John Taylor Online
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  • Profile picture of the author kf
    Jill. Shhhh... all the girls are hiding in this closet .. come in .. shut the door quietly.
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    Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything. ~ Alexander Hamilton
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      I started one year after Paul's book came out.

      I didn't know what an opt in list was. I didn't know such a thing existed. I
      didn't know Paul Myers existed. Heck, I didn't know anybody existed. I was
      as green as they came. My first encounter with any kind of a big name
      was Mike Filsaime. I think it was some safelist he was promoting of his. If
      I'm not mistaken, that's how he got his start, with safelist marketing.

      I didn't start building my first opt in list until 2005. That year, because of it,
      my income increased by 4 times.

      If I had known info like this existed in 2003, I would be a lot farther along
      than I am today. I took forever to get anywhere because I learned
      everything virtually on my own and by trial and error. Heck, I didn't join
      this forum until December of 2006 because until that time, I didn't even
      know IT existed.

      Paul's book, as far as the, what I call, "connecting with your prospects"
      part, is pretty much what I figured out after screwing up one list after
      another in my early days. The big differences between then and now is
      we have so much more available to us on a technological and even
      networking level. There are so many more ways to build a list now that
      we didn't have then.

      For example, using social bookmarking and social networking (Digg, Twitter,
      etc.) you can easily build a list of subscribers. Same with YouTube. I
      have over 40 videos up there that help build my list every day.

      Many marketers think that it was easier back then because there wasn't
      as much competition. But I wouldn't want to go back to those days for
      anything. We have so much more we can do today. Sure, there is more
      competition. But there is also more people online to market to. Remember,
      back then, nowhere near as many people had computers as now.

      Here is the latest data from 2000 to now.

      World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats

      Quite a difference.

      Paul, thanks for a great report.

      7 years later, much of it still applies.
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