Time is precious. We only have so much of it to use. And yet, there are so many people who feel that they have the right to waste mine! Here are a couple of rants about two of the worst offenders.
<rant id=’dvds’>
One of my pet peeves recently has been DVD startup times. I’m not talking about previews — I don’t normally mind them as long as I can skip them. What I’m talking about is the menu that takes 30 seconds to load (and can’t be skipped). I should be able to press Play within 1 second of the menu loading if I want to. I DON’T WANT TO WATCH THE MENU! Sorry about getting loud there.
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
On top of that, there are the endless warnings against piracy and disclaimers of any responsibility for the content. Yada, yada, yada! Seen it thousands of times already. I don’t need to see it in 3 languages. I know you legally need to have them there, but give me the option to skip it.
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
Then there are the opening credits. I know that there are many companies and individuals involved in getting a movie produced and they want to get their name out there, but all those 5 to 10 second spots adds up. At least some, like DreamWorks, try to make it creative and fit with the movie. But it is still a waste of my time! And don’t get me started about the THX spots. They were funny the first couple of hundred times. The audience is listening, but we’re no longer amused.
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
</rant>
<rant id=’internet-marketing’>
So, why is this rant in the Social Media category of the blog? Well, it seems that the DVD producers aren’t the only ones that want to waste my precious time.
It seems that Internet Marketers have decided that my time is not worth much. For some reason, they are more than willing to fill up my time with empty hype rather than getting to the point.
I’ve been looking at affiliate programs that I might be able to partner with to help subsidize my income. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there seems to be a formula out there that tells marketers to Make It Longâ„¢.
Page after page of proof (yeah, like that can’t be faked) and testimonials. Hyper-inflated values all for an itty-bitty price. The fake urgency. I’m getting kind of sick of it.
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
I subscribed to a series of videos (thankfully free) that promised to show me how to make thousands per month making licensing deals. I spent 1/2 hour looking at the first video. All it did was tell me what it was going to tell me in the later videos! I didn’t need to waste half an hour for that — I’d already signed up! Even the first 6 minutes of the second video was wasted telling me what was coming up and how excited I should be about it. FAIL!
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
I’m sick of having to spend 15 minutes to get 2 minutes worth of information. I’m tired of marketers that want me to listen (and even watch) as they drone on in podcasts, conference calls and videos that I cannot easily skim through. They want my attention and my money, but they aren’t willing to put it in a form that works for me — i.e. written form.
STOP WASTING MY TIME!
</rant>
There, Now I Feel Better
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system (for now), let’s talk a bit about some of the affiliate programs and other sites I’ve found so far that haven’t been a problem.
AONC
First of all, I really like Chris Guillebeau’s approach at the Art of Non-Conformity. It is the approach that I like to take in my online dealings. His e-mails contain actual information and the odd bit of promotion. There is no pressure. There is no hype. In fact, he tells you up front that he doesn’t expect everyone to jump on the products he offers.
Chris even says that he tries to scare people away if he doesn’t think they’ll be the kind of audience he wants to reach. Simple numbers are not important. He is looking for an audience that is actually interested in what he has to say.
He uses a limited affiliate program and I hope to soon be able to qualify to promote some of his products. If they match up to the free content that he provides then I expect them to be spectacular. I hope to be able to post a review of some soon.
ProBlogger
Darren Rowse has also taken a low key approach to online marketing. He is the force behind ProBlogger and TwiTip. He has other blogs as well, but I have found these two to be very helpful to me in my adventures in blogging and on Twitter. Some of you many remember that I had a guest post published on TwiTip. That was a wonderful opportunity for me and I learned a lot from that experience.
Recently, Darren held the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. I’ve been quite slow working through all the material myself. There are 31 activities to work on throughout the month. For those of you that missed it or who would like it in a single workbook format, Darren has made this resource available for a reasonable fee. Check out the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge Workbook for information about this.
[Update: The link to the workbook above is now an affiliate link as I have joined Darren’s affiliate program]
Yaro Starak
Yaro is another blogger from Down Under who has a pair of products that he promotes through affiliate programs. While his marketing techniques are not as concise as I’d like, they are better than most.
[Note: I have signed up to be an affiliate for his programs, so be aware that the links in this section are affiliate links.]
He does have a free report (Membership Site Masterplan) for his Membership Site Mastermind program. I have found it to be quite informative so far. I’m still working through it and I will definitely be looking into the product if I get around to setting up a membership site (I have an idea percolating …) You will need to join his e-mail list to gain access to the report. This will result in a weekly e-mail from Yaro. I’ve found them to be informative and they are not pushy.
There are some videos that he has posted relating to the program as well. As you can tell from the rants above, this is not one of my favourite things but you can check them out if you are so inclined.
First is the “Blue Sky” Survey video which talks about using survey techniques to figure out what your audience will need.
Second is the “Slide Show” Travel video. Yaro talks what he did to make money while traveling around the world.
Finally, he has an interview with a very successful client by the name of Daniel Scocco. Daniel says his membership site is making $10,000 per month so he must be doing something right.
He also has a Blog Mastermind product available. This is a membership site that helps build a blog. This one also has a free report called Blog Profits Blueprint available for you to download. Once again, there is a weekly e-mail from Yaro.
The only trouble I have with Yaro’s program so far is that all the banners he has (animated gif’s) are a little bit annoying. I would like to see a couple standard size banners that don’t have animation.
Caroline Middlebrook
Caroline has been on a journey of discovering what internet marketing works and yet allows you to sleep at night. She has been involved with online marketing techniques in the past that she found questionable. But I think that she has found a way to avoid most of the pitfalls and has 2 wonderful products that I’ve been working through over the past few months.
Caroline’s approach also includes the free content in the form of weekly lessons via e-mail. The lessons are well written and build nicely upon one another. Her money making comes from selling the content for those who want it at a faster pace. The paid content also contains bonus materials.
[Note: The following links are affiliate links as well.]
Traffic Rush is a series of free lessons describing how to use StumbleUpon to generate traffic. She helps you to understand the mindset of StumbleUpon users as well as the way that the service works to promote articles. With this information you can avoid costly mistakes that alienate rather than entice users to your site. Links to the lessons are e-mailed weekly for 10 lessons. You can upgrade to get all the lessons at once plus bonus lessons.
Blogger’s Bible is a series of free lessons for bloggers. There is some great advice in here and while you’ve probably heard some of it in other places, she’s pulled it together nicely in logical order. I plan to go through the material again to pick up on the things that I’ve missed the first time through. The 49 lessons come once a week via e-mail. You can sign up for the FastTrack option to get the lessons all at once.
Steve Weber
I’ve recently checked out Steve’s Classroom [Note: This is an affiliate link] and signed up as an affiliate for his products. Steve also has embraced the philosophy of those above. He gives a good selection of material away for free and offers additional products for those who want to go further once they’ve seen what he can offer. I haven’t had a chance to thoroughly go through all of the material yet, but I appreciate the low pressure and lack of hype.
Others
There are many other helpful people out there that I don’t have the time or space to mention in this post. Watch for a future article listing some of the helpful bloggers out there who haven’t wasted my time!
Conclusion
I’m looking forward to finding more opportunities to join affiliate programs that fit well with my blogs. I need to find some for my golf blog as well as my humour blog.
I’m hoping that I can find more online marketers out there that appreciate the value of my time (and your time). I’m sure that there are a lot of great products out there that can help us in so many different areas of our lives.
Blogging and social media (including monetization) is a big area for me to learn more about. I’m sure that many of you are also looking to learn more about these topics. Hopefully we can learn and share with each other as we grow.
If you’ve stumbled upon a great online product or resource that you want to share with the world, let us know.
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Tags: affiliate programs, marketing, rant, wasting time
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