Final Tribal Formula Update

Well, after the Tribal Formula fiasco (I sent well over 200 uniques to the sales page and got zero sales) I've been licking my wounds a little and wondering what went wrong. I realize a couple things:

1. Even in "big" launches the customer base is still really quite small.
2. Sending traffic to a launch page isn't good enough. I need to pre-qualify the folks somehow - something not possible with the lazy technique I was trying (from Dave Guindon).
3. Google AdWords bites back.

I still think Tim Schmidt is a good guy but partnering with him did not benefit me at all. It would be interesting to know if he filled all the seats in his launch...

Tribal Formula Launch report

Last Thursday Tim Schmidt released Tribal Formula - an update to his popular Tribal Marketing training package. I am an affiliate of the program and was watching with keen interest as this was the first launch I was participating in (I've been observing for a bit and have noticed some patterns - more on that later).

Since I am bootstrapping my IM business (or business-yet-to-be) it was important that I get a real return on this launch -even if it was only a small one. My goal was to recoup any money spent on Google adwords and make enough to buy Micro Niche Finder a tool for researching Adwords...

So how did I do? Well, let's say for every dollar I spent in Adwords I lost 100% of it - not a very auspicious start. For the time being I'll chalk this up as a learning experience...

Here are my numbers for the campaign:
Adwords clicks: 120
Hits on the Tribal Marketing site: 265
Opt-ins: 6
Orders: 0

It's the last two that gall me. I was hoping for a 1% conversion rate and ended up with 0% ordering. Since I'm new to the business I didn't bother to check and see if opt-ins get me any commission, but I'll be looking into that soon!

The good news is that my occasional tweets seem to find clickers, at least (about 145 if my logic is sound). Someone actually is out there listening!

Tribal Formula Webinar

So one of the marketers I've been shadowing is Tim Schmidt from Tribal Marketing and Delta Media, LLC. Delta Media is a periodicals publisher specializing in firearms and self defense magazines. Tim is interesting to me because his background includes engineering and publishing - somehow I figure this translates into a nice parallel for my day job.

Tim has been involved in IM for several years, first attending one of Yanik Silvers Underground seminars and then releasing Tribal Marketing. The strategies he preaches are the ones he used to turn his publishing business around - from losing money to the success it is today. Tomorrow (August 27th) he will be launching Tribal Formula - the next iteration of his internet marketing course.

Why do I care?

Well, for the first time I am an affiliate in a product launch. I've done some homework, set up some adWords campaigns and am hoping - really, really hoping - for something good to happen. What would that be? One sale. One glimmer to make me think this whole business can be legit.

Just one.

Keyword Elite 2.0 Released today!

Just a quick note to anyone interested in SEO and adwords that Brad Callen has released the next version of Keyword Elite. It is called Keyword Elite 2.0 and can be ordered at www.keywordelite.com

Bellagios Pizza - well done, sir!

We went to the Portland Zoo yesterday to celebrate Lori's birthday (note to self: parking is awful!!) and then stayed overnight at a friends house. It was a lot of fun and on the trip home we stopped for some lunch.

Not being familiar with the area we were driving through we just followed the signs to a Burger King (or BK or whatever its called now) because Sarah Jo likes the crown shaped nuggets. Nathan, on the other hand, won't touch them so when we saw a sign in a nearby store saying "Pizza by the Slice" we were sold.

The Pizza parlor was "Bellagios" and I guess there are a few in the Portland area. When Lori and Nathan went in they were out of cheese pizza (go figure!) and so offered to make a fresh one. While they were waiting and making small talk Nathan mentioned the trip to the zoo being for his mom's birthday.

And so - to finally get to the point of this story - the gentleman behind the counter gave us the pizza for free. That's right - three slices of pizza (I had BBQ chicken - yum!) gratis.

So why did this impress me? Well...

1. He (I wish I could give his name but he wasn't wearing a name-tag) knew we were not from the area and would not become regular customers.
2. We had already ordered so they already had our money.
3. Lori's birthday was three days ago!

So basically, there was no need for the kind of customer service we got. No way for that generosity to come full circle. And that is what struck me so much - they were nice JUST TO BE NICE. And you can bet that if we are ever in Beaverton again looking for lunch, Bellagios will be on our short list.

So if you live in the Portland area, please check out Bellagios Pizza (one near you!). If this experience is representative then they deserve your business. And the pizza was really good, too!

Internet Marketing anyone?

I've been dipping my toes in the waters of Internet Marketing recently; signing up for free e-books promising to make me a fortune, getting on lots of email lists, following gurus on Twitter and the like. I've always kind of figured that internet marketing was the web's version of a back alley shyster ("wanna buy a watch?") but I'm beginning to change my tune a little. Sure, there are a fair share of scammers but there are also a lot of regular folks making a living (some more and some less) in the industry.

So far I've learned a bit about CPC and CPM and CPA, about opt-in pages and auto-responders, about PLR and squeeze pages, about affiliate systems and even why those sales pages are

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So will this dabbling turn into an additional revenue stream for me? I dunno yet (I'm still making my list of "good guys" and "bad guys") but the fact that there are some honest marketers out there gives me hope.

Stay tuned...

Toyota Landcruiser

HDR test, too
Originally uploaded by billdotd

My brother-in-law picked this Landcruiser up from a neighbor. At some point in the future he plans to get it running again. I don't know if it will ever be "restored", but it is such a great rig that I will be happy just to know its been resurrected.