Dial up modem! Ya man. I was online when the modem was there. I used to get on later at night to chat and do stuff…. and man that famous modem sound always found a way to wake someone up in the house. I’ll never forget that noise. My kids will never know that sound. NEVER.

Looking back on it, we used to send out our email list through our ISP using :bcc. Unbelievable thinking about it now! Hundreds of emails sent by pushing the send button on a dial up modem. Interesting times.

Netscape was also it. I used to drool at the web editor tool built right into the browser. I could look(steal) the html from sites I liked and manipulate the code that way. RIGHT in the browser. Genius. Maybe not. Netscape didn’t last past Yahoo!

That was then… this is now. If you are still using double opt in you are behind the times. First of all, you’re probably using double for a few reasons…

1. you’re scared you will get a complaint and be shut down.

2. It’s what everyone else is doing.

3. Cuz you see others saying, “white list my email and check and confirm and yadadadada….”

I’m doing a campaign right now to a squeeze page. I’m in the test phase. I do that so I can set up my split testing. I’m looking at a 20% opt in rate to my UGLY page. Seriously it’s so ugly.  It’s so ugly… I don’t want to show you. JK… I don’t like showing my niches.

Here’s the math.

120 hits in one day

24 signed up with a legit email asking for more info in exchange for my bribe.

= 20% opt in rate.

********* ONLY 3 DOUBLE OPTED IN AND CLICKED ON THE LINK IN THEIR EMAIL*********

Pathetic. So let’s do the Math again…. that’s 2.5% opt in rate. I won’t go anywhere with that. Get single opt in from now on like I do. 20+% vs. 2.5%??????????????

I actually didn’t even think about it.. but then again I really haven’t eaten at Denny’s for a while so it’s not like I missed it.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=dennys

You can see the twittersphere was lit up today for people who went to Denny’s knowing they would get a free Grand Slam meal.  The things people will do for a free $10! I wonder how many people skipped out on work to go fight the lines. I can only imagine. Someday I’m going to write a post on the things we do for free money even if it’s under $5.

I spent 30 days working with and for Russell Brunson. Back in October, I got in contact with Brent Coppieters (he is actually another Canadian who doesn’t say eh) after always reading up on his emails. Brent and I shot emails off and on a few times before Oct. For school I needed to do an internship and basically the stars lined up. I wanted to document a few things that I learned from my experience.

First off… The gang here at DCS is really cool. Russell has set up a great company and he has the right people to do it with. He was even willing to train people to become experts at what he needed done. He hired one guy who had no prior experience in area of need and trained him personally. Now that one guy is an expert at what he does. He did this many times over with his company. To me, that shows he is patient and willing to teach.

Secondly, Russell is actually a really genuine, classy guy. I had this thought before that he probably wakes up at 8 or whenever his kids get up and come rolling into work around 11 and stay until 3 or so. The thought didn’t last that long after I was here the first day. He actually gets to work most days around 7 or so after working out and stays pretty late.

We sat down the first day I got here and chatted. He asked how my IM and video knowledge was. I said,” I am pretty good” but I wanted to learn more. 2 weeks later I found out I knew a lot less than I thought. From my time here I had the chance to observe a lot. Russell opened the doors to everything. Basically my butt got humbled after day 3 or 4. That’s when the light came on in my head. I really didn’t know a lot.

I NOW have a different view than I did 30 days ago.

Here’s what I learned…

- Always have a plan for your promotions and strategies.

- It’s all about the back end system. Create a sales ladder.

- Again have a plan way ahead… I know I said this already, but it’s what I saw over and over.

- Outsource everything you can.

- Draw out your sales flow.

- Build a relationship with your list.

- Get smart people around you.

- Be super focused.

- Read good books.

- Create content all the time. Whether it’s video, articles, blog posts… etc…. do it all the time.

While here, I was able to see a lot of aspects of his business. I saw the successful launch of Do you suck at making money. The strategy behind the launch was really cool. Every angle of that launch was planned to the smallest detail. I also saw how late he stayed up to make everything perfect. You should have seen the next day. He was running around getting all the last minute details sorted out for the noon launch. Even though things looked pretty wild, I bet he was loving it. The launch did pretty good for the company but it also did well for the Affiliates.

The top ten affiliates got a sweet prize.  From what I heard, Justin Brooke, who was one of his interns a few years back came in top 10. I think Keith Wellman took the grand prize. The top 10 affiliates get to go to Pirates Cove. The owner of Nu Skin made this vacation home that is modeled after Pirates Caribbean… it’s pretty sweet from the video. I think the video is on Youtube somewhere. |Apparently he actually bought costumes and statues from the movie and planted them around the vacation home.

They set up a one day conference here in Boise where Kirt Christensen, Matt Bacak, Justin Brooke and Russell spoke. I grabbed good nuggets from all of those guys. I have been following Kirt for a long time online and finally got to meet him. Super cool dude. Matt was killer as well. He opened a whole new avenue for traffic that I didn’t know much about. Justin was just plain sick at his SEO tactics. BTW Justin, I’m coming for you dude! We’re now part of a small and rare group of Brunsonites.

Yesterday I got to sit down at lunch with Russell. I asked him for some advice and that’s when the can got opened. The dude just flows. I can tell when he starts talking fast that he is getting ramped up! Watch him on his Ustream shows and when he starts talking fast, you know one thing… his passion is kickin’ in. It’s pretty obvious. I’ve personally seen the chats on Ustream where people are saying “talk slower.” He’s just passionate about IM and helping people. It’s pretty funny.

So you wanna know how his company makes so much money?

1. Hires the right people and trains them well. Whether it’s outsourcing or his own employees, it’s all the same. He also surrounds himself with people who are smarter or around the same level as he is.

2. Freakishly focused on one system.  90% of his efforts go into his continuity program. Yesterday, he recommended a book he swears helped him get super focused.  “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Wow. I got through half of it last night.

3. He takes massive action. If he learns something he does it. The dude has tried it all too.

There you go. That’s the recipe to success in this industry.

Russell, thanks alot.

Keep your heads up… I’ve got something that is killer. After all, if you spent 30 days with a genius, wouldn’t you have something killer coming up too?

Here’s one… http://posterous.com

You can post video, Post photos, files, video, and mp3’s online by sending them an email. You don’t even have to register. I guess you could look at is as one big ol’ scrapbook. Brilliant idea.  email post@posterous.com………….. No set up.

Same deal… Check it out.

http://www.twilert.com/