Rob Bell's Notes from a Yorkshire Internet Megalomaniac

It’s taken Five Cold Weeks, Four Engineers, three French Hens, two Totalled Hubs and a Partridge in a Pear Tree but I finally have a stable Internet connection once again – although it’s not quite 8Mb anymore which is strange considering I live less than half a mile from the nearest exchange. Still, considering it got as bad as 8Kb while I’ve been having trouble I’m not going to complain too loudly about having 7.9Mb! Turned out to be a problem with my phone line rather than just the Internet, but how it came about is still a mystery!

One of my hard drives decided to corrupt the day I got my connection back ironically, so that’s taken 3 days to recover all the data on and will take several more to get everything back into the right directories. No indication what caused that, so that’s another mystery.

So I’m now in the World of catch-up, working feverishly to get back up-to-date with projects. A few good solid days at the keyboard have helped, although it was difficult to get back into the swing after a few weeks of very little work or effort. I fell back into my historical role as a PC gamer and part-time couch potato rather too easily. For some reason it’s not as easy to fall back out of that state!

Unfortunately the lack of Internet put my book plans on the backburner until after Christmas when it will once again become my main project. It also wrecked my participation in the £100m Challenge, although I’m still intent on watching all the training once I’m caught up.

Anyway, back to work now – normal service will be resumed shortly!

Rob

Today’s been a bit of a rubbish day – my back has been really painful all day, so I’ve been mostly laid up – it’s 4am here and it’s the first time I been on this today! I’m concious I haven’t posted since my database disaster, so wanted to give you an update.

My book’s about half ready – tomorrow (Thursday) is when it’s supposed to be ready for but I think It’ll be closer to Saturday providing I can sit at this chair tomorrow…

I’ve been experimenting quite a bit more on Squidoo, trying out different modules and developing a few pages… of the 6 that I’ve started this week, only one is published – as they’ve had to take a back seat to my book completion, but you can see that at http://www.Squidoo.com/freshbooks – leave a comment there and let me know what you think. Remember to leave your comment in my debate and vote in the poll.

Do you already know and use Squidoo? Leave a comment with your lens address, and I’ll go look at them and give you stars.

Through my research I’ve come into contact with lots of web applications with fantastic benefits for the users – some will grow to be very useful, but others are already there… They’ll all be in my book – even the ones that are still in beta if they’re next-gen functional and useful for building your business and increasing your subscribers. I’ve been privileged to help test some really excellent stuff, and I’ll tell you all about it.

I didn’t win the TV in the Phase 1 Video Contest for my DotComSecrets challenge, but the winner and his family were very deserving of the award as their video was mint! I’m just really pleased to have been in the top 10, I hate being on film -but the people who voted for me obviously don’t hate me on video, and that feels good.

Right back to bed now – pain stops play!

Rob

Originally submitted by rob 5 days ago

After running my ASK campaign for almost 2 weeks so far, I’ve got a reasonable selection of questions. I also set up google alerts, and upped my use of a lot of internet marketing forums, observing which questions were asked the most.

From this data, I now have the outline for my product – and a name!

Presenting “Take Over the World for Free” – taa daaa (if you were thinking of stealing the .com before I bought it, it’s too late!)

I’m not prepared to give too many details out about it on a public blog yet, but it’s basically a guide to building a business online using only free resources! It’s targeted at Offline Business Owners, the Self-Employed, Internet Marketers – in fact, anyone who wants to enhance their business through the global wealth builder known as the Internet.

Whether you own a car plant or a car yard, a window company or a window cleaners, a stately home or a hovel in a state – this guide is for you.

It’s important for me that this product be useful to people who’ve never done any marketing online as much as it is for people who have, or are struggling. I want local business owners to be able to take the guide and establish their own profiles and communities online, I want societies to be able to spread their messages to wider communities, and I want individuals to empower themselves using some great, free tools and resources.

My Sales Funnel looks like this right now -

1. Summary Book covering general themes and promoting actual book(free)
2. Take Over the World for Free (large manual)
3. Take Over the World Members Programme (membership site, affiliate features, profiles, forums, access to online training of tools in book)
4. DVD/Home Study Course
5. Take Over the World Megalomaniac System (Membership site from where system is easily deployed – regularly updated as a web application)

So that’s 4 paid product levels and a 5th Free intro to the materials. I’m not sure how I’m going to get the Megalomaniac System built yet – but I’ll find a way!

I’ve bought the domain ‘robbelllinks.com’ which I’m going to use as a resources page so people can get to the tools and sites I’m using in the guide without having to keep typing them in themselves.

I’m really happy with the way things are going at the moment – research went well, I’m upbeat about the subjects – I know where to find the experts I need to ensure this is stellar content, and I’m about to start reaching out to them. I’ve obviously hesitant that I can do it all in time – it’s been so long since I last wrote a book I have newbie jitters all over again.

10 day countdown begins today – Beta v1 ready by 30th Oct
I’m feeling the pressure a little with Russell’s deadline, I haven’t worked to any really tight timescales for a little while. Just means I’m going to have to sort this falling asleep/waking up thing out – psh, like I can sort that lifelong problem out this week – I’ve got all-nighters to pull!

On a lighter note, I’m WELL CHUFFED to currently be number 6 in the Phase 1 Video Contest!!! That TV would look mighty fine in front of my eyes, compared to the one I have now that a friend gave me when he was going to throw it out! The only High Def in my house is the PC Monitor! The only thing that makes me a little hesitant is the question of whether it’s PAL compatible – or solely an NTSC box – why we can’t just have the same television standard these days I do not know.

You can still vote for me at http://contest.dotcomsecrets.com/voting.php?_v=95

Rob

thanks to Elvis for providing today’s headline (although Mark James actually wrote the song!)

A few days working nose to the grindstone have resulted in lots of progress with various projects. One of the projects has given me some headaches though – as my intentions were called into question, very unnecessarily in my opinion.

Previous readers will know about my research project into Internet Marketing, where I’m asking people to submit their single biggest question about Internet Marketing at Ask Rob Bell

This is an important project to me, one I’ve already invested over 1 hundred hours in, so I was a little put out, as you might imagine, when it was suggested to me that it was a transparent trick to harvest email addresses – I mean, what the heck?!?!

I have several ways to increase my subscribers and get people onto my lists, several of which are working very very well, but the ‘Ask Rob Bell’ project is not one of them. I simply want to find out and understand what people in Internet Marketing actually want to know – and asked for email addresses so I could send a copy of the upcoming book to the people with the best questions.

So to allow people who don’t want to leave any contact details to submit their questions, I’ve started a version of the page that only requires the question – no other details needed. Anyone who uses this form won’t be able to get a copy of the book as I’ll have no email address to send it to, but it should make paranoid people feel safer about submitting their best question!

I’m aware of general themes and sub-niches within the industry, but I’m not a psychic – I wouldn’t ever presume to know what other people want to know without asking them first. It seems rather arrogant to think I know so much that I can tell people what they want to know without asking them – am I able to read minds or something?!?!?! Well actually… that’s a tale for another time!

A cornerstone of any successful marketing project has to involve research – without which, how can anyone hope to understand their market fully?

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after” is a quote from J.R.R.Tolkien – author of the Hobbit and epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Thank heavens for The Ability to Ask Questions – after previously struggling to commit to sustained action for some time, I couldn’t really begin to get a clear Internet Marketing plan together, outline my strategies, or find the ‘eye of the tiger’ within, so to speak. My goals weren’t clear, so my route towards them was similarly unclear.

A week of training, effort like I can’t recall, a new determination, some great applications, and the simple application of some marketing science and I’m now gathering the information that will help me to understand the real needs of my market, so I’ll then really be able to help them better – to all our advantage.

I decided to make my first product in the Internet Marketing space because:

a. I’m an Internet Geek (that happens when your mobility is impaired, although the healthy me was also a real Net Nerd, so that’s just a bs excuse on my part!)

b. I was a Marketing Manager in my ‘old life’ before my accident, so I’ve years of experience to fall back on – and piles of books to enhance my knowledge and skills.

c. I’m very techy for a non-tech – even qualified to Cisco Cert Network Admin 1/2 level, so I can understand and use technologies yet still explain them to someone who maybe isn’t technically minded. I’ve even got a 70 year old friend I taught to write and publish his own website (patience, lots of patience my boy!), which now has some 4500 pages to it.

d. I find it a fascinating subject, something I am happy to obsess about – I think this is key, for without obsession comes no masterpiece.

How much easier life gets when you get access to the tools that can really help i.e. The ASK Database- only 21 days to make it pay for itself though, as I’ve spent $1 on the 3 week trial, so it’s head down all the way to make revenue to pay for the monthly subscription at the end of Oct. I can’t afford to take on additional expenses at present – 4 years injured can cause quite a strain on the old finances, so anything I use has to have a really fast ROI. I already had a few hosting plans and domains – but they finally have real purpose, and I’ve bought some others, including AskRobBell.com!

This whole contest is certainly giving me real motivation, something I’ve lacked altogether since my father’s passing away in June of this year, although my Get-Up-And-Go got-up-and-went right after my 2nd broken back incident (see earlier blog!).

I feel like I’ve finally turned a corner, and the light at the end of the tunnel is only round the corner.This contest has been a bit of a revelation for me – although I don’t have hundreds of referrals, it’s given me a whole new lease of life – don’t know if it’s all for the better though – I’ve not even been to bed on 3 occasions in the past week – preferring to stay on the PC throughout the night and next day too!!!

Dentist in the morning at 8.55am though, and I didn’t sleep last night, so I’m definitely scheduled for an early(ish) night – it’s already gone 10pm! Having a ‘power haircut’ tomorrow too, as further evidence of the transformation from Cripple to Guru taking place in front of my keyboard!

Have got a storyline and some clips ready for the video contest, but I suffer from an annoying ‘mind-blanking’ whenever I’m looking at a video camera – getting over that will be an achievement in itself!

Rob