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Old school marketing tactics work better

by Linus Rylander

While some people like to bash everything they aren’t already doing, and call every trend a “fad” … I do investigate new technologies, strategies, ideas etc, whenever I can. Innovation is key for continued growth.

But that does not call for abandoning everything that already works.

Like…

  • Long form, direct response copywriting
  • Email marketing
  • Squeeze pages
  • Direct mail

If you’re just getting started, and you don’t know what to do… everything always comes back to:

  • Traffic
  • Offers

That’s it.

Capturing traffic through squeeze pages and then presenting offers via email is still the simplest, most straightforward way of making a killing online.

The simplest, most straightforward way has nothing to do with Facebook, Twitter, mobile, and whatever else is hot right now.

It CAN… but they are not essential parts of the equation.

Start with the fundamental stuff, then you can expand.

I recall a quote I read somewhere, from Eben Pagan:
“If I have a secret to my success, it’s to get the market right and the people right… and then test the hell out of everything and scale what works.”

Old-school marketing tactics still work.

Linus

P.S. MiniBiz is an extremely simple, straightforward way to set yourself up with a real business that will pay the bills over the long term.
–> http://www.minibiz.me

It might sound like “something brand new”… but in reality it’s just a modern twist on old-school marketing fundamentals…

Mastering Your Craft

by Linus Rylander

crafts·man (krftsmn)

n.

A man who practices a craft with great skill.

There aren’t a lot of things I do well.

There aren’t a lot of things I wanna be able to do well. I can count it all on one hand.

Just as when you’re building your business, it’s better to go deep than wide… I think it’s better to go deep into a few things than spreading yourself thin over many.

They say it takes 10,000 hours of grunt work, doing what needs to be done, in order to master a craft.

Totally worth it.

That’s how legends are born. The Eric Claptons, the Gary Halberts and John Carltons, the Michael Jordans and Tiger Woods, the Jay-Zs and Eminems of the world.

I think dedicating yourself to a single thing is worth it not so much for the recognition or fame. Not so much for bragging rights and attention…

… but for the sake of not being another zombie-drone.

It’s the first thing you learn in Marketing 101: People are bored. And boring.

Thoreau couldn’t have said it better:

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Wake up, you’re bored. Eat the same breakfast you did yesterday, and the day before.

Go to work, same route as yesterday. Meet your boring co-workers and your boring boss.Do your boring work.

Go home, same boring commute for the second time today. Eat some boring, hastily scrambled-together meal cause you’re too tired to cook a real dinner.

Watch some boring TV. Same show you watched yesterday. Go to bed.

Maybe you have some cool dream… but then you wake up again, and you’re bored.

Even those actually headed somewhere are desperately trying to avoid the thought… even thinking about the fact that they have no clue what the hell they’re supposed to do on this planet.

Quiet desperation. Fumbling in the dark, and not sure what they’re fumbling after.

Scared to flick the light switch… you never know what you might find out when you can see things clearly. Might need some massive redecoration.

Might need to tear it all down and build it back up again.

Quiet desperation.

So how about having something worthwhile to spend your time doing?

I have decided on three things I want to be really good at before my time is up. So far, I’m really only decent at one of them… but I’m working on the other two every day.

The thing I’m kinda good at is writing.

The keyboard is mightier than the sword, indeed.

What is YOUR craft?

…

Talk soon,
Linus

P.S. Two things.

1. I’ll be teaching my craft in a series of lessons. Stay tuned at http://influentialwritersclub.com

2. If you’re still stuck in 9-5, and you want a sustainable money-getting model that doesn’t require an enormous amount of work, check out my MiniBiz Reports… it’s made for you. (MiniBiz means Minimalist Business)

http://www.minibiz.me

A Personal 90-Day Challenge (does this scare the crap out of you too?)

by Linus Rylander

In a flash of insight, inspiration and a hint of madness, I have set out on a personal 90-day challenge.

This is being written on day 2.

There are certain things that I kinda-sorta do, maybe a few times per week. Maybe less. Usually not on a regular, routined schedule.

Things that I would like to do every day… things that I know that if I did every day, my life would become a better one, day by day.

But other things get in the way. You know how it is.

Ahoy, Linus, meet 90-day challenge.

I won’t reveal all the details, but for the next 90 days, I’ll do stuff like:

  • Get out of bed an average of 6 hours earlier
  • Go to bed an average of 4-6 hours earlier
  • 20-40 minutes of journaling daily (first thing in the morning, last thing before bed… will probably do a post on this! it’s a life-changer…)
  • Write for at least one hour (usually end up doing this anyway, now it’s official)
  • Not check email before a certain time
  • Go running (read this book now! I listened to the audio. The whole thing in 2 days. Yes, I’m a geek.)

Setting out on 30-day, 60-day or 90-day challenges is something that has been proven, time and time again, to change people’s lives.

Most people are aware of that. Most people don’t do it.

Where’s the friction?

Fear. The fire under the ass of humanity.

Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of ridicule. Fear of change.

One of those, probably, or combination of a few. Or all of them.

Me?

I’m totally scared of failing. A great indicator that I should absolutely do it. (yesterday’s blog post about this)

Hmm…

Are there things in your life… that you know, that if you did every day, they would change your life? Forever?

It could be something like exercising for 5 minutes every day. For example, if you learned how to do the wrestler’s back bridge (anyone can learn) for 1-5 minutes every day, you’d build a strong and healthy back… and be free of back pain for the rest of your life.

Or maybe it’s writing a new blog post or email every day. Or whatever else.

I bet you can come up with something.

A daily ritual that would change your life… but you don’t have the balls to commit yourself to doing every day.

I went pretty aggressive with it. You don’t have to.

But hey, bucko, do you have the balls to commit yourself to your own, personal 90-day challenge?

Talk soon,

Linus

P.S. I’m releasing a product over the next couple of days… it will be around what I consider to be the ultimate “lifestyle business model”. In other words, a minimal, bare-bones approach designed to generate maximum results, with not a whole lot of on-going input.

Probably more work than what most magic-button launches promise… but less than what is ACTUALLY needed to make most online biz-models work. Something that will completely fund your lifestyle.

All the money you really need… without killing yourself.

How does that sound?

More coming soon… you can get on my list in the sidebar if you’re not already.

The art of being in a perpetual state of scared shitless

by Linus Rylander

I’m right now listening to some incredibly fascinating material from Eben Pagan as David DeAngelo.

He’s talking about breaking out of your comfort zone… and how most people spend their entire lives trapped in a box.

As an entrepreneur, as a business person, you absolutely MUST continually get out of your comfort zone. That’s why being an entrepreneur is so hard.

One interesting thing he mentioned was that when we are actively engaging in new behaviors, do new things, and keep pushing ourselves, we form new brain pathways. Neurogenesis.

When we do, we feel young.

When we don’t… when we get “stuck in a rut” – that means we’re getting trapped by our habits, and keep doing the same thing over and over… and that’s when we start feeling old.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

Picture a typical, healthy 5-year-old kid. EVERYTHING is new. Everything is a discovery… everything is an adventure.

What happens is that after a while, things stop being new… and if we want to continue evolving, we must go out of our way to find new things.

…

When we approach the edges of our comfort zone… fear sets in. We get scared. “If I do this, that might happen!”

This is what Seth Godin and Steven Pressfield talk about a lot.

This is the law. Happens every time. When we are about to cross the boundaries of our comfort zone… when we’re right there, just before actually undergoing development and growth as a human being… we get scared.

Fear. The fire under the ass of humanity.

What this means, is that if there’s something you’re scared shitless of doing, that is a good indicator that you should do it immediately.

I used to be scared, for a number of reasons, of doing my own continuity programs. “will I be able to come up with new content each month?” “will my customers like it?”

All moot. Redundant objections. Really, just fear being rationalized.

Every reason you come up with to stop yourself from doing something, is you rationalizing your fear. Or as some like to call it, being a wussy.

If you can put yourself in a state of being perpetually scared shitless… your results will skyrocket in every area of life.

(provided that you’re always scared by NEW THINGS, as opposed to being trapped into being afraid of the same thing for a long period of time… which would have the opposite effect)

These were some of my own recent insights, I hope you find them valuable as well.

Talk soon,

Linus

P.S. Next week I’m releasing some training on an extremely interesting, low-stress business model designed around lifestyle. A model that will support your ideal lifestyle (as opposed to just making a bunch of money for the sake of having a bunch of money). Stay tuned. If you’re not on my list, sign up on the right.

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