I know a lot about the man behind it – the master marketer named John Reese.

No, this is not about the public persona of a famous IM guru. It is about how John Reese impacted me, my business and my non-profit work. I regard him highly and count him among my friends for that reason alone.

John Reese taught me the power of succeeding massively in business.

The lesson came from his Traffic Secrets launch in 2004. No, not from the product – but from the event. It raked in $1 million in less than a day. Out of this windfall, John Reese made a donation of $10,000 to the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation. It funded heart surgery for 4 children.

That was a revelation. Until then, I had been content with modest success in my online business. After that event, I realized it was far more reliable – and also easier – to build my own business to the point where profits could fund my dream project to help poor Indian children receive life-saving treatment.

Applying my knowledge and experience with a renewed vigor, I have grown my business to the level where my own contribution to the Foundation out of my profits has far exceeded that $10,000 donation in 2004.

But without that push, it may never have happened.

John Reese gave me the ‘WHY’ – and then Jay Abraham gave me the ‘HOW’.

And how that happened is another way John Reese touched my marketing life. (It also is a good reason YOU may want to participate in the launch of Traffic Secrets 2.0, even if only as an observer – read on to see what I mean)

Let me take you back to 2004 again. I did not join the Traffic Secrets affiliate program. I was not one of the many people who received a review copy of the course. But I was one of the keenest observers of that launch.

I saved EVERYTHING!

On John Reese’s Marketing Secrets blog, I swiped-and-saved every single blog post going back 6 months (yes, that’s when his ‘anticipation marketing’ began). I watched each tactic he deployed with such deadly effectiveness. I signed up for his email list and saved every message to a folder.

After the launch, and before the Traffic Secrets course that I had bought arrived, I went back and studied all the material saved. And then, used EVERY one of them in my own marketing of a course called ‘Quick Niche Profits’.

It was a monthly print newsletter with CD-ROM – priced at $197.00 every quarter. With no more than 5 JV partners, purely through the effectiveness of a proven marketing system that a top-notch marketer was using in his own big launch, I got over 200 subscribers to join.

The profits from that great launch were used to both fund heart surgery through my Foundation, and to buy expensive training material from America’s biggest marketing guru and consultant, Jay Abraham.

That opportunity created another paradigm shift in my quantum of success. From a low 4-figure annual revenue, I grew by 300% every year for many years.

And as the business grew, the amount I could donate to the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation went up too. And along with it, the goals I set for the project kept moving higher.

From hoping to fund 1 operation every year, the goal had gone to 5, and then 10 per year. Today, I can realistically hope to fund ONE HUNDRED operations every year in a short time from now.

It all started with a mindset and a method.

Both were taught to me by a marketing specialist named John Reese. And that is the man who is behind the creation of Traffic Secrets 2.0

NOBODY knows what’s inside the course. All the affiliate generated noise you hear is just that – a mindless parroting of what the ‘marketing manual’ says. The only bits of Traffic Secrets 2.0 that ANYONE has had a chance to look at are the free videos John Reese has made available on his Income.com blog.

But MANY PEOPLE know the man behind the course. What you’re hearing is an endorsement of that person. A trust that is well-founded by a stellar track record.

You decide about the reason why you’ll participate in John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0 launch.

• You may want to learn methods to drive web traffic, and might consider buying the course (it’s going to cost $397, less if you own the earlier version).

• You may want to satisfy your curiosity about what the IM universe is buzzing over – and viewing those free videos may scratch your itch.
• Or you may want to study a marketing master at work… and as I’ve shown through my own personal experience, that can be wildly profitable too.

Whatever your reason, if you’re ready to take the next step, watch the videos and join the mailing list… you can do it from this web page – click here.

It’s out!

No, not the product – but the news of its coming launch.

And that trickle of information about Traffic Secrets 2.0 is the hallmark of the master buzz builder and ‘King of Anticipation Marketing’ – John Reese.

Already folks are beginning to go ga-ga on forums, blogs and social networks – and this frenzy will only increase and get more exciting until Traffic Secrets 2.0 launches on July 15th.

There’s one (of what’s sure to be many) interesting tweak already announced -

“The entire launch process for this course
will only be *12 DAYS*.”

That’s fast – but then, the pot’s been simmering slowly for almost a year now and doing an ‘accelerated launch’ may actually avoid over-eager fans beating a path to Income.com GHQ to physically wrench their copy out of John’s hands!

Prospective buyers, and even curious onlookers who intend studying the selling process (you do want to do that, don’t you?!) will heave a sigh of relief at this announcement too:

“There will be no other upsells, one-time offers,
special bundles, forced continuity, optional
continuity, immediate backend offers or
anything. NOTHING else will be for sale.”

A cynical and distrusting marketplace that’s been bitten far too many times lately will welcome this like a breath of fresh air. Kudos to John Reese for making this clear, explicit and unambiguous in an email to partners.

So, what’s the ‘Traffic Secrets’ magic all about?

It’s a process. Taught by a person who has applied it to get massive results in his business.

If the new version is similar to TS 1.0 in content and style, it will NOT be the most entertaining, exciting or visually appealing presentation you’ve ever watched. (There was a LOT of griping over the staid wallpaper pattern that made up the backdrop of the stage John Reese was lecturing from in TS 1.0!)

But it will be the most educational and instructive material about formulating a traffic strategy, setting up web traffic campaigns and executing them in step by step fashion.

Don’t kid yourself – it is hard work!

And the results are worth the effort – unless you prefer spending cash to get new website traffic, in which case other courses specifically teaching PPC marketing might be a better choice.

The ‘magic’ is also in the marketing.

And as you watch the Traffic Secrets 2.0 launch play out, you’ll witness the amazing phenomenon that never ceases to surprise me… people buying a high-ticket item primarily because they enjoy (and are caught up in) the hoopla that surrounds a well organized launch process.

Marketing spin positions Traffic Secrets 2.0 as being affordable, “priced at a shockingly low $397″. But ‘affordable’ is always uniquely individual. And even a low 3-figure price may be out of someone’s budget.

P.T.Barnum put it nicely. “If you have 1 pound and spend 19d 11p, you are rich. And if you have 1 pound, but spend 1p more, you are poor.”

This thought led neatly into a definition of marketing and selling that I learned recently from John Counsel.

Marketing is identifying a need and filling it.

Selling is getting people to want what they need – because unless they want it, they aren’t going to buy.

Traffic Secrets 2.0 is great marketing – because every website owner needs more traffic.

Traffic Secrets 2.0 is also great selling – because everyone who hears about it is going to want it.

Traffic Secrets 2.0 is NOT on my ‘to buy’ list – and still… I WANT IT!

Let the games begin!My affiliate link for Traffic Secrets 2.0 will be: http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ts2.htm

John Reese just released another blog related program called Traffic Jam, an extension of the infamous BlogRush.

And apart from the hype (“Here’s Why You Should Definitely Visit TrafficJam.com, Bookmark It, And Visit Often…”) and hoopla (already the blogosphere is buzzing – like here, here, here, here, here and here) there’s little known about what it is, what it could be, and what it will become.

• Will it be a research tool?
• Or a traffic driving widget?
• Or a speed-reader for relevant blogs?

Who knows – yet?

There’s supposed to be some cool technology driving it. From the Income.com blog:

“It uses some unique technology to analyze millions of blog post title impressions, average click-rates, session times, and more to come up with its live ‘ranking’ system.”

From early looks, it seems this will become another tool for the already popular, powerful and heavy-traffic blogs to get even more visitors to flock to them – but I’ll be delighted if the smaller blogs get leverage from being on it.

If you know anyone who may enjoy this too, please invite them to register for updates to Money.Power.Wisdom at http://MoneyPowerWisdom.com And please download “The SMILENAIRE Way” and read all about the 3 critical mistakes most business owners make – and how to avoid them! Click here.

If you know anyone who may enjoy this too, please invite them to register for updates to Money.Power.Wisdom at http://MoneyPowerWisdom.com And please download “The SMILENAIRE Way” and read all about the 3 critical mistakes most business owners make – and how to avoid them! Click here.

What do you do when expectations raised by a hyped up launch of your traffic widget remain unfulfilled due to implementation problems and abuse by ‘gamers’?

Why, turn it from a ‘traffic widget’ into a ‘Seal of Approval’ – one that indicates your blog is ‘high quality’!

That’s the brilliant marketing master-stroke John Reese just used to turn an embarrassing beta test into a coveted ‘badge of honor’ bloggers are fighting over having.

For weeks we’ve heard the collective moaning and whining about how BlogRush did not deliver traffic enough to make it worthwhile displaying the widget on one’s blog.

The BlogRush team went into fire-fighting mode, and after a mass-audit, deleted TEN THOUSAND accounts.

In and by itself, that isn’t unique or special. The genius twist was to position all of them as falling BELOW the high quality standard BlogRush expects of its member blogs – instantly creating ‘perceived value’ for the widget as validation of a blog’s quality!

The reaction is astonishing. People are now falling over themselves to check to see if their blog ‘made the cut’… forgetting (at least for the moment) that the BlogRush widget still doesn’t deliver quality traffic in large numbers as they once dreamed it would.

Has BlogRush transitioned from ‘traffic widget’ to ‘quality seal’?

Will it serve bloggers better in that new role?

Share your thoughts.

Update:

I just noticed this.  Interestingly enough, the Income.com blog has comments turned off.

Hmm… Isn’t it better to control the conversation in some small way, at least by centralizing it on the owner’s blog – rather than having it distributed across the vast reaches of the blogosphere?

Seems John Reese is making a mistake there. What do you think?

UPDATE #2:

Earlier in this post, I explored the shift in positioning of BlogRush from ‘traffic widget’ to ’seal of quality’ badge. At the end, I asked:

Will it serve bloggers better in that new role?

I explored this line of thinking further, and feel it makes for an interesting ‘business plan’. Let me know if you agree – or not.

BlogRush inactivated 10,000 accounts after manual review, because they failed to meet their quality control requirements.

I’m guessing here, but that’s probably 10% or less of their total user base.

Also, I’m guessing at least an equal number of member blogs would be interested if BlogRush was to give them an OFFICIAL ‘BlogRush Approved’ seal – a kind of Better Business Bureau or VeriSign button for blogs.

So what if John Reese offers this – with a modest application fee for a review. I’d suggest $25 per blog, which at 10,000 blogs would net $250,000.

This will last for a year. At the end of the year, another $25 payment will be necessary to continue being listed. This ensures long term viability.

If a blog meets the quality standards, it would be approved and will be permitted to display a visual indicator – e.g. a special ‘GOLD skin’ version of the BlogRush widget (or with some other unique identifier built into the widget skin design itself). It would be served up from the BlogRush servers, and therefore BlogRush would control which blogs can display it.

Also, on the BlogRush website, the approved blogs would all be registered in a directory. Listings in the directory will link TO the individual approved blogs – and the GOLD skin widget would link BACK to the directory. This makes it easy for anyone to check and find that the blog is indeed of authentic ‘BlogRush approved’ quality. And from a SEO perspective, and traffic potential, just this link on BlogRush.com would be worth a multiple of the $25 application fee, making it a no-brainer.

Now, make it fancier. Beside each blog’s listing on the directory, include a ‘RATE THIS’ or ‘REPORT THIS’ button. In case a blog ‘adjusts’ its quality standards after being approved and included in the directory, users can now report it to the BlogRush team – which could revise/revoke the status according to what their reviewers find. You have a community-policed system, like Blogger blogs.

Then, take the $250,000 and budget $20,000 a month for a team of 100 reviewers, each of whom will be paid $200 a month. Too little? You’re nuts! In India, in a public sector hospital, my salary as heart surgeon was Rs.14,500 (approx. $350) per month – for 48 hours a week. To many people, that’s a royal income. Find them. Hire them.

If it takes a reviewer 3 minutes to approve a blog, each can review 20 blogs per hour. At 5 hours a day, each reviewer can look at 100 blogs daily. 100 reviewers can analyze 10,000 blogs DAILY. Or 50,000 blogs per week. Easy. That’s 200,000 blogs per month!

Now, if you have 10,000 GOLD blogs, each can be reviewed upto 3 times a week, and still you’ll have enough human-power to look at another 100,000 blogs per month – meaning the cash flow could finance quality control measures for the entire network, not just GOLD blogs. The GOLD group will keep overall quality high!

What do you think about this idea? Will/Can it work?

John Reese, if you read this, and decide to go ahead with the idea, please let me know – it’ll be nice to update this post with that information!

Y’know, you’ve heard the talk about BlogRush going viral.

That was ‘incentivized’ Word of Mouth – the incentive being referred traffic.

But do you want to see something that’s sure to get a lot of INSPIRED Word of Mouth?

Say BLIDGETS!

From Widgetbox.com

COOL.

See mine below – you can host it on YOUR blog too.

What do YOU believe?

Yesterday, I wrote a friend a long email. It was about smoke, mirrors… and common sense.

We live in an increasingly cluttered world, where we are forced to seek shortcuts to make sense of the growing volume of information and knowledge around us. We must learn to critically analyze and make sense of what people say about the things that concern us.

Yet, that is no longer easy.

People confuse us, sometimes intentionally and at other times just incidentally. But we end up not knowing what to believe.

There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors stuff going on all around us – and we need to rely ever more increasingly on our innate common sense to see through the mists and perceive the ‘truth’.

What brought on this line of thought?

Well, one thing is this discussion I recently participated in at the Warrior forum, related to the new blog traffic widget, Blog Rush

If you don’t have time to read it all, and only browse the last 2 pages, you’ll notice many levels of ’spin’ on what most common sense folks would call ‘reality’.

There are people explaining how the system can be ‘gamed’ – giving details about how anyone else can learn to – and saying it was to ‘help’ the owner of the program understand weak spots. (Really? How interesting!)

There are people accusing the programmers who left such weak spots for being incompetent. (And you’d do it differently, much better, right? Well, why haven’t you? Or when are you going to?)

There are others defending them by saying these ‘weak spots’ were left ‘deliberately’ to attract spammers out of the woodwork, so they could zap them. (Ha, ha, ha… that’s a good one!)

And then there are others saying that’s just marketing spin, that such obviously glaring mistakes happen only when programmers think they’re too smart! (Hmm… so we should hire programmers who believe they’re dumb?)

Judging from the discussion, what is a discerning reader to think?

Seth Godin wrote an excellent book with a provocative title: “All Marketers Are Liars”

The thrust of the message is NOT that marketers tell ‘lies’, but that people believe what they want to, depending upon their ‘world views’ – and smart marketers take advantage of this reality.

For those who believe BlogRush is the next best thing since sliced bread, the goof ups and glitches are just ‘beta problems’ that will be solved soon, or even ‘intentional bait’ to weed out scammers.

For those who believe BlogRush is a flop, a failure and a waste of time, it’s a poorly conceived plan executed by incompetent programmers with over-hyped marketing spin.

For those who believe BlogRush deserves more study before a judgement can be made about it, what matters is the few bits of data and results being shared from the network participants – since it helps them arrive at a decision to keep it, or drop it.

Yet, EACH BELIEVES in his or her ‘truth’ – though the ’smoke and mirrors’ have distorted and masked portions of it!

It’s true about every bit of information that’s presented to us, in various formats and media – the TV channels, newspapers, magazine stories, even personal messages and emails. Each message carries a ’spin’, depending upon the person sending it to you, and the angle or point of view they are approaching it from.

How can you make sense of it all?

Easy. Rely on your most powerful tool that’s kept you alive, safe and happy for YEARS – your common sense. It’s a beacon that cuts through the smoke and mirrors and reveals the truth… if you let it.

Maybe not naturally, instinctively, easily. You’ve got to give ‘common sense’ a chance – even if it means going against the popular trends and fashions. Look at situations objectively. Make predictions, and then test your conclusions against what happens later.

If what you predicted didn’t come true, look back at what you may have missed – and LEARN from the experience. The next time around, your common sense will be an even better, more reliable guide.

But here’s what’s sad, and will keep the ’smoke and mirrors’ crowd in business for a long time to come…

Common sense is NOT common!

… by next month.

I mean, it’s about how I’m GOING to

Hey, I’ve been reading a lot about “How To Maximize Your Blog Rush?” referrals, and hear that ‘catchy’ headlines are critical to it. So I was trying this one out!

John Reese explained how BlogRush is being tweaked for better results, and suggested bloggers use more catchy headlines in blog posts to attract more clicks through the widget. Just as you’d use more curiosity evoking SUBJECT lines in your email, or attention grabbing headings for classified ads.

I’ve been looking around for some more ideas to increase clickthrough, and came across some nice ones.

Incidentally, I had missed out this review of BlogRush by Terry Dean, who bases his early opinions on experience with other traffic exchanges and says “In other tests I’ve done of similar “traffic exchange” services… I’ve never seen them as all that effective.”

And Michael Martine has a nice one titled “Second Thoughts on BlogRush” too. You’ll find the other 12 interesting BlogRush reviews worth a look too, if you haven’t seen them already.

So how will you be able to boost your Blog Rush traffic?

JOHN CHOW : How To Control BlogRush Headlines
http://www.johnchow.com/how-to-control-blogrush-headlines/

Describes an interesting method of setting up a unique RSS feed specifically for your BlogRush syndication – and including your best blog posts in that feed! Not sure how that fits in with the BlogRush TOS, so check before you implement it.

= = = =

THE GEEK BLOG : As Promised: Thoughts on BlogRush
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/the-geek-blog/as-promised-thoughts-on-blogrush/

Offers some tips to maximize your BlogRush traffic – nice analysis, but the last one isn’t quite what you were expecting!

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PROBLOGGER : Tips for Using BlogRush to Generate Traffic for Your Blog http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/17/

Even at the peak of the buzz around BlogRush launching, Darren was giving folks some solid points to get more traffic out of BlogRush referrals.

= = = =

But beware the advice to go for titillating headlines alone… or your widget could soon be displaying ads like this one:

Blogrush premature ejaculation left me hanging

This blogger says: “Hey, don’t flame me. That’s what Blogrush taught us. Write catchy titles to attract visitors.”

ANDY BEARD : Blogrush – 7 Critical Mistakes
http://andybeard.eu/2007/09/blogrush-7-critical-mistakes.html

Tips to help clear up misunderstandings and make more from your BlogRush membership.

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PROBLOGGER : What are your BlogRush Statistics Like?
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/19/what-are-your-blogrush-statistics-like/

Darren has great referral credit numbers, but isn’t delighted with the clickthrough traffic he’s been receiving so far. 78 people had shared their data at the time I visited the blog.

= = = =

JOHN CHOW : My BlogRush Stats
http://www.johnchow.com/my-blogrush-stats/

John’s downline is quite extensive too, and even he mentions the clickthrough traffic he’s getting from the system isn’t anything to write home about – yet!

= = = =

SHOEMONEY : BlogRush Starts With A Massive Bang
http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/09/19/blogrush-starts-with-a-massive-bang/

Some impressive downline stats from another big blogger. No mention of clickthrough stats, but he’s got over half a million credits!

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ANDY BEAL : BlogRush Finally Adds Reports But Traffic is Very Poor
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/09/blogrush-finally-adds-reports-but-traffic-is-very-poor.html

Not a happy camper! “I’m giving BlogRush more than its giving back.”

One of the comments on this post was: “Wow. It’s amazing how quickly something goes from first day media darling with a potentially snazzy pyramid scheme to something that needs kicked to the curb”

Such is human nature!

= = = =

JIM KUKRAL : Don’t Waste Your Time With Blogrush, It Won’t Work For Your Blog
http://www.jimkukral.com/dont-waste-your-time-with-blogrush-it-wont-work-for-your-blog/

Jim doesn’t like BlogRush – and thinks it “won’t work for 99% of the people who try it.”

= = = =

INTERNET MARKETING MIND : Blog Rush = Blog Trickle?
http://www.internetmarketingmind.com/announcements/blog-rush-blog-trickle

Some more disappointing clickthrough figures… but hey, it’s early days yet.

= = = =

MONEY.POWER.WISDOM :

This quote is from my earlier review of BlogRush:

“And if they are overwhelmingly excited by what they find, blog readers will keep clicking on BlogRush links to find useful, entertaining, meaningful, relevant, exciting content – and maybe even make it their first-choice blog surfing tool! …

“And that’s POTENTIAL GOLD – for Blog Rush, as a concept.

“If that early visitor experience using BlogRush can be made a delightful one that makes them go ‘WOW’, BlogRush could become the magic widget of the blogosphere.”

My BlogRush data:

TODAY: Impressions - 136   Clicks – 0
LAST 7 DAYS: Impressions - 810 Clicks – 3
LAST30 DAYS: Impressions – 810 Clicks – 3

No, don’t go hunting for the BlogRush widget on THIS blog!  It’s on my ‘Remarkably Purple Spots‘ blog at http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/blog/