It’s funny how the simplest little statement can give birth to a huge project. In this case, it was “Mommy, how can we make some money?”

Apparently the $5 per week allowance each of my children receives is not enough to buy the hottest, most ridiculously expensive must have toy - Webkinz. These are plain little stuffed animals, the kind you can find at Wal-Mart for $5, or even $1 at a swap meet. But the retail price for these little varmints is $9 - $11 … that is, IF you can find them. The few stores that sell them can’t keep them in stock.

So what’s the big deal about Webkinz? It’s the fact that each one comes with a “secret code” that the kids use to “register” their little creature and “adopt” it at www.webkinz.com. Then the kids earn money by playing games so they can feed their virtual pet, decorate their rooms, play with them, etc. The Webkinz people regularly “retire” some of the little critters, driving up the price and of course, the exclusivity of having this one or that one.

What a racket. Yep, that’s pure old sour grapes and jealousy right there — wish I had thought of it first.

Anyway, my kids caught the Webkinz bug and came to me looking for ideas to raise money. They’re too young to babysit or dog walk, what can they do? So I came up with an idea — they could sell some things on Ebay and keep all of the profits.

I don’t know what possessed me to say it, probably because enough time had passed since I last sold things on ebay so that I had forgotten what a pain in the ass it is, which is why I stopped doing it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I figured that at 9 they were old enough and it would be an educational experience for them.

Of course they were all for it and got really excited about the prospect of making a pile of money. I had to talk fast to tame their expectations but not dampen their enthusiasm. I told them if things went well, they could make between $150 and $200. No, not each, collectively. They did some quick calculations and figured that they would probably end up with 4 or 5 Webkinz apiece. I warned them that it wasn’t as easy as it looked and they assured me, “We’ll do all the work, Mommy!”

So on a recent Friday afternoon, we pulled all of the things out of the Ebay closet, which was quite full since I hadn’t sold anything on ebay in 2 years. Actually I’ve been on a “Clean Sweep” type binge during the last few weeks, so the pile was manageable since I had donated or thrown out most of the clothes. So we were left with a nice stack of Gap, Hilfiger, Polo, Gymboree, etc. in excellent shape.

I showed them how to sort the clothes into lots by size, although they kept wanting to sort them by color or brand. That took all of Friday evening. On Saturday I showed them how to take pictures of the clothes. That was truly funny to watch, each of them “posing” the clothes, then taking turns with the digital camera. I was very proud of the way they stuck to it, even when their little friend Maddie came by and asked them to come play with her and her puppies. They were tempted but didn’t give in … no, they had work to do. Visions of Webkinz danced in their heads.

On Sunday, it was time to write the descriptions. By now, my little people were starting to tire of the project, but they tired at different times of the day, and peer pressure from the other 2 was usually enough to keep them going. I set up an email account for them and showed them how to email me the descriptions. Each child was given a range of numbers to use to number their lots so that I would know which description went with which set of clothes. They taped the lot number on the bag and included it in the subject line of the email.

Oh those descriptions, they were so cute! I got misty-eyed and laughing cramps all at the same time, reading the way they described things in their little 4th grade English. I’m not sure how long they will be retained in ebay’s memory (yes I saved a copy of all auctions), but here’s one:

Boys 7 pc Lot Gap Hilfiger Shorts Pants Size 7-8

and

Girls 6 Pc Lot Old Navy Hilfiger Shorts Tops Size 6

Each child had a different writing style and added their own flair to the descriptions. They’d put in little details about the person who wore it. Isaiah’s tended to be very brief and to the point. Mariah wrote very long and detailed accounts. Sierra’s writing was very artsy and hip. I got such a kick out of reading those descriptions and couldn’t believe some of the words my babies knew!

Sunday evening was our target time for posting the auctions, so that afternoon I started creating the listings using the free tools at http://www.auctiva.com

It ended up taking longer than we thought, another couple of evenings (after school) to finish up the descriptions and post them to Ebay on Tuesday as 5 day auctions so they would end at the same time as the others. This was to encourage people to bid on multiple auctions.

In order to charge enough for shipping, the kids had to weigh the clothes and include that in the auction description they sent to me. So they were using all sorts of skills — writing, math, art, everything. It was quite the educational experience. People would write and ask questions about the clothes or shipping weights and I would pass it on to them so they could figure out the answer.

Of course, I supervised everything and made sure the info was correct — I have a good ebay feedback score and wanted to keep it that way. But it was their auction and they did much of the work.

Of course, the most exciting part was when bids started coming in. Every day they would come home from school and race to the computer to see how much money they had made. They started counting the number of webkinz they had earned and debating about which ones they would buy.

Hold on pardners! Not so fast. It’s not over until people actually pay. And don’t forget, you have to deliver the goods, as in put them in the mail. And then there are those pesky ebay fees that had to be subtracted from the proceeds. Hmm.

So the auctions ended and money started coming into my Paypal account. They had a total of 32 auctions, and 27 of them sold. We’d agreed that anything that didn’t sell would be donated to charity. So I printed out the postage from within Paypal, which is really cool, something they didn’t have a few years ago. Also the USPS will come to your house and pick up Priority Mail packages, which is great!

Anyway, the kids had to match up the right lot with the right person and postage label. Of course, I checked and double-checked all of this, having been on both ends of ebay mixups before. They had made $164.39, and $26.13 of that went to ebay for fees, leaving them with $138.26. So I didn’t want their profits to be eaten away by mailing mixups, where you mail the wrong item to the wrong person, then have to send them the money to send it to the right person, plus pay to mail them the right thing. With so many auctions, it would be easy to make a mistake and by then, they were tired of the whole thing. Frankly, so was I.

I had forgotten how cheap people were on ebay. Yeah, it was cute that kids were selling clothes and writing the descriptions but they still wanted to nickel and dime us on shipping and send money orders and ship to Canada and all that crap.

I tried to be nice but one lady really taxed my patience whining about shipping and how I could get a free box from the grocery store. Lady, you got a nice 6 or 7 piece lot of barely used Gap and Hilfiger clothes for $3.24 and you’re complaining about paying $10 to ship? No, I’m not running around town looking for a box, it’s Priority Shipping or no shipping. Then she paid with a debit/credit card so Paypal charged fees. Don’t you know I emailed her and made her pay me another $1 to cover those fees? My kids cracked up when I sent that email because they know that a dollar doesn’t mean that much to me, but I wasn’t going to let this old biddy take .72 out of their $3.24. It was the principle of the thing. And she was the one who had the most questions during the auction process! It’s true what they say, the cheapest customers are usually the ones that are the most high maintenance.

But finally we were finished. The last package was mailed and finally were off to the store so they could fulfill their fantasies. They carefully selected their 4 Webkinz each and have registered them and faithfully take care of their virtual pets every day. I do believe they will treasure those little critters even more, considering how hard they worked for them.

As for me, well, it was a hell of a lot of work. I worked harder during that 10 day period than I had in months. I had to take a week off to recuperate and am just now getting back in the swing of things. The fact that I could take time off to work for pennies to make them happy has given them a new appreciation for Mommy’s online business.

They know how hard we had to work for them to earn less than $150, all the while my websites were still earning money..and it’s a good thing too! One evening after we had knocked off for the day, they saw me check the stats and were amazed because they knew for sure I’d been working with them on the auctions all day. That’s when I explained to them about residual income and why it’s such a wonderful thing. You know what? I had explained it before, but on that day they really got it. That’s a lesson I don’t think they would have gotten any other way.

So it was a good experience for them and for that I’m glad. But the next time I open my mouth to make another suggestion like that, will someone please slap me?

Sharon

p.s. For their upcoming 10th birthday, I promised each child $150 to do with as they please — have a birthday party, take a few friends to the movies, or buy whatever you want. Three guesses what they want? Yep, more Webkinz. Since they’ve bought pretty much all of ones available at the local stores, guess where we’re having to look for the ones you can’t buy in the store?? Ebay!

Categories: Entrepreneurship, Life
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Got back from Orlando yesterday. What a great trip! I almost didn’t go because I woke up Thursday with a sinus headache and felt like I wanted to stay in bed. Not a good way to feel when the main reason for going is the networking! But I packed some apple cider vinegar in my luggage and over the next day or so drank enough vinegar spiked herbal tea to chase that stuff away.

On the plane to Orlando, I met Mike Young, an attorney who specializes in Internet Marketing law. We talked all the way to Orlando, just the nicest guy. He was on his way to JV Alert, which was being held in the same hotel as the Stomper Net conference. There were internet marketers everywhere you looked! I still wasn’t feeling great so I forgot to take a picture with Mike or anybody else the first day.

Got checked in, then went downstairs and registered. Started running into people I knew within 10 minutes. Ben Mack, who I met in Baltimore. Dennis Isip, who I met in Florida and had lunch with in the Ft Launderdale airport. Gary Ambrose. Dr. Mike Woo-Ming. Dan Kelly. Robert Butwin. It was great to see people I’d met during all those trips I took last year!

Plus I met new people from all over the world — Angela Wickenberg (Sweden), Nikoforas Fokas (Greece), Kirk VandenBerghe (Hawaii) and more. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating — going to offline events is the single most important thing you can do to explode your profits and grow your business!

On Friday morning, John Reese was the keynote speaker and afterwards I went up and introduced myself and took a picture with him. Really a nice guy, surprisingly humble and down to earth. Check out all the pictures here.

I also met Leslie Rhodie and Jason Potash, took pictures with them of course. Ken McCarthy couldn’t make it (I think it was due to weather) and he asked David Bullock to take his place as a speaker. I had heard about Dave last summer from James Johnson over at Black Enterprise, and when I met James Scott at LeadSupreme East, I found out that he and Dave were friends. So when I saw Dave’s name on the schedule, I dragged James over to make the introduction.

That turned out great because Dave was hanging out with Sherman Hu and his lovely wife Sarah and I ended up hanging with them for the next few hours. We went to Sherman’s WordPress Blog presentation, then afterwards we all went to lunch with Don Crowther. Listening to these guys talk about business was amazing and intoxicating!

Finally managed to get a picture with Andy and Brad at the very end. I had talked to Brad on the first night but could never catch Andy standing long enough to talk to him.

All in all it was a fun trip and I’m very glad I went. Some great things are going to come out of it too — Mike Filsaime and Gary Ambrose both agreed to help me launch my long delayed product “Advanced Testimonial Strategies“. I’ve gotten to know Mike and Gary a little bit over the last year and they have both been so nice to me, real sweethearts.

Finally, last but not least, I met Willie Crawford — just walked right up to him and started talking. Another down to earth guy just doing his thing and taking care of business. I asked him for an interview and he said yes. I think it’s time to start my own radio show! Stay tuned…

Categories: Internet Marketing
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Wow, I didn’t reallize it had been so long since I said anything. Where has the time gone? The holidays have come and gone, too quickly as usual. It was a fun time, and the best part was I only gained one pound, which quickly melted away in the new year.

The money I spent on my treadmill desk is the best money I ever spent, really. I’m on it pretty much every day, walking at a rate of 1.5 mph while answering emails, studying my traffic logs, looking at Stomper DVDs, and mapping out my business strategy. Before I know it, I’ve walked 4 or 5 miles, sometimes more. Thank you Dr. Levine!

It’s been almost 4 months since my last trip, which was Rich Schefren’s event in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. My daughter Mariah hates when I travel and one night during our goodnight tuck-hug-kiss ritual, she extracted a promise from me that I wouldn’t travel for the rest of the year. Of course, the next week I got the announcement of the Stomper event in Atlanta. I really wanted to go, but a promise is a promise, so I didn’t.

But it’s a new year, so when I got the word that the next Stomper Fest was going to be in Orlando, Feb. 15-18, I only hesitated a little before booking my flight. Even though I truly hate to travel, it is so rewarding that I force myself to do it. The people you meet, the relationships you form, and the contacts you make, makes it all so worth it.

What else have I been doing? Working on my audio course with Terry Dean. We did the recordings months ago, it’s the bonuses that are taking so much time. Terry wrote a monster coaching program and I heavily edited the transcripts, adding subtitles and stuff. This is something I really wanted to outsource and next time I will, no matter what. I just didn’t think it would turn out as well, and it probably wouldn’t have, but it would have been done a whole lot sooner. There’s a lesson in there, one that I learned from Rich Schefren — I forget the exact words, but the idea is just put something out there, you can improve upon it later.

What else? Most of my time has been spent working on my lead generation sites. That’s my bread-and-butter and I decided I needed more bread, so I shifted the local stuff to the side and haven’t emailed my list in months. I know, I know…

Applying the Stomper stuff to my lead generation sites has been loads of fun. I think I’m a “behind the scenes” type person, so after launching the local course (as yet unnamed) and the completing the promotion for Advanced Testimonial Strategies, I will no longer release any more products under my own name. I’m not interested in being a guru, never was, and will be quite content to make millions quietly in the background without anyone knowing my name.

Ok, so that’s it for now. Back to the salt mines.

Categories: Life
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My treadmill desk is up and running!

Never heard of a treadmill desk? Neither had I until a few months ago, when I saw a story on 20/20 that featured Dr. James Levine, a Mayo Clinic obesity researcher in Rochester, Minnesota.

The whole time he was being interviewed he continued to walk on the treadmill, very slowly. He explained the concept of NEAT — non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or the energy spent on physical activities of daily living. Dr. Levine said that 90% of Americans don’t work out regularly and at least half of workers sit in front of a computer most of the day. So most people don’t get enough exercise, as evidenced by our thickening waistlines and ever expanding backends (Ha! There’s a backend you don’t want.)

When you spend most of your waking hours in front of a computer, there’s very little “NEAT” to speak of, unless you make a concerted effort to exercise. That can be tough when you’re a mother and have enough things to do as it is. I always wished I could exercise while I work, and when I saw Dr. Levine being interviewed while walking on a treadmill, I knew immediately that this was the answer.

I went online and found several people that had setup their own treadmill desks. After much thought and debate over whether to get a cheap treadmill, I decided to go for the treadmill that Joe Stirt and Thomas Niccum both use, from Smooth Fitness. It has a lifetime warranty and since I’m going to be on this thing every day, I want something that will last, or have a bulletproof warranty in case it doesn’t. Another guy who built a treadmill desk had used the Smooth 5.15, so I figured that Smooth was the way to go.

I bought the Smooth Fitness 5.25 for $995 and that included delivery. The 5.15 had been discontinued and replaced with the 5.25, although I did find it on ebay for $699, including delivery. I wanted to think about it but when I went back it was gone. So I got the 5.25 and now that I have it, I’m glad I got this model instead. The treadmill platform is about 8 inches longer than on the 5.15 and when I’m walking my feet end up about 5 inches from end of the belt. So if I’d gotten the 5.15 it may have been too short.

Next, I had to decide on a laptop. This took longer because I couldn’t decide whether to get a cheapie or a desktop replacement. Finally I decided to go for something that I could use for a few hours a day and not think of it as a desktop replacement since I’ll alternate between my regular desk and the treadmill desk. I ended up getting an HP Pavilion DV8309 from Fry’s, with a really cool docking station.

Even before buying the laptop I had found the perfect way to mount it to the treadmill — the leaf insert from our dining table fit perfectly over the treadmill rails. There’s a handle that protrudes slightly and the leaf fits snugly under it so there’s no wobble, and even if a kid leans on it, it stays put. It worked out perfectly, couldn’t have planned it better. It’s as though it was built for being part of the treadmill desk.

At first we setup the treadmill on the other side of my desk, on the right side of my office, but from a usability standpoint it really needed to be a few steps from my desk so I could go back and forth easily. So we re-arranged things and placed it a few feet from my chair so that it became an integral part of my office.

Ok, so last Saturday I woke up determined to buy a laptop. No more thinking about it, reading reviews, pondering prices. I was going to Fry’s to buy a laptop. The DV8309 was sturdy enough for part-time work and was on sale for $799 (after a $50 rebate). With docking station and sales tax it ended up being around $1,250.

I wasn’t sure I needed the docking station (it was $250!), but turned out to be a wise purchase because it allowed me to move the screen up about 8 inches higher than it would have if it was just sitting on the table. Which would have been about 8 inches too low. It also included speakers, a wireless keyboard, and wireless mouse. Really cool.

Anyway, got it all setup and it worked perfectly. Every day I walk while checking my email, listening to audios, watching DVDs, listening to conference calls, talking on the phone…all the stuff I do at my regular desk. The time just flies and before I know it, I’ve done 2 or 3 miles. It’s so much better than schlepping over the gym. When I get tired of sitting on my butt, I get up, take 2 steps, and I’m walking while working.

Today I’ve done over 12,000 steps, more than 5 miles and it’s not even 6 p.m. And I feel great! Will post updates in the future…

Here’s an article about Dr. Levine

Categories: Productivity Tools, Life
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Back from Florida, where the whether was sunny, but in Houston it was rain, rain, rain. Both ends of the trip were delayed, especially the return leg — 4 hours of thumb twiddling in the Fort Lauderdale airport. Glad to be home.

Met a lot of cool people, will post pictures soon. Still need to get someone to figure out why only the first picture in each album will display.

The biggest takeaway for me was the importance of JVs and alliances with people that you consider competitors. That’s how Agora and other big info publishers grow their businesses, by renting each others’ customer lists, even though they are competitors.

The other big lesson was the importance of establishing your backend strategy and putting it on autopilot so you can focus your efforts on the front end (getting customers and leads into your funnel). Most online marketers have this reversed, putting the frontend on autopilot and trying various backends.

Categories: Internet Marketing
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Finally got my act together and installed Gallery2, a program that allows you to share photos online. I managed to integrate it with WordPress, so it’s pretty cool. For some reason only the first picture in each album displays, so I’ll have to get someone to troubleshoot that for me since I spent much too many hours playing around with it.

Also put some pics in the header, although most of the pics are closeups and don’t work too well in a wide header. Anyway, it was fun but now I have to get back to work.

Categories: Internet Marketing
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That’s a good question. The answer: all over the country.

It’s been a crazy year. I’ve done more traveling in 2006 than all the years put together since my children were born (1997).

• May 4-8 - San Antonio, Joel Christopher’s Masterlistbuilder “Fun” shop
• May 31 - June 4 - Las Vegas, Carl Galletti’s Intenet Marketing Superconference
• July 17-26 - New York, Adsense Immersion/Lead Supreme Training
• Sept 14 - 18 - Baltimore, The Internet Marketing Main Event

My children complain about me being gone, but I did manage to bring them with me on the New York trip, so that helped. Plus I bring each of them a teddy bear from every place I visit.
I realized last night why more women don’t pursue internet marketing - all of the travel! The guys who make it big are on the road constantly, flying from place to place, often a new city every day. I spoke to Rich Schefren this past Friday — he was on his way to somewhere on the west coast, then somewhere else nearby, then off to London after that.

Joel Comm — same story. Travels all the time.

Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal have insane travel schedules. They were both at all of the events I’ve attended, plus many more that I didn’t, including many in Europe and other faraway places.

Talked to Stephen Pierce and his lovely wife Alicia on Sunday — they were leaving Baltimore for the west coast for a couple of stops before returning to Michigan later in the week. If they had kids, she probably wouldn’t have been there. Man, these are some brutal traveling schedules.

I can’t hang. Once a month is all I can manage.

In spite of all the travel, I’ve managed to complete a few projects:

• The Local Business Masters Course for SiteSell.com — to be released shortly
• Local Business Course as yet unnamed — 6 CD audio course with Terry Dean; the recording is done, now we’re doing the post-production work; to be released toward the end of the year
• Advanced Testimonial Strategies - Series of expert interviews with some of the guys I’ve been meeting at all of these events! It turned out really well, better than I expected … to be launched any day.
• Wrote an article for a national magazine, it should hit the stands in late October; will share details when the magazine goes to print and not before (things tend to happen when articles go into the editorial process, I think I’ll wait until it comes out at the other end)

Okay, enough of this chit-chat, back to the salt mines.

Categories: Internet Marketing
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Wow, I’ve gotten so many questions about Butterfly Marketing, it’s amazing. I truly thought that everybody had heard everything there was to know about BFM and were sick to death of the subject. That wasn’t the case and I’m glad to answer any questions about it. I’ve answered several individual emails but thought I’d post the answers to the most frequently asked questions here.

Q: Is BFM for newbies?

A: If you had asked me this before I purchased the package, I would’ve said “defnitely not”. But after seeing the level of support being given to inexperienced marketers and seeing some of the success stories, again by newbies, I honestly feel that with the system and tools Mike is providing, anyone with the desire and willingness to work will succeed. Mike has challenged and encouraged advanced members to help out the newbies, and that’s exactly what has happened. The way that the community has rallied around people who know absolutely nothing has been amazing to see.

Now, having said that, I will say that some of these are advanced concepts, so the “newbie” has to be willing to work hard to overcome the learning curve. If the word “work” scares you, or if you’re looking for money to magically appear in your back account as a result of buying BFM, then please do not buy it.

Q: Can you give me your no BS opinion on this product and what makes it different from the rest?

A: When I first heard about this, I was determined not to buy it. I refused to get caught up in the hype and went out of my way not to learn anything about it. But somehow I ended up reading a chapter from the manuscript and found it so fascinating I couldn’t put it down. Reading it gave me lots of ideas, and I wanted to read the rest of it. I decided that just because something was hyped up to the heavens didn’t mean that it wasn’t a good product, and was no reason not to buy it.

So I bought it and joined the private community created for Butterfly Marketers. There is a wealth of information being shared in that forum that makes it almost worth the price of the package itself. What makes BFM different from others is that it’s a complete system and the level of support provided by the community and by Mike himself. He says, “Everyone will succeed. No one will be left behind. You have my word.”

Most of the time when you purchase one of these “home study” courses, you’re on your own. In this case, it’s a complete system. You get the roadmap telling what to do and all of the tools to do it. I’m just getting started, so although I have some great ideas in the works, I don’t have anything to point to (yet). But there are plenty of other success stories to study.

One well documented case is a guy named Keith, who you’ll meet on the forums. Six months ago he was working at a job he hated, had a pregnant wife and was in debt up to his eyeballs (his words). He took the BFM system and put up 2 sites. Now he’s making $15K per month. There are other success stories but that’s one I remember well.

Q: Does this course teach you where to look for niches and how to market them?

A: Yes, you’ll learn how to determine whether a niche will be profitable, and learn how to find them. There are many overlooked or underserved niches out there, just waiting for someone to come along tap into them.

Q: Will I learn how to drive traffic to my sites?

A: The basic concept is to make the sites viral, and to set them up so that the bulk of the traffic will be driven by the members themselves. So the traffic will grow automatically. Of course it won’t hurt
to promote it, but the way the sites are setup, your members will do it for you. Viral marketing is not new, of course, but this is a fresh new way of looking at it.

Another thing that’s not mentioned on the sales page is the training that Mike is making available. Not just short training audios and videos but real training via teleseminars and webinars. He keeps saying that “everyone that wanted success and is willing to work for it WILL have it.”

If I get any other questions, I’ll add them to this FAQ. In the meantime, if you’re so inclined, take a peek: http://www.sharonsays.com/bm The last time I looked, there was less than 40 packages left.

I truly believe that if you’re willing to do the work and apply the concepts, you will succed. And If you purchase BFM based on my recommendation, I will personally help you to get the most out of your package. Mind you, you still have to do the work and take action! If those words don’t frighten you, go ahead and visit the site for more info: http://www.sharonsays.com/bm

Categories: Internet Marketing
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Sharon Says check out Butterfly Marketing

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple months, you’ve probably heard about Butterfly Marketing. Here’s a product who was promoted a bit too well and as a result, turned off a lot of people because it was being shoved into their faces too much.

That’s how I felt, and at first I refused to even look at it. I’ve seen how these things work: lots of hype, big build up, a frenzy of buying, then… nothing. You get the product and feel like you’ve been duped. Great sales copy but like the Wizard of Oz, nothing behind the curtain.

So when I heard about Butterfly Marketing, that’s what I thought of it. Then I opened the door just a crack and took a look, kind of like “well, I’ll take a look but I’m not buying”.

After reading about it, seeing the proof of income video, and adding up everything that was included, I decided that Butterfly Marketing had been a victim of the hype machine, that there really was something unique and different about it.

So I took the plunge. Yes, I confess, I purchased it on January 31st and I’m very glad I did. The past two weeks have been fun and exciting. Here’s what happened: as soon as I purchased I got an email asking me to join a private forum for BFM owners, which I did. So did 900 other purchasers.

Overnight this thriving community sprang up and it’s totally dedicated to helping everyone get the best out of their packages. Newbies, intermediate and advanced marketers alike, people of all levels of expertise. There are some people who don’t even know what HTML means, and people are pitching in to help them get up to speed.

The other thing that’s been so surprising is all of the unadvertised bonuses that Mike (the creator of BFM) gave us. He has other sites that people actually pay to be a part of — $97, $147, and $250 memberships. And he’s giving all of us top level memberships in those sites. Sites like InstantBuzz and ListDotCom, which allow you to build an optin list. These memberships will give you a jump start on building your own list. He’s also giving us all of the products he’s ever created, and that’s a pretty long list. He says that “nobody will be left behind”, everyone who’s willing to do the work will succeed. It’s really unbelievable.

Of course the best thing is the BFM package itself, which tells you exactly what to do and includes all of the scripts and software you need to do it. To me, that’s what makes it different from all of the other products I’ve seen come and go. They might tell you what to do, but not how. Or give you some scripts, but you need a programmer to get them to work.

So I’ve been pretty busy the last couple weeks trying to grasp all of the concepts, getting to know others in the community, and brainstorming ideas for my first Butterfly Marketing sites. Stay tuned to this blog for the results.

I posting this now because some readers have asked why I didn’t promote Butterfly Marketing and they thought it was because I didn’t recommend it. That’s not the case, it’s just that I detest hype and the “in your face” emails that I got about this product. I figured that you had gotten them too, and I didn’t want to be part of the hype machine. I wanted to wait and see what was really behind the curtain.

But now that I’ve looked beyond the hype, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you what I’ve learned so far. There’s an air of excitement and optimism on the forum that’s refreshing and contagious. As people are getting their packages, they’re reporting back and posting questions and others are jumping in to help. It’s such a positive thing and it’s only going to get better.

Like all big product launches, there were some glitches. It’s taken longer for people to get the package than they originally thought, especially those overseas. This is because everybody’s so excited that they want it to arrive overnight.

Another not so cool thing: some people actually asked for refunds for some of the products they had previously purchased that are now being given to us as bonuses, those memberships to ListDotCom and Mike’s other sites. Not nice. But there are always a few bad apples in any crowd of 900 people, that’s just life. But for the most part it’s a great community and getting better every day.

I’m really glad I looked beyond the hype and took the leap of faith. Mike really does overdeliver to the extreme. It’s really going to take my business to another level. Stay tuned…and if you haven’t taken a look, please do so now while the course is still available. (Of course there’s a money back gurantee.) Sharon Says check out Butterfly Marketing

Categories: Entrepreneurship, Website Building, Internet Marketing
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