Informational products have always been an interesting beast, there is certainly value in information as Google has completely solidified, but what is it worth and who should actually buy it? That is a tough question to answer, but it is a question that so many so eager to fulfill.

Why they suck

We all need information. That much is fact, but the question is not “do we need it” but rather “who is best to give us this information?”. Often times we buy from people we have heard of, not people who are actually the authorities in any given field. This is the same reason that Tiger Woods is paid millions to represent Buick, when we all know that Tiger Woods is not the best mechanic on the face of the earth (among other things). While this is not always the case, it seems that far too frequently the people who are least qualified to be creating and promoting an information product are the leaders in the pack.

Who makes money

Importantly, the often is not the person who ends up buying the product to fulfill a need they think is currently unmet. Many of these products prey demographics who shouldn’t be shelling out the $50, $500 or $5,000 to “get started” when they could instead be paying off Credit Cards, Loans and other things that are absolutely eating them alive. So many times it seems that informational products pitch “How To’s” based on theory, models that no longer work or BOTH. So who really makes money off of these products? It’s often times JUST the information product producer who leaves little value on the table that can be quantified by customer.

Apologies

Here is where I directly apologize to you and the community as a whole. Not because I have created an information product and charged for it (I haven’t), not because I have made money from informational products (I have..), but mainly because I have subjected my audience to the same flavor of bullshit that has been floating around in the performance marketing industry for the past6 months more than ever. I am sorry for sharing information products that made me money because now I feel like I have done a disservice to you.

From here on out, I promise to more heavily screen the people and offers that I connect you to and make sure that the value is easily quantifiable for YOU before wasting your time talking about it. I hope that you can forgive me for buying into the hype a little bit, I just wanted to set things straight.

Enjoy!

As entrepreneurs, we can often relate our business passions to that of our lives with a significant other. We put so much effort into things we like to try and see them succeed and grow into something truly amazing. Today I was listening to my iTunes when @MichaelBuble’s song came on ” Just Haven’t Met You Yet” and I couldn’t help but draw the similarities between an entrepreneurs quest to build something amazing and the human desire to find someone you love to spend your life with.

“I promise you kid, I give so much more than I get”

Starting a business isn’t easy at all – in fact I can say without a doubt that starting not one, but two businesses so far it has been the most challenging thing in my life. Every time you decide to put yourself on the line financially, emotionally, and mentally you run a huge risk of being hurt, battered and depending on the level of risk you might even feel broken by the end. But what entrepreneurs see is amazing OPPORTUNITY that makes the risk all worth it. If you aren’t this person out of your circle of friends, chances are that you know at least one or two who seem not only willing, but EAGER to do this kind of thing.

But what is incredibly important about entrepreneurs like us is that we are willing to take that risk. No risk, no reward.. this saying has always been true and always will be. I know that I wake up every morning and ask myself “Why am I doing this? Why am I putting all my chips on the table to try and do this?”. But every day I keep working at it because I know deep down I am far from satisfied with the status quo – I want to build something truly amazing.

Interviews are daunting, and quite frankly they suck. With the economy how it is, what is a potential employee supposed to do in order to differentiate themselves from the rest of the applicants? In a word: Personal Brand.

People like @Garyvee have been promoting personal brands as a way to get to the next level, but what about if you can’t afford to jump right into the lush lifestyle of a talent agency representing you with speaking deals, book gigs and other lavish luxuries that people in that caliber are enjoying from their personal brand? What if, as crazy as it sounds you need to “take the deal” as Seth Godin says and go for a ‘regular’ job to earn more money?

All Hail the Personal Brand

While some employers may be timid about hiring an up and coming personality that is building their brand, the smart employers also know that the value you can bring to the table far exceeds the risk of losing you to bigger and better things. How will they know this? Because someone who is working on building their personal brand through blogs, social media, forums and other forms of communication really understands what is going on in the technology, marketing, communication, pr etc.

Personal brands are a great way to showcase your creativity, enthusiasm for whatever category you want to work in and give a potential employer some insight into who you ARE as opposed to just what you can DO. Personalities are equally as important as abilities to many employers, how are you building your brand?

As I mentioned in my HasOffers open house post, I had the change to meet Jeremy Schoemaker (better known as “Shoemoney”) which was a little different experience than I had anticipated.

First thing’s first: Online persona and Offline persona are usually two different things.

Shoemoney is a pretty damn genuine guy, and he doesn’t dance around the fact that his persona online is out to polarize popular opinion. What happens when you polarize an audience? You get debate, traffic and page views; in a word “genius”. Additionally, while Shoemoney knows that he is a idolized in the Affiliate Marketing / Blogging space to the point of minor rockstar-dom he can keep his cool and bullshit with everyone else.. because at the end of the day he is just another guy enjoying a little Captain Morgans.

The Shoemoney Team

I have been lucky enough to deal with the Shoemoney team before meeting them in person (@ddn @tighb @shoemoney primarily) and found that they take a no-nonsense approach to projects, people and business. In person wasn’t much different and I really hope that I have an opportunity to work with them again.

Have any of you met Shoemoney or his team? If so, what did you think?

http://www.shoemoney.com

We all know that the notion of a brand is enticing, and that people are willing to pay more for a Coke simply because it says “Coke” on the side and not just a random house brand. We also know that when Coke brings out a new product, if we liked the original we are much more likely to try the new product.. emotionally we are tempted to dive head first into products, services, locations etc we wouldn’t have otherwise because of how a brand makes us feel.

What does a brand mean when it is a person though? Does a celebrity have brand value that is nearly instantaneous? The answer is HELL YES they do. For an example look at the Twitter account started by LeBron James.. in a short 2 hour period after sending his first tweet that simply announced he was on Twitter.. he has a staggering 127,225 followers (and counting!!). So what is this brand equity worth? Well if you read this article you might believe that each follower is worth $6.19; and that value multiplied by his follower base adds up to nearly $800,000 in only 2 HOURS.

According to Ad Age, each person who ‘Likes’ a Facebook page is worth $3.60/year which is probably pretty fair if you were comparing the cost of traditional media to the reach of social media. If you think that this size of audience simply can’t be worth this much money, keep in mind that Jeremy Schoemaker (@shoemoney) had roughly 90k followers and PROFITED $50k in about 7 months time on Twitter.. the value is real and so are the paychecks.

How are you building your brand and finding your audience? It is likely worth much more than you think right now.

Yesterday, a cool company called HasOffers was nice enough to put on an open house for clients and potential clients. Special guest Jeremy Schoemaker was there (“Shoemoney”) for some extra fun. One thing I couldn’t help but notice about the type of people both at the event as well as employees was the type of person it takes to be in affiliate marketing as a general rule. What is more shocking though is the difference between the people who are actually making it compared to those who aren’t.

Performance Marketing vs Performance Talking

I am always amazed at how many people are “in affiliate marketing” that really only make $20 bucks here and there by spamming their friends with links compared to actually understanding how to setup a marketing funnel that when you put $1 in, you get more than $1 out.. while not all funnels are scalable (in fact many are difficult to grow vertically) you can at least generate repetition in your practices to know what is profitable vs what isn’t.

The most interesting part of this though is that the people who make the $20 must like to count numbers more than once because they are usually the people who act like they are pulling in $200k + a year in profit from their activities, while the people who are the real deal give you a hint of what they are doing without giving away their profitable niche (unless of course their talk is what makes them money). Because the industry moves so fast, if someone is eager to tell you about how they are making money you need to seriously ask yourself if this person is a) only making money by telling you their “secret” or even worse b) what they are trying to sell you USED to work but now is a saturated market that will likely never work again they way it did for them.

My next post will be about finally meeting Shoemoney in person (disclosure: I have worked with Shoemoney Media on a project) and how being successful doesn’t mean you have to claw people to be on top.

I have had the amazing opportunity to spend a few days here at Lake Chelan with some close family friends. Between skipping across the lake on a SeaDoo (60+ mph!) and hanging out in the sun we visited a fantastic winery called ‘Tsillan’ which is Native American for “Chelan”, the name of this area. Now for those who know me, you will also know that being fresh out of College I have enjoyed the inexpensive perks of Busch Light at the regular social functions, and while I will probably still drink that on my future Yacht.. I also see the need to widen my horizons to the luxurious of drinks: Wine.

My parents have always enjoyed wine, but they have often enjoyed red wines; which if you aren’t very familiar with different Wines, reds have a very distinctive flavor that often comes with a strong after taste. I’m told that starting with White Wines in your “Wine Career” is best because they are typically a little less full-bodied and carry a lighter aftertaste (if really any at all). Tsillan Winery was a great place to widen my horizons as they had some fantastic wines (not just my opinion) and I was able to sample numerous wines. As expected many of the whites won my favors and as a standout I really enjoyed both the Riesling and the Dry Riesling whites.

So if you are open to expanding your horizons, don’t hesitate to start with the Whites; particularly the Rieslings and expand from there. Everyone has a different set of tastes, but hopefully that helps you get started!

One thing that we seem to often lose sight of as entrepreneurs is how freaking lucky we are RIGHT NOW. Obviously things are tough out there, and many of you are probably ‘leveraged’ financially like I am to try and grow your business as strong as hard as humanly possible. But while we are very ambitious people, we need to take a minute every now and then to enjoy the little things in our life that are consistently bringing us joy (or at least should be).

Make sure you take a few minutes each day to spend with your family, friends or looking out over a beach. These times are going to help remind you how lucky we are to be entrepreneurs across the world, and especially if you are in America. We have so many advantages afforded to us, don’t take them for granted. I am personally spending a few days in Lake Chelan to kick back and relax with some of my favorite people (WiFi is needed of course) but there will be plenty of time on the Sea-Doo and other festivities.