Archive for August, 2007

Erik Stafford here… and I am not a happy camper right now. I may owe you a big apology!

Let me explain.

One of the people that I met in Philadelphia at JVAlert was a guy named Alan Bechtold. Alan is one of the older guys who has been around for years quietly making loads of money on the Internet.

Needless to say he is way smart. He gave me a ton of great advice on my business and made a huge impact on me.

So anyways: fast forward to today. I just found out from Jeff Wark and Lori Steffen that Alan said (in public, at an event) that “Web 2.0 is CRAP!”

Sorry. Those were his words, not mine…

But now what do I do? I really respect Alan’s opinion… but here I am: I have been posting Web 2.0 information for months! I have been using it in my own business!

Either Jeff and Lori misheard, or I owe you guys a big apology.

Alan is holding a special teleseminar tomorrow night, and he will be addressing this seemingly outrageous statement.

The event is tomorrow night, August 30, at 7:30 p.m. EST. Space is limited and I don’t want you to miss this. You can signup here:

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/alan

Will you be there? I know I sure will. And I hope I haven’t been leading you guys astray:(

To your success,

Erik Stafford

Erik Stafford here.

Yesterday I posted about something that turned out to be one of the major components of my business… and it happened by accident.

This one technique “accidentally” nets me anywhere from $3-$4k each and every month. Did you take a guess what it was? Many of you sent in your guess by email, or posted it on my blog…

I stumbled on it by accident, and it turns out that it’s one of the same techniques used by the “gurus” to explode their profits…

Here is a clue: Did you ever wonder how people manage to get wealthy selling $7 and $27 dollar products? Or even giving them away for free?

Well, here is how they are doing it:

They are making their money from “Hidden Sales” (Back-end processes like up-sells, cross-sells, one time offers, etc. etc) and not from the first initial product that people see being offered.

Want to apply these same concepts to your business?

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/hidden-sales

To your success,

Erik Stafford

(Hurricane Ivan, Over The Cayman Islands September 2004)

Erik Stafford here… and I want to share something personal with you. Did you know that on September 11th, 2004 my family and I survived a direct hit from a Category 5 Hurricane?

Probably not. It’s something that I don’t much talk about anymore… but we did.

We were living in the Cayman Islands at the time, and the storm was called Ivan. It was a direct hit. Winds were clocked at 200 mph.

We lost almost everything: the cars, the condo, the jobs. Photos, computers, clothes and books…

All of it washed out to sea.

We were evacuated to Miami a few days later, with the two things that we didn’t lose, the two things that were the most precious to us: our children.

It took us over a year to get our lives back together. We replaced everything, eventually…

But I sit here and watch the news today and I see Hurricane Dean bearing down on Jamaica, and on our former home… and I think about how lucky I really am, and how precious life really is. I realize that I take so much for granted, and I shouldn’t.

I am incredibly thankful to have what I have.

I am thankful to have two healthy kids. I am thankful to have a beautiful loving wife. I am thankful for my parents, who raised me to be the man I am today.

I am thankful for my business, and I am thankful for you.

Without you I wouldn’t have a business!

If you would, please take five minutes tonight and say a prayer for the people of Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Texas/Louisiana.

And also take a moment to reflect on everything you have that you might take for granted… and be thankful for what you have, and what you have the ability to achieve!

To your success,

Erik

Erik Stafford here. I posted a couple days ago about “Podcasting Unleashed” by Scott Paton. Scott was one of the speakers at my very first “Internet Marketing Seminar”, and he blew me away.

I came home from JV Alert in Philadelphia determined to start my very own podcast.

I knew nothing about audio editing, or iTunes, or podcasts… but I was determined to do it.

So I did it. And guess what? It was totally easy!

Here is the proof: I am proud to introduce you to my first podcast… Drum roll please! Introducing “The Mike and Erik Show” podcast:

http://www.themikeanderikshow.com

I really can’t speak highly enough about Scott’s program. Get it today, and start your own podcast tomorrow!
http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/itsabreeze

To your success,

Erik Stafford
http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com

Okay… step three in getting your first website up and running is to update your DNS. This is easy stuff, really. It’s like the internet’s version of a change of address form.

You need to let the world (including the place where you registered your Domain Name, in Step #1) know where your website is going to be living. It’s going to be living at the Hosting Account that you set up in Step #2!

Here is the third training video:

To your success,

Erik Stafford
http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com