Erik Stafford's Marketing Blog

Erik here… and as it closes in on the end of the year I am spending more and more time reflecting on what an amazing year it’s been, and what I am thankful for…

And also reflecting on what 2008 will bring for me.

What will 2008 bring for you?

If I had to start over from scratch next year, and rebuild my online business from the ground up, this is exactly where I would start:

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/start-fresh

To your success,

Erik

{ 0 comments }

Erik Stafford here, and tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. For those of you not living in the United States, Thanksgiving is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks at the conclusion of the harvest season.

It’s a great day to relax, spend time with your family, and have a big, wonderful feast… It’s also a great day to be thankful.

What are you thankful for?

I know I am thankful for many things: first and foremost my amazing wife Wendy and my two equally amazing children Rowan and Evan. And of course my mother and father, and my brother Zac… thank you…

I am thankful for those who have helped me launch my business and make it a success… Friends and mentors alike: Joshua, Dan, Mike, Tellman… thank you.

I am thankful for Theo, Carlos, Tony, Steve, Andy, Ben, Ross, and the rest of my friends and business partners… thank you.

I am thankful for you for being part of what I am doing. It means the world to me, so thank you.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday tomorrow, and I encourage you to spend a little time thinking about what you are thankful for. If you feel like sharing you are welcome to post your comments below.

To your success,

Erik

{ 1 comment }

Erik Stafford here. The late, great, Gary Halbert (one of the true pioneers of direct response advertising) used to pose this question to people:

Say you were opening up a Hamburger Stand, and you were allowed to pick one major advantage that you could have to set you apart from your competitors. What one advantage would you want to have?

A great location? Awesome burgers? Great signs?

The answer, of course, is a starving crowd. If you have a starving crowd then the rest will take care of itself… but without a hungry audience your business will fail no matter how good your burgers are.

The Internet works the same exact way. I don’t care how awesome your website is, or how affordable your product is… without visitors your business will never succeed.

Luckily, I have a good friend (my best friend, actually) who can show you some simple, proven ways to create and grow streams of steady, targeted visitors. He has spent several months testing and researching, and putting every ounce of his effort into what I am about to show you.

This hasn’t been released anywhere else:

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/floods

Good job Pam, Peter, Phil, Jono, Larry, and the rest of you who answered correctly:)

To your success,

Erik Stafford

{ 0 comments }

Erik Stafford here. Say you were opening up a Hamburger Stand, and you were allowed to pick one major advantage that you could have to set you apart from your competitors. What one advantage would you want to have?

A great location? Awesome burgers? Great signs?

Think about it, and post your answers.

To your success,

Erik

{ 10 comments }

Erik Stafford here, and as a visionary, work-from-home type of person, I find that all my days are pretty much the same… I wake up, grab a coffee, and then spend my entire day dealing with whatever my voicemail or email throws at me.

I work too many hours. I work everyday, since my office is always right here, beckoning me.

I mentioned the Entrepreneurial Time System in my email yesterday. It was the core part of the Strategic Coach training I received last week in Phoenix, and it’s already making a huge impact on my energy and productivity… So I wanted to share it with you.

Basically, the Entrepreneurial Time System breaks the work week down into the following types of days:

Free Days: Free Days are not mandatory, they are required. Free Days are 24 hours, from midnight to midnight… completely unplugged. No email, no work, no phone. I am not even supposed to read books that relate to work!

Buffer Days: These are days where I plan, delegate, and generally complete any work that I have to get done. This includes podcast recording, blogging, myspace and social bookmarking stuff, customer support emails, etc. etc.

Focus Days: Focus Days are days where I spend almost all of my time doing “focus” activities, which are basically activities that center around my unique abilities, and directly affect my bottom line and the growth of my business. For me this means working on The Faster Webmaster II, and setting up partnerships and joint venture opportunities.

For me, I am going to start taking one “Free” day every week, and two “focus” days. This leaves four general “buffer” work days.

So what does this mean to you?

Well, even if you are not in a position where you can split up your time based on entire days (perhaps you have a full-time job, for example) then you can at least start by turning one weekend day into a “buffer” day (perhaps you work on side projects, or clean the house and run errands, or work on your internet business) and one weekend day into a “free” day: go ahead and unplug for an entire 24 hour period.

Read a book. Take the family somewhere. Go golfing, or go for a long walk.

In your work days, go ahead and carve out “focus” time and “buffer” time. Perhaps you check and answer emails and voicemail’s first thing in the morning, and then you turn everything off and just work on “focus” stuff until lunch.

I am taking my first full “free” day tomorrow. Wish me luck! I am taking the kids to the park, and then probably going to settle into my hammock with a good book. Maybe I will go golfing. Who knows?

Anyways, I hope you find this information as powerful as I have, and have a great weekend!

To your success,

Erik Stafford

{ 6 comments }

Erik Stafford here.

As you read this, many of you still don’t have your first website. Some of you already have websites (Some of you used The Faster Webmaster to build them, which thrills me)… but have no idea what to do with them now that you have them.

Seriously: I get tons of emails everyday from people who have a website, but don’t know what to put on it.

The BANABU Business License is an entire working, cash-producing, internet business:

http://www.thefasterwebmaster.com/incredible

One package, one payment, and it’s yours forever: The website, the graphics, and the sales letter… All the code, all the content, and all the products…

And the best part: you get to work with me to get it installed and running!

To your success,

Erik

{ 2 comments }

Erik Stafford here… and I jammed $645 dollars into my pockets yesterday.

It was totally easy…

Now, I know that $645 bucks may not seem like much, according to the “big shots”, but it’s more than enough for me…

And I am in San Francisco right now at a conference! I was nowhere near a computer while I did it.

The best part? You can do it too!
http://www.autoprofitsecrets.com

To your success,

Erik

{ 0 comments }

Erik Stafford here, and I want to thank you all for your amazing response to the “Ten Golden Tickets” post. I received 40 comments on this Blog and a bunch more by email!

My beautiful wife, in all her divine wisdom, decided that it wasn’t fair to pick the Golden Ticket winners based on what she liked best… I think she was just having trouble picking because there were so many amazing answers!

So she decided to put all the names in our big salad bowl instead, spin them up, and pick ten at random.

So without further ado: here are the Ten Lucky winners:

WINNERS OF GOLDEN TICKETS:
John Mazzara, Grahame Rees, Will Bucks, Sue Chartock, Tara Kelly, Joy (World Wellness), Larry Penilla, Julie Therese, Mike (AOL Account?), and Claire Durand!

Congratulations! You have won free access to The Faster Webmaster II! When I launch next week I will send you your login information.

I have also decided to offer a 50% discount to all of the rest of you who took the time to post your nice feedback. Thank you for your input, and thanks for your support:

Sharon, Rebecca, Tamara Aragon, Judy Chiappini, David, Peter, Guido, Noel, Tom, Toni Sheffield, Sherrie, David, Steve, Abventures, Mark, Scott, Glenn, Sheila Denise, Randy G, R Titus, Sandra, Ernestine, CM, SSquared, Joseph Murray, Netkickstart, and Jimmy A.

Congratulations! When I launch next week I will send you a link where you can register (if you like) for 50% off!

To your success,

Erik

{ 5 comments }

I am launching The Faster Webmaster II in about two weeks. On Thursday, September 20th at 10:00am, to be exact.

If you found this post via my list then you know what to do!

To your success,

Erik

{ 41 comments }