http://www.NickMartin.com

The dusty .csv file
I have been saving this csv file for years and a few days ago I decided it was time to do some-thing about it. This was not just any csv file but a list of all the people that had registered for my free list building program called LifestyleNetworker. This free club did really well back in 2003-2004 and there was a nice atmosphere and sense of fellowship in the forums.

Questions questions
So here I am today 5 years later scrolling down the list of almost 7.500 names wondering how many of these were still actively marketing today. And then the questions started:

How was I going to validate these emails?
What software could I use to send mails?
Could I get in trouble with my IPS?
What about all the techy stuff if I wanted to host the list on my own server?

I spent a few hours with google searching for various solutions to my above questions when I finally realized the answer was really simple! I simply created a GetResponse account and imported 2.500 contacts each day as that was the limit. GetResponse would validate all the emails, handle the bounces and send out a confirmation email.

Thank you GetResponse for making this a very easy task!

My first mail in 5 years
Now the big question was how many of my old LifestyleNetworker members would accept the invitation and click on the confirmation link in the email? Well if you are here reading this post chances are you were one of them – THANK YOU

I sent out the first batch of requests on Saturday February 21st and the last on Monday February 23rd.  A total of 7.133 emails were approved and as of now Tuesday February 24th a total of 90 people confirmed the invitation!

That’s 1,26% I must admit I’m not surprised considering how long this list has been gathering dust.

What have you been doing?
However, I am thrilled that 90 people remember me and/or LifestyleNetworker and clicked the link! You cannot believe how curious I am to what you have been doing the last 5 years! Please do post your story in the comment section below. Did you make it or did you take a break like I did?

I can’t wait to hear from you!!

Emotional Roller Coaster

Okay okay so I have been working on my Internet Marketing Management Game for what feels like an eternity now, but slowly I am seeing the site come together now. It has been one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride to say the least! I came across the idea of creating a kind of online marketing game back in 2005 as part of my university education, and have been trying to put together a site since then.

Good idea – bad idea

If you only knew how many times my thought about the project went from "this is brilliant I’m gonna be rich" to "this sucks no one will buy it"! Man it’s been crazy but I think it’s due to me taking sooo long getting a site together that people can actually play and tell me what they think about it.

Anyways, I’m not gonna say I’m finally there cause that’s not entirely true yet. Yes almost all the features are coded and in place and yes I have danish programmers and graphic artists working on the design, but there still lacks content…. yikes!

Now what??

On top of all that I’m not quite sure what to do with the damn thing once it’s ‘ready’! You see I don’t really consider myself as a great marketer or even a decent one. Sure I’ve had success promoting affiliate programs and traffic exchanges back in 2001-2004 but things have changed since then.

To be absolutely honest with you, I’m pretty clueless as to how I’m going to launch my membership site. That’s why I’ve asked Frank Kern to help me with his Mass Control course. I still believe that I have come up with something unique – okay Russell Brunson kinda beat me to it with his $100.000.000 contest, but I’m much more of a system developer then a marketer. So now I have to learn how to take this product of mine and turn it into a cash machine with Franks help.

Mass Control 2.0 Live Case Study

I’ll be sharing this process with you here on the blog. I’ll try to document what I will be going through from initial list building to continuous support/development of the product. I have NO idea of how this is going to work out but I invite you to follow and maybe even learn a thing or two? I know I’ll have plenty to figure out

Is this going to be a live case study of Frank Kerns Mass Control 2.0 course? Well yeah I guess we can call it that – stay tuned