http://www.NickMartin.com

Hey all,

It’s true I really did fail about 5 years ago…

I was running the free traffic and list building club called LifestyleNetworker and everything was going great! Loads of people joined daily and I was getting super feedback from happy users. Then I decided that I would offer the same software that I was using to run the club with to other members. Don’t get me wrong I truly believe that it was the right decision, but I just wasn’t prepared for what was to happen a few months down the road.

"The only way to retain a true leader is if you give them the same opportunity for growth as you have" – Tim Sales.

I sold the software to begin with for a measly $50 and naturally the demand was very high! But because the software was written in cgi and I had made lot’s of hacks and modifications it was incredibly tough to support. I started getting daily support mails and at one time had server login for about 50 clients! I eventually had to raise the price to $97 because I was running out of extra time to do my marketing.

This is where I made my fatal mistake – I didn’t hire someone to take care of these support issues and eventually I was so bogged down with support requests that I didn’t feel like opening my email. As time went by I slowly got my clients sorted out and then I vanished from the Internet Marketing game.

Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely LOVE taking care of my clients! I just got flooded with software support requests that I lost interest in doing my marketing stuff.

Why am I telling you all this?

I want you to know that I have learned from my mistakes. Yes I will eventually be offering the software we are developing to a select group of players, but when I do not know. This software is pretty neat and has features no other Internet Marketing software has to date, but I want to make sure it’s 100% tested and that support ressources are in place before I release it.

I also want you to know that I am no guru marketer. I am a regular guy with a mission to succeed online. Much like you I pressume I just happen to have discovered a really cool way to teach other people how to make some money online and I want to share that with you.

Thanks for reading!

Hey all,

Wow it’s been a few hectic weeks lately in the Internet Marketing arena huh? For me I think it started with Frank Kerns Mass Control 2.0 and wrapping it all up this week with Mike Filsaimes free Butterfly Marketing 2.0 course and software!

You know sometimes I wonder how the heck new people to this industry ever get around to focus on the job at hand and not getting lost in all these major launches. Heck I’ve been around for years and I still get caught up in all the buzz. Lately I have invested in Franks Mass Control 2.0, Ewen Chias Internet Millionaire System and Mikes Butterfly Marketing 2.0 software.

I have a plan for all these products and it will all be bundled up in my LifestyleNetworker Internet Marketing Game, but it’s not easy keeping my head straight! I will make sure players will be able to benefit from all these great products by playing my game. It will take a few weeks to get it all in place, but I hope you are interested in following the progress and even better send me your input/feedback/ideas.

That’s another biggie for me creating LSN – getting your input. Sure I have ideas of my own, but I would really like to create this game with you. Right now I am building the framework, but together we will create the content and design the gameing elements. More on this later

What about you … did you invest in anything lately? Any future plans you want to share?

Hey all,

First a big thanks to those of you who signed up for a test drive of http://www.LifestyleNetworker.com and had a look around! However its seems that I might have made somewhat of a design error.

About 95% of those that signed up verified their email address. That’s pretty good considering I haven’t added much detail on that part of the signup to help.

BUT – it seems like 25% of you have 0 XP and haven’t reached a new level yet. Completing projects is a HUGE part of the new system and at the moment the only way to gain XP and new levels.

YES – I really lack content and information. We are working on the last part of the design (the players status page) and then I’m gonna get help from my brother adding content. I have a load of videos that need to be uploaded and packaged so they fit with the projects.

Anyways – my question is basically: How can I make the projects more visible or intuitive for players to seek out and complete? Any feedback is appreciated good or bad

Thanks!

Nick

Well not really a sneak peek I guess when the domain is live and has been for over a week now

But please feel free to visit http://www.LifestyleNetworker.com and check out the design. You can also create a free account and test drive the few demo projects I have created.

I will be working on content next, and I have a LOT of cool videos and other neat stuff that I will be loaing into the site in the next 3 weeks. The plan is to do a soft launch around april 1st 2009 but I’ll announce that later.

I know there isn’t much content there just yet, but please take a look at the nice colors and the menu once logged into the site and let me know what you think – thanks!!!

Hi all,

So now I decided I wanted to see how I could add an autoresponder subscription form to wordpress. I found the following plugin and about 15 minutes later I now have the following subscription form ready:

Here is another plugin I tested called WP-Polls . This is a lot more advanced and uses ajax which is really cool for immediate results. Let’s try the same question:

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I had quick idea on the effect of using surveys in Traffic Exchanges, so I searched wordpress.org to see what kind of plugins were available. This is a plugin called WP-Surveys and I’m inserting it with a single line of code into this post. Let’s see how this works:

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

Well it finally happened!

I am sitting on the porch to my sisters house in Houston Texas just chilling and checking some mail as I am writing this. We have just come from the hospital where my sister gave birth to a healthy and beautiful little boy. It’s amazing to see such a little guy with all his tiny fingers and toes His name is Benjamin Martin Blair and will be coming home from the hospital saturday morning. This is their 3rd boy so good luck and have fun raising three little warriors!