I just received news of Jim Rohn’s death today.
Jim Rohn had an absolute genius for simplifying life and success. Barely a day goes by when I don’t think about one of his aphorisms.
If you know his work, you know what I’m talking about.
If you don’t know his work, by all means check it out.
Here’s a good place to start:
Ken McCarthy, Greg Davis and Lloyd Irvin at Lloyd’s private gym
If you stick with anything long enough, life takes all kinds of fascinating twists and turns.
I was planning on a “kick back”, hang loose summer, but when you’re in the Internet marketing world you have to be prepared for pleasant surprises.
A couple of months ago Lloyd Irvin sent me a long text.
Lloyd is twice world champion in Brazilian Jujitsu and twice US champion in Judo and Russian Sambo. He’s also a heck of an entrepreneur and has interests in a number of areas including publishing, Internet marketing, and real estate. With a small, highly effective team he’s built a very successful business.
I’m proud to say that the System helped get Lloyd off on the right foot on the Internet, a fact he graciously shares with everyone who asks. In turn, he’s been an inspiration to me – and when Lloyd talks, I listen.
So when Lloyd sent me a long text raving about the breakthrough work of his colleague Greg Davis, I decided to waste no time, get on a plane and get myself to Maryland to see first hand what had gotten him so excited.
Long story, short version
Greg’s one of those guys who’s been working diligently for years on cracking the Internet marketing code. You know the routine…endless experiments. Some of them bomb. Some work, but not well enough to get excited about. Two steps forward and sometimes three steps back.
But he stuck with it and along the way he accumulated experience and KNOWLEDGE.
Greg was one of the early pioneers who bought clicks from GoTo when you could get keywords for a penny because no one else was smart enough to recognize their value.
Bit by bit, things started to click for him (pardon the double pun) and he watched his income grow until he got to the point that keeping his 9 to 5 job was not only no longer necessary, it was absurd.
Then through a combination of his own deep study and a few critical insights from Perry Marshall, Glenn Livingston, and Gauher Chaudhry plus mentoring from Lloyd (not-so-coincidentally all these guys have been System faculty members), Greg made a truly big breakthrough.
How big?
Wealth beyond your wildest dreams
Greg’s numbers are so big that I hesitate to say because a lot of people are going to have trouble wrapping their minds around them.
Let’s just say Greg nets in a week what a lot of people would be very happy to make in a good year – and he does it with bare bones overhead. And most importantly, it’s based on a formula that works over and over again. As long as there’s an Internet and people are spending money on it, this system will work.
Though you may be aware of some of the elements (PPC, CPA, affiliate marketing, tracking and testing conversion), I guarantee you’ve never seen this system before.
To help me keep up with all the info that Greg was willing to share with me, I brought System grad Ben Moskel who does over $1,000,000 a year in affiliate sales generated by pay-per-click. The whole weekend we visited with Greg and Lloyd, Ben never put his pen down. I swear at times I thought it was going to start smoking he was writing so long and hard.
The Internet marketing brain trust: Where killer Internet marketing ideas are born. If past is prologue, months, even years from now, the hot air “gurus” will be trying to peddle the leftover scraps from this weekend for thousands of dollars a pop. If you were part of the System, you’d be getting it whole while it’s still fresh. Left to right: Lloyd Irvin, Ken McCarthy, Greg Davis, Chris Chico, Ben Moskel
Chris Chico, another very savvy Internet marketer, was also invited to sit on in this very private two day session. Here’s a picture of the five of us together at the end of the weekend. We were visiting Lloyd’s training facility in Camp Springs, Maryland just around the corner from Andrews Air Force base, right outside of Washington DC.
When he’s not running his chain of martial arts schools, publishing, training entrepreneurs, dealing in real estate, starting and growing Internet businesses, Lloyd trains UFC fighters. It’s been a mystery to me how this one guy gets so much done. Then I met his team. Sharp, smart and tight. If Lloyd ever gives a seminar on how to build and manage a world class team, all I can say is “Go!” I’ll be sitting in the front row.
OK, how does Greg make all this money?
I know what you’re thinking…”Glad you had a great time in Maryland Ken, but get to the money. The money.”
There are three levels to what Greg does:
Level One: Good, solid, old school affiliate marketing, the kind that can get anyone who applies themselves to the $500 to $5,000 a month level.
Level Two: Greg is a master of the tools, strategies, tricks and techniques of affiliate marketing. No one knows everything – and Greg was wide open to learn from everyone at our private meeting – but when it comes to high level, deep KNOWLEDGE of how to shake the affiliate money tree, he’s got it – and that’s what got him to $500 to $5,000 a day.
Level Three: This is where Greg is at now. Again, for the reason I gave earlier, I’m not going to even talk about his current numbers, other than to say they make Level Two look sad and forlorn.
His years of effort, study and testing paid off and gave Greg a profound insight that “flipped” regular affiliate marketing upside down and turned it on its head.
Bottom line: A whole lot of what you’ve heard about the “right” way to do affiliate marketing is backwards. Yeah, it will work and it will make pretty good money, but if you want rock star money, crazy money that makes even Internet gurus gasp, you’ve got to enter into what I can only call Planet Greg, an alternate – and very profitable – universe.
And I’ll tell you straight up, most people are not ready for it.
They don’t have the necessary foundation of experience and knowledge to be able to execute what Greg is doing, let alone understand it.
Besides that, after looking at Greg’s system for two solid days, my advice to him was to put a padlock on it. No amount of money he could ever make teaching would ever compensate him for letting the cat out of the bag.
He asked me for my honest advice and that’s what I told him.
But the door is not closed…
Greg can definitely help you if you’re at the beginning of your affiliate marketing path (seeking to make $500 to $5,000 a month) or if you’re a pro who wants to leverage your current know-how into a lot more revenue ($500 to $5,000 a day.)
I can tell you from working with him for two days, he’s a masterful and generous teacher. It would be great to have someone like him inside the System circle teaching.
So, I took a shot and asked him if he’d like to come to London and present at our upcoming UK Intensive.
Think about how significant this is. I created the UK Intensive specifically to highlight UK Internet marketing wizards, but Greg is so extraordinary I decided to throw out my playbook out and ask him, a Yank, to teach.
After thinking about it a bit, he said “sure” so I’m happy to report that the first live public training given by Greg Davis in advanced affiliate marketing (traffic + conversion) will in London this September at the System UK Intensive. Will there be another? Who knows? I know the fact that this event is in London was a big hook for Greg and his wife.
The last I checked registrations are already a hair over 2/3 sold out and as you know, I’ve barely even advertised the thing. As the date gets closer and I get on the job, we’re be closing the doors on this one pretty quick.
I don’t care where you live. If you’re in Internet marketing and you’ve got a chance to spend some time with this guy: take it.
This development has been so sudden, we haven’t had time to include Greg in the description of the course, but here’s how to get all the info about the rest of the program.
http://www.systemintensive.com/uk
Best,
Ken
Ken McCarthy and Lloyd Irvin
P.S. The thing I’ve always admired about martial arts (real martial arts) is that it’s the ultimate No BS discipline. You can’t fake your way into it. You can’t rip off someone else’s work and present it as your own. You’ve got to personally stand and deliver and you can’t coast on last year’s or even last week’s accomplishments.
Lloyd just turned 40 this year. I’m going to be 50 in September, but I can still take him (in my dreams!) LOL
But seriously, the greatest satisfaction from teaching Internet marketing (real teaching, not “guru” prancing and posturing) is all the System grads who go out and do amazing stuff with what they learn and the many like Lloyd, who are gracious enough to turn around and give back.
That’s why there’s 1001 “dog and pony” Internet seminars and a million and one “flash in the pan” gurus, but only one System Seminar.
You see, we actually TRAIN our students to accomplish great things and many do and with this formula our circle and knowledge base just gets bigger and bigger, year after year.
You know the difference
If you’ve been to a System Seminar, you know what I mean. If you haven’t been and you’re in Internet marketing for real, you’ve really been depriving yourself.
The UK Intensive in London, England this September 26 & 27th is a great opportunity for you to get involved with real world, high level Internet marketing, the kind that;s only dreamed about by most Internet marketers. We’re limiting the group to just 79 attendees to keep it manageable and well more the half of the seats have already been claimed.
Participants at the UK Intensive will not only get the live training, they’ll also get the complete recordings of last year’s UK Intensive featuring direct marketing legend Drayton Bird (we’re still working to digest all the wisdom he shared with us last year) Plus they’ll also get the complete DVDs of System 2009 in Chicago (which alone sell for over $1,495.00 US.)
I want smart people at this event. If you’re smart, join us. We’d love to have you add to the power of our Master Mind.
Details:
I’ve been saying it for years, and this years the numbers back it up:
If you know direct marketing, you’re in demand.
I realize that few people who read this blog are looking for a job, but one of the indications of how relatively rare direct marketing know-how is these days is the difficulty agencies and clients are having filling direct marketing positions. 25% say finding good candidates is “very difficult.” 60% call it “difficult.”
What’s the problem?
Institutions like Sears, Columbia House, Time-Life Books and others which used to train newcomers and create direct marketing experts just don’t exist any more. It’s true that there are more academic direct marketing programs than ever, but as we all know, the gap between school learning and the real world is huge.
So who is taking up the slack? And where are all the good direct marketers going?
To answer the second questions first, they’re starting their own businesses. After all, what staff direct marketing job is going to pay $250,000; $500,000; or more a year to anyone at less than a CEO level? I can answer that question for you right now: the number is zero.
And yet, with the right training, the right marketing and the right effort, such annual incomes are by no means unusual among System Seminar grads. In fact, sometimes I get a little envious of today’s direct marketing savvy Internet entrepreneur. They can achieve in a matter of a few years, and relatively bloodlessly, what use to take us paper and ink marketers many years of brutal trial-and-error.
How powerful is direct marketing? A fresh study by the DMA in the UK says that in that country direct marketing contributes to $90 billion a year in sales. (The UK’s consumer market is about 1/10 the size of the US market.)
For years, I’ve told everyone who’d listen: “Get yourself an education in street smart direct marketing. There is simply no better preparation for succeeding in your own business.”
Direct marketing is not the only thing you need to learn to start and run your own business, but I think the argument can be made that it is the single most important skill.
Direct marketing know-how shows you how to: generate leads, close sales, develop campaigns, deal with customer service, budget your advertising, get the most from your advertising, test ideas, make sure your business is on track, develop new revenue streams, pick promising markets. The list goes on and on.
That’s why at the System Seminar, we’ve always put traditional direct marketing front and center at all of our trainings.
For example, the System is the only Internet marketing seminar that had Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert and John Carlton as speakers. When Gary Bencivenga, the most successful direct mail copywriter of the last twenty years, celebrated his retirement, and chose to give only one interview: it was for members of the prestigious System Club, the alumni group of System Seminar grads.
I’m often amazed at how little today’s typical Internet “gurus,” even some of the biggest names, know about direct marketing. This is a big problem because teaching Internet marketing without knowing direct marketing inside and out is like teaching basketball without showing people how to dribble, pass and shoot.
This may be why so many people find themselves on what I call the “guru merry-go-round,” going from one hyper-expensive program to another, but never getting any traction.
Personally, I can’t stand to watch it which is why I decline 19 of 20 invitations I get to speak at guru events or promote the latest “me to” program which is usually just another get-rich-quick scheme. People are asking for bread but too often they’re sold stones.
And it’s entirely unnecessary. Direct marketing is not rocket science. It’s common sense writ large. But to teach direct marketing, you have to know direct marketing and that’s where today’s new generation of gurus falls down.
It’s such an irony. The market is practically screaming for the skill, folks are laying out tons of money to learn it, and yet…
I run into people every day who’ve been to all the seminars and yet don’t have even the A-B-Cs of direct marketing under their belt.
That’s why I make sure that every System training makes direct marketing principles its central focus. We keep up with new developments in the industry and our annual conference is the #1 place to catch up with what’s new in the field, but I make sure that no one involved with our events, not the faculty and not the students, ever loses sight of the fact that we are direct marketers first and foremost.
And I believe that’s the single most important factor contributing to why our students have such a high success rate.
If you haven’t experienced a System training, here’s a new way you can do that that’s more convenient and affordable than anything we’ve done before:
Click the link for details: http://www.SystemIntensive.com
Ken
Will the Apple iPhone set the new standard for cell phones and mobile computing?
Hard to tell, but with Apple’s track record, the iPhone bears close watching.
You may have already heard…
Gary Halbert passed away.
Who was Gary Halbert?
Because there are so many people who read this letter who are relatively new to marketing, I thought I’d answer the question in this e-mail. (more…)
What’s the classic Internet marketer’s dream?
Sell nothing, talk to nobody, provide no customer service…
In short: do nothing…and watch the big bucks roll in.
This fantasy – pushed aggressively by an ever-growning army of Internet pitchmen – has probably caused would-be Internet marketers to lose more money (not to mention time and sleep) than the national debt.
Let’s make 2007 the year we all get over it. (more…)
Several years ago, Mike Quarles, a System grad, took me to task.
“You should spend more time on how to sell physical products online. It’s a great opportunity for people.”
Mike knew what he was talking about.
He took his family’s business forms business from $700 a month to over $1 million a year in online sales in less than 18 months.
And he did it with just his basic System Seminar training and no special help from us.
He was right, of course.
Many System grads chose to apply what they learned at the System not to selling information, but to selling hard goods.
And lots of them did very, very well.
When something happens naturally, it’s always a good idea to pay attention – and pay attention I did.
Here’s what I learned…
In today’s report, I’m going to talk about a monetization method that’s:
* time-proven
* works like crazy in the right markets
* for all practical purposes – a secret
to Internet marketers who are not part
of the insiders group…
If you’re looking for examples of highly regarded blogs to model your own after, you might check out the nominees for the 2006 Weblog Awards.
Lots of categories. Here are just a few examples: best media blog, best sports blog, best military blog, best law blog, best parenting blog and on and on. The nominee list is also a good research tool if you’re looking for places to buy tartgeted ads and/or get quality links.
System Seminar faculty member Dave Taylor is a nominee for best technology blog. Talk about a competetive category! So far, he’s running second to Slashdot, the 800 pound gorilla of the category. Maybe we can nudge Dave ahead. I know who I’m voting for.
If you’ve never seen Dave Taylor’s blog, it’s set up so that frustrated tech users (all of us at one time or another) can get intelligent answers to their questions – free. It’s that’s not a worth a vote. I don’t know what is.
Give Dave a well deserved plug and then check out the nominees in all the categories.
A few weeks ago, AOL released the "anonymous" record of searches made between March and May of this year by 650,000 of its customers.
I put "anonymous" in quotes because it’s possible to identify some individuals by analyzing their search patterns. Big scandal, so the data was pulled from public view, but before it was…
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