Most of you have never had an account breached or shut down. I have had it happen several times, but I have more web-based properties than you, which makes me more vulnerable to attack. I have realised, though, that those bad eggs are always searching for a back door into every website they come across…
, I wrote about how bad actors are constantly probing websites and devices for openings.
In the last two days I’ve had two websites under concentrated attacks.
My security plugin keeps them out, and I trust it to continue doing that.
But it is a reminder that there is always the risk of attack.
Some misguided people think they don’t need protection because “there’s nothing of interest on my site”, but they don’t understand that it’s not your content they are after.
They’ll use your email address at your site to spam.
They’ll use your website as a ‘drive-by‘ attack site.
They’ll use your site as a PBN.
They’ll use your site as a bot host to attack other sites.
They’ll use your information to build a fake identity.
And there are many other ways they can use what you pay for to advance their petty schemes that will impact you.
Get a good anti-virus program on your devices.
I use Eset because it’s the best and not expensive.
I should have written this email much earlier today, but I didn’t. Now the Internet is a bit wobbly, so Grammarly is flicking on and off as the connection drops out. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we expect things to be the same everywhere? Life and travel aren’t like that, though, are they…
Out home away from home, the caravan is 22 years old.
Southern Right whale and calf at the Head of the Bight.
This is why we don’t travel at night if we can avoid it.
Typical of any secondary road in the outback.
The Sturt Desert Pea. This is the first I’ve seen growing wild.
Old man emu.
Aboriginal rock art. It’s actually sign posts for those that can read it.
This little one was very curious but nervous.
Another curious local.
This is a working sheep station. This is not a drought year.
Their retired sheep dog. He volunteered to be out official guide on our walks.
Typical outback creek. This is not a drought year and this is nearly the end of winter. It did rain twice while we were staying, but there was not enough to get a puddle in the creek.
To see a brilliant example of persuasive techniques in print, look at Marc Antony’s famous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech from Act III, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Marc Antony manipulates the crowd into doing a 180-degree turn on the question of whether or not it was morally right to kill Caesar.
Yet he does so without arguing, disagreeing, or contradicting what the crowd already believes or what Brutus has just said to explain why killing Caesar was necessary.
Marc Antony says, “I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
So what does he do in the very next line?
He praises him!
“The evil that men do lives on after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.”
In her book “The Confidence Game,” Maria Konnikova correctly points out that this is the classic con artist’s ploy known as bait-and-switch. Often this simply comes down to starting your pitch by saying, “I’m not trying to sell you anything.”
This causes your prospect to let down his defences and makes him more receptive to what you say.
Then, of course, you proceed to sell him something.
This is why so many great sales pitches, junk-mail letters, infomercials, and internet videos begin with lots of interesting, entertaining, free information until, at some point, they make the “turn” toward sales.
Whenever I hear that phrase in an unsolicited telephone conversation, I always ask, “Why did you call me then?”.
That usually has them spluttering and unable to continue, which is the purpose, of course.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. When you decide to commit to making your online business profitable and a full-time income, you’ll need to be able to write persuasively.
When you learn this skill, the Internet will provide you with everything your heart desires.
The best way to learn this skill is to practice, but it helps to get some basics under your belt first.
“Hello, Dad. We called around to pick up the Prius. We had a little trouble getting in the backdoor as the key vault is a bit stiff to operate. Once we were inside, we could see that the front door was open.”
That set my heart racing and my mind heading towards panic.
“Whoops, we didn’t mean to leave it like that.”
“It’s a little annoying. It would have been much easier to come in the front door.”
“Is everything OK? Nothing missing?”
“Nah, it all looks fine. You do have your computer with you, don’t you?”
“Yep, it’s all good then. You can go out the front door, and please remember to lock it behind you.”
Sweaty palms begin to dry out. My heart rate slows to my usual pace.
Needless to say, the kids don’t let us forget that little whoopsie moment.
Every time since then, it’s “Have you locked the front door?”.
Yes, we are super careful about checking all the doors now.
We have a checklist for everything we need to pack and do before we can move off.
Checklists are essential for ensuring you complete all the steps to get your desired result.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. While checklists are essential, they also assume you know how to do everything on the list.
When you haven’t done whatever task it is or are pretty fresh at doing it, the checklist needs a bit of help.
That’s where video and text explanations aid you in following each step.
It’s something that happens to every successful marketer.
It’s about the moment you realize you “know enough”.
Many people fall into the trap or “loop” of purchasing more and more information in search of the “secret formula” for success.
We are led to believe that this online stuff should be simple.
So we look in vain for an uncomplicated formula.
The formula is simple, and you already know how to be successful online, which is as simple as “put in the work”.
I’ve seen people spend thousands of dollars seeking the “golden formula”.
They’ll never find it because it doesn’t exist.
Or, when one ‘loophole’ does arise, it does not last long; the market becomes flooded with individuals chasing the chance, and the opportunity loses its strength overnight.
That is why I believe it is critical to participate in online groups and forums, read all of the free material available, and then choose a path that is right for you.
After you’ve determined which path is ideal for you, purchase a couple of eBooks relating to that business model.
And commit to it.
Don’t get sidetracked by the Next Big Shiny Object.
Everyone will try to sell you something.
They’ll all try to convince you that it’s the next greatest thing, but they’re just peddling something.
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t buy anything.
I’m saying concentrate on one part of your business and get to work.
Don’t get bogged down by buying everything new that comes along.
It will not end.
There will always be new products to fall in love with.
You must understand when to stop.
It’s a problem, but acknowledging you have one is the first step.
So take a look at what you’ve got.
Examine yourself and decide to take action.
You most likely have everything you need to have a successful online business.
Instead of investing in information products, start investing in your business.
One of these business models will suit you perfectly.
All of the guides are already in place to confirm that you are on the right track, and they show you how to set everything up at no cost.
There is a saying, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”.
Which seems to contradict what we try to do as marketers.
At least that’s what it appears that we do.
However, the reality is that we do something very different.
What we do is supply products to people who already want them.
Our job is to find those people.
Most people are incredibly resistant to changing their minds about anything.
On the contrary, they constantly look for facts proving they are absolutely correct about every opinion, belief, or emotion they already have.
Therefore, when it comes to persuasion, your job is not to change anyone’s mind.
Your job is to use the facts, opinions, beliefs, emotions, myths, and memories that are already inside that head to result in the action or behaviour you want to evoke.
The best way to do this is not to change their mind but to validate their emotions.
Someone is feeling unloved, for example?
The last thing they want to hear is that their mother loves them, their siblings adore them, their grandparents love them, their friends love them, and so on.
They don’t want facts.
In other words, they want sympathy!
And that sympathy can be subtly channelled toward whatever you want them to do:
“Oh, you poor baby, it’s true.
Nobody loves you because nobody understands you.
They don’t see your inner beauty because they don’t notice or pay attention to you.
But I have a perfume here that contains a secret ingredient used by female wombats in the outback of Australia to attract a mate.”
P.S. No doubt your significant other or ignorant inlaw doubts you’ll ever make a buck online because you have struggled for some time and not struck that goldmine yet.
No one else will share the real secret with you because they don’t care for you as I do.
You understand that no one can click a link if they haven’t opened your email, but if you use a click-bait subject line and the rest of your email doesn’t engage them, you won’t get the click anyway.
You’ll probably only annoy them enough to unsubscribe or mark your email as spam.
Unsubscribing is OK, but marking as spam isn’t.
The only thing a high open rate helps with is getting your autoresponder to love you more.
They don’t help with the primary purpose of your emails, conversions.
I’ve noticed with my emails that a higher than average open rate does not translate to a higher click-through rate or more actions.
I guess segmenting your list will aid in getting more of the required response, but that’s only because you’ve pre-filtered the subscribers rather than allowing them to self-filter.
Some of your subscribers will open almost every email you send regardless of the subject line, but most will only open the ones they are interested in.
Travis Sago, a well-known successful email marketer, says you should write your subject lines as if you had to pay for each open.
That’s telling you to give enough information in the subject line to allow your subscribers to self-filter.
That makes sense to me.
When you think that way, you’ll stop using those click-bait subject lines and start getting better responses from your subscribers.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. Talking about subject lines is all very well, but if you don’t have an email list to write to then it’s a pointless subject.
Sometimes it’s possible to revive a dead or inactive list, but it’s usually faster and easier to add more responsive subscribers and filter out those who are inactive.
Travis Sago doesn’t teach much about email lists, however there is another well-known email marketer who does.
He teaches what he does, not what he thinks might work like many others.
One of the key measures of a successful investment is the ROI, the return on investment.
But that shouldn’t be limited to the financial side of your life.
You can maximise the return on the work you do in one simple way.
Reuse the work you do.
It’s hard to get rich if you create one-off custom work unless you are Pablo Picasso.
Likewise, it’s hard to get productive if you spend hours researching and writing an email, which is read in just a minute or two by your readers, and then you throw it away and start all over the next day.
The good news is that the two parts of “info” and “tainment” needn’t be tightly linked.
And more good news:
Content doesn’t have to be created with reuse in mind to be reusable.
So, you could say that my point today is really:
Do work you can reuse, and reuse work you have done.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. When I mentioned in the PDF about using specific platforms to make sure the Google bot picks up your links, I failed to point out that these are classic places to reuse the work you did in setting up the accounts.
All you need to do with subsequent links is post them to the same page because the Google bot will check those pages regularly.
Those digital spiders are hungry beasts and keep returning to places they found food previously.
