I am so pumped up today, because I just soft-launched my new plugin. It is the prettiest podcast player on the planet, and along with celebrating its beta launch, I'm going to tell you about the biggest lessons I have learned from publishing 21 episodes of this podcast.

Let me tell you about my new podcast player plugin, and why it's different from anything else you've ever seen before.

It's called CoolCastPlayer, and you can see it in action at CoolCastPlayer.com

When I first launched my podcast back in September 2015, and wanted to publish my podcast feed and the episodes on my web site at SubscribeMe.fm, I quickly found out there's a huge need for a really good podcast player. Most of the players I came across were downright UGLY - and that's capital U, capital G, capital L and capital Y. UGLY as hell.

And there was just one decent looking podcast player out there, but it did not have some key features that I wanted. But the design of the player was not very good, in that, it wasn't obvious that it was even a player. I went to the web sites of several big-name podcasters who were using that plugin, and I was actively looking to see how they were using it, and I skipped over the player many many times, because it looked like a banner ad. It did not even look like a player - just a colorful banner.

And my biggest mindset that has helped me, and also hurt me, over the years, is that when I find a plugin or tool that I want to use in my business, and I find that the best of them have glaring holes in how they're designed or developed, then my mind starts spinning, and I start to wonder how I can create something better, and something that fits the needs of the market a lot better.

And that's what led to me developing CoolCastPlayer. I will go into the full list of features later in this show, but for now, let me tell you that other than being optimally designed to get your web site visitor to both notice your player and click play on your podast episode, the biggest feature by far, is the "Embed" feature. I call it, "Install Once, Embed Anywhere". And I'll explain this in a second, as I get into my podcast myths-busted list.

So let's go: 3 Biggest Podcasting Myths Busted:

#1. The hardest thing for a podcaster, is the marketing of your podcast and getting new people to listen to your show. If someone tells you all you need to do get some traction is to get into iTunes' New and Noteworthy, then just laugh out loud and run away. My show stayed at the top of New & Noteworthy for my category, for an entire month. It was in the top 3 for most of the time, and moved between #5 and #10 for the remaining 8 weeks that your show gets on New & Noteworthy. It did diddly squat for me. And if you listen to the biggest podcasting veterans out there, you will hear them all say the same thing. New & Noteworthy does very, VERY little for your show. And focusing your efforts on that, is, like Dave Jackson of SchoolOfPodcasting says, trading a dollar for a dime. Complete waste of your time.

#2. Do not launch with 3 episodes. Or with 5. Or with 8. When someone subscribes to your show on their iPhone or on their desktop using iTunes, then iTunes will ONLY download the latest episode. So DO NOT be fooled into thinking that if you launch with 8 episodes, then a new subscriber will result in 8 episodes. It won't. A new subscriber will only result in 1 download. And that is your latest episode. To hear the remaining 7 episodes, they would have to manually click on the little "Cloud" icon, and click "Download" in order to listen to your past episodes. So, when you launch with 8, you would have to make sure your 8th episode is pretty dang great, because that's the first one they're going to listen to. And as a new podcaster, if you launch with 8 episodes, your 8th episode is guaranteed to NOT be your best one, because guess what? You followed bad advice, and you created all episodes together, in the span of a few days, before you ever launched your show. Which means, you haven't heard your own episodes enough, you haven't gotten any feedback from your listeners, you haven't gotten the momentum of having been in the game for enough time, you haven't been able to learn from your mistakes, and you haven't been able to tone down your mistakes and amplify the best parts. Launching with 8 episodes is like, let's say you want to learn tennis. You can't schedule 8 tennis lessons on the same day. Just because you play 8 times in one day doesn't mean you're going to get better. You need practice. You need to go out and practice serving, and volleying. You need to watch film. You need to get in a few games with other people. You can NOT speed up the process. Whether it is having an entire day's meal all together in one sitting and starving the rest of the day, or trying to go out on 8 dates with the same girl on the same day, there are no shortcuts. When it comes to learning and honing your craft, or building relationships - which is what podcasting really is - building a relationship with your audience - you simply cannot fast forward through it like you would fast forward through a commercial.

I will be getting into all of this in a new online course that I'm putting together, and that course is actually going to be free as a launch-special bonus when you purchase CoolCastPlayer during the beta launch.

So if you shouldn't launch with 8 episodes, then what do you do? Simple. Launch with just 1 episode. What this allows you to do, is it lets you put your best foot forward, and focus ALL of your energy, ALL of your time and effort... and marketing on getting that ONE single episode out there, and getting the maximum number of people to listen to this one episode.

Then let it sit for at a week. At least. THEN, go ahead and launch the 2nd one after a week. By this time, you would have gotten feedback about the 1st one, from your peers, from your friends... and your social network and your email list. And you get to hear your own voice and your own show multiple times. And the more you listen to it, even though you may initially hate your voice, you will get over it quickly, and you'll get some ideas as to what's going to work and what needs to be cut out of the show. That will help you improve your 2nd episode. Then a few days later, take the experience of producing your 1st and 2nd shows, and use THAT to produce your 3rd episode. And the biggest advantage of this staggered release of episodes, means that your show is getting better with each episode. And now, because you're picking up new subscribers with each episode, what that means is that each time you release a new episode, iTunes will automatically download your latest episode on the phones and devices of ALL of your current subscribers. So you hit publish on your latest episode, and a couple of hours later, you can see that you've gotten 300 new downloads. Now THAT is super exciting and can be really invigorating and inspiring for any podcaster. So launching with more episodes does not mean more downloads at launch. Your latest episode will get the most downloads, and then from there, the drop off is really huge. Even now, when I launch a new episode, let's say in the first few hours, my latest episodes gets 100 downloads. Then one of my older episodes - usually the previous one, will get about 20 downloads. That's like a 80% drop. And then the next highest one will be like 7 downloads. And it usually trickles all the way to my old downloads to just 1 or 2 new downloads. That's how big the drop-off is between the latest episode and the next highest one.

But here's a really cool idea for you. Wait till you get to about 4 episodes in about 4 weeks. And now, you have a full month of podcasting experience behind you. You have asked for - and gotten a lot of feedback. You have learned about your own voice, the way you speak, what works, what gets your audience involved and excited, and so on.

NOW is the time to drop the hammer. Over the next 15 days, launch 5 new episodes. Never launch them all together. Launch 1 new episode every few days. And for month 2, that will help you tremendously in exponentially increasing your downloads, because remember, when you stagger the episodes, then you will get WAYY more downloads, than if you launched them all together. So the increased downloads will help your show rise in iTunes' overall rankings, and the momentum will help you take it to the next level.

What is that next level, is entirely up to you. But this little strategy will help you 10 times more than the bad advice out there.

Finally, #3: It is a complete waste of time, money and effort if you are promoting the direct link to your show on iTunes or Stitcher. It is the biggest wasted call to action. iTunes is the hardest thing to navigate for those who are new to podcasts. The goal of promoting your podcast should be to get them to your web site and listen to your podcast episode, in the fastest way possible. I call this "2-Click Play". The first click brings them to your web site. The 2nd click should be on your Play button. There is simply no faster or more efficient way to get someone to listen to your podcast episode, than putting a online audio player on your web site. So the first click is your audience or your friends or your social network, clicking on a link in your email, on Facebook, or on Twitter. Give a sneak-peek about the content of your episode, and they click on a link that brings them to your web site. When they arrive there, they should be greeted by a podcast player that looks really good, looks like an audio player, with a nice, large play button that is just begging to be clicked on. And the 2nd click is on that play button, and a few seconds later, they're off and away, listening to your show. And if they like it, you tell them on the show where to go to subscribe. And of course, you have a couple of beautiful buttons right below the player that tells them where to go to subscribe to your show. THAT is how you get the fullest bang for your podcast marketing bucks, and that's how you get more people in the door to listen to your show, so that they can decide whether or not it is for them. And that is how you grow your audience, and not by sending them directly itunes where most normal people who are not already podcast listeners, will completely get lost. 2-Click play.

I will get into more myth-busting tips about podcasting, in future episodes.

Now, let me quickly tell you a few of the awesome features included in CoolCastPlayer.com, which I'm now officially calling the Prettiest Podcast Player on the planet. To see it in action, go to CoolCastPlayer.com, and you'll see both the episode player and the feed player demos.

Here are some of its features...

#1: It can play MP3 files hosted anywhere... like Libsyn, SoundCloud, Podbean, your own WordPress site, Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, PowerPress, BluBrry, etc.

#2 It has an "Embed" feature. This allows your guests who you interviewed, and your web site visitors, simply grab a small piece of code from your web site, and then insert the episode - or even the entire feed - on their web site. This is similar to how you can grab the embed code of a youtube video and put it on a different web site. And if you remember, youtube grew big-time because of this viral feature. So allowing others to embed your show on their web site, will give your show a viral marketing aspect.

Plus there's a whole bunch of other features: Like it's a WordPress plugin that is super easy to install, AND very intuitive to set up. Mobile Responsive: So it will look equally stunning on all screens.

It works with PowerPress. It has social buttons and custom buttons to put below the player, it has a download icon and speed-it-up icon right on the player. You can fully customize the player colors to match your show's artwork or your web site colors.

Plenty more features. Check it all out at CoolCastPlayer.com .

Until the next time... if you have a podcast, don't promote your iTunes or Stitcher links. Bring them back to your web site, because there are plenty of reasons why you should do that, and I will talk about all of them in a later episode.

Cheers!

This episode is going to focus on how you you should focus on finding the D-list Super stars in your niche.

These are the people who will have the inclination to help you. They too have something to prove, they're equally hungry and excited to work with other d-listers, they'll be more open to doing a mutually beneficial joint venture with you. They will be more willing to promote your product as an affiliate, write an article recommending you, interview you on their podcast. So many ways in which these kind folks can help you.

And no, I'm not talking about doing a stupid email swap or an ad swap or a link swap. I'm talking about finding influencers who are ready and willing to help you, AND can make an impact on your business. But for this whole thing to work, here are the main ingredients you absolutely must have in place first.

Let's say you are getting ready to launch a new online course about horse riding. Here's the new media way of finding your super star partners.

#1) Let's start with the obvious: You must have a great product. Now I'm using the name "Product" to loosely refer to anything physical, or digital, or a service. So starting with a great product goes without saying. Whether you are launching a membership site, a Kindle book, a WordPress plugin, or a SaaS app - by the way, Saas - S A A S stands for software as a service. A lot of people put the cart before the horse, and forget that they need to first create something remarkable.

I'm not saying you have to have this massive product all polished and completed. There's something to be said for launching a minimum viable product - or MVP. And the cool thing is, that with digital products, you can easily update it and add more to it over time, whether it is a kindle book - which you can easily update, and simply upload a new version with new chapters or edits of typos, you can keep adding content to your Kindle book with absolutely no hassle. With software, like a plugin, or a mobile App, or a Saas app, you can easily publish an update, a new "release", with new features and bug fixes. Even a product like the iPhone, can release updates to its operating system without having to touch the hardware. If you remember, people made a big deal about the original iphone saying it didn't have copy/paste functionality. One software update later, that feature was included. And Apple did not have to recall a single iphone in order to add that feature. So yes, the #1 thing is to start with a great product, even if it is a minium viable version.

2) Go to Facebook.com. Search for "horse riding group". Quickly join the top 5, do a quick scan, eliminate the ones that don't have much engagement, and ones that have too much spam and blatant promotion. Check if they allow new-member introductions. If they do, then make a post introducing yourself, give a quick elevator pitch about what you do, include a link back to your web site, and most importantly, say something like, "I'm excited to join this amazing group. I'm ready to contribute here and help others. I want to give more than I ask. So if you have any questions at all about horses and horse riding, then feel free to ask me below, or message me directly." See how that didn't sound like I'm quoting from my sales page or my resume? So just keep it classy, really low-key. I can't stress that enough. If at any time you feel that you might be doing something pushy or pitchy, then hold back. Don't worry about giving out too much content and wasting time. Trust me, you're better off wasting time by offering free content and helping others, than watching viral videos and looking at everybody else's life in pictures. It's about dang time you spent every spare minute you have building your own business.

Once this is done, now start listening, reading, observering. Start answering questions from others who you think you can help. Contribute to discussions and arguments. Feel free to take sides, but don't belittle anyone or trash someone's view point. Just state in a very clear way why you're taking one side of the argument, without involving emotion or making it personal. You can still have strong opinions and express them without trashing someone else's opinions.

Now comes absolutely, THE most important part: Every time someone engages with you, likes your content, responds to your posts, participates in a discussion thread along with you, add them as a friend. Don't go and start adding everyone in the group as a friend. That's key. Do it ONLY with someone who has engaged with you, or who you have engaged with, by commenting on their thread or answering their question or offering feedback.

If you do this for even just a week in 2-3 different groups, you can easily make 30 to 50 new really good contacts.

3) Next, contact the group owners themselves, build a relationship with them. Offer them feedback about the group, not in patronizing way, but in a complimentary way. Offer them a free membership to your horse riding course. Tell them there's absolutely no obligation. They never have to pay for it. If they love it, and if they have the time, you would really appreciate it if they can give you a testimonial that you can proudly display on your web site, with their signature, mentioning their web site, or the Facebook Group URL, or whatever they want. So the positioning of this offer is important. You're not being pushy. You're saying, IF they love it, IF they have the time, IF they would be kind enough to give you a review, you will proudly display it on your page.

#4) Go to the big content directories: iTunes, Youtube, LinkedIn. Find the top 10 people in each category who are providing a lot of value, creating great content, and are really cool to their audience. Contact them directly. You might not get much traction with the top few people, but that's ok. The goal here is to focus on the long-tail, the C and D-listers. Spend some time consuming their content. This is absolutely critical. If you shoot them an email right off the bat saying you want them to promote your product, you are almost never going to hear back from them. Instead, subscribe to those podcasts and youtube channels. Consume their content. Become a fan. Of course, if their content sucks, move on to the next person in the list. You don't have to listen to crappy shows. But the good ones? Listen, and become a fan. And find an interesting thing that you can say to them, that only a fan would say. For instance, I was a fan of Jon Nastor from Hack The Entrepreneur. And in one of his other shows, the Show Runner show, his co-host calls Jon Nastor the defender of humanity. So many months later, completely unrelated, when I was launching my own podcast, I wrote to Jon with the subject "O Defender of Humanity" and I wrote a really cool email to him, because I was a fan, and what I wrote was super genuine, and absolutely nothing pitchy or promotional. I built a relationship with him by exchanging a couple of emails, offering him some feedback, and finally, one day, I told him, oh, by the way, if you ever want to interview the coolest geek on the planet, then I would be super thrilled and honored to come on his show. I even referenced what I meant by me being the coolest geek on the planet. If you go to Google right now, and search for the keywords "coolest geek on the planet", you'll see that my web site shows up at the top. So I was a fan, I gave him feedback, I genuinely appreciated him, and actually communicated with him like a cool human being. He loved the idea, and I ended up as a guest on one of the hottest entrepreneur interview shows on iTunes.

So yes, you have GOT to put some time into becoming a fan, and building a relationship with your potential partners. You've got to woo them. It goes back to the often used example in dating. You can't ask a girl to marry you on the first date. And in this day of social media, where it's super easy to reach out to someone, and equally easy to be a douchebag and piss someone off by being pitchy and pushy, it is very important that you understand how to approach super starts and future partners. Remember, nothing, and I mean NOTHING gets a person more excited than hearing from a genuine fan tell them how much they love their stuff. And if it is genuine, and true, they'll feel it, and you'll hit it off instantly.

Think all of this is a bit too time consuming? Heck yeah, it is. In the beginning, you probably have more time than money. So go ahead and spend all of your time and effort on this. Stop watching Netflix for a month. No big deal. I know Gary Vaynerchuk is famous for his line "Stop watching effin "Lost". Sorry, Gary, I said that way before you did. I was telling this to my friends in 2000, back then, of course, I was telling them, Stop watching effin Friends! Because friends was the big & famous show back then. So yeah. People binge-eat, bing-watch Netflix, binge-play video games, we binge on every darn useless thing in this world.

So the next time you're on Facebook, and you see an exciting article or a video, click on that little downward "V" icon next to that post, and save it for later. Trust me, this one tip alone will make you 5 times more productive on Facebook.

So how about you spend the next 1 week binge-buildig relationships? How about you do binge-marketing?

This topic will be continued in the next episode.

Yaro Starak, one of the leading lifestyle entrepreneurs in the world, from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, said this about my book at SubscribeMeBook.com:

Ravi's book rams home a very important message: It's much smarter to get paid more than once for making one sale, and one of the best ways to do this online is to sell membership products. Read this book and your eyes will open to some incredible opportunities to make money online.

So check out my book at SubscribeMeBook.com. It is a culmination of 18 years of my life making and marketing digital products, starting with selling a physical book back in 1998.

Until the next time, don't forget to do some bingeing that will actually help you take your business to the next level.

Cheers!

My wife Veena and I spent the last 3 days at one of the biggest internet marketing conferences in North America, called Traffic & Conversion, put on by Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher and the awesome team at Digital Marketer.

It was really good. 3 days of non-stop sessions and talks. Of course, Veena and I, because we live in San Diego, just had to drive like 1/2 hour to get to the hotel where the seminar was being held. And on the 2nd day, we even took off early, came back home, watched most of a basketball game between Lebron James's Cleveland Cavaliers, and Kobe Bryant's LA Lakers. And then we went back to an awesome party later in the evening, which I'll tell you all about in a minute here.

So here are some of my thoughts and ideas about the event itself, as well as my spiel on how to do an internet marketing conference well.

#1) It was very telling that a room with seating for 500 was jam packed for a session about how someone is killing it with Periscope. And in the very next rook, it was mostly crickets where someone was talking about Podcast monetization. Now, I know for a fact that most people with podcasts aren't making money. In fact, out of the few thousand shows that are launched each month, most of them will not get past episode 10, most won't ever grow their audience, they won't get traction, the host will eventually lose interest or get discouraged that no one's listening or just find the next shiny new thing, and they will all eventually "podfade" - that's the term used to describe podcasts that just fade slowly over time. So why were there more people in the Periscope session than a Podcast session? Isn't that amazing? That just tells me that most people still don't get it, that Podcasts are the single greatest medium for establishing authority, proving your expertise, building really deep connections with your audience, because you are literally inside their head while they're listening to you, they cannot fast forward, they are the most attentive because they're probably multi-tasking as they walking the dog or do the dishes or laundry or clean the house or going out on a run - by the way, those are the times I listen to podcasts as well. Recently I was at the dentist, for a cleaning session that lasted more than an hour. And I had to do that twice in a week. And my dentist has a very posh set up - they have a TV screen on the ceiling, so you can be lying down, getting your teeth drilled into, and watch Ellen Degenres at the same time. But guess what I did instead? I asked them to turn off the TV, I put on my behind-the-ear bluetooth headphones and listened to podcasts the entire time. Alex Blumberg from Startup and Sarah Keonig from Serial were inside my head the whole time. Some of the people whose fan I've become lately, are all podcasters whose shows I regularly listen to - like James Schramko from superfastbusiness, or Dave Jackson from school of podcasting, or Daniel J Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.

Podcasting is such an intimate, personal platform, that it just blew my mind to see just a fraction of the audience for a podcasting session compared to a session about Periscope. You know why? Periscope is the shiny new thing that everyone's and their dog is creating content with. And at the end of the day, do you know what is the same ol same ol problem that everyone's going to have on Periscope? It's building an audience. Doesn't matter what platform you are on. The platform can only go so far in helping you get some free traffic. Whether it is blogging on Medium, or getting your show on New & Noteworthy on iTunes (Dave Jackson, if you're listening, I just threw up in my mouth just a little bit). Whether is is creating videos on youtube or scoping on Periscope or Blabbing on blab, the age-old problem that will haunt 99% of the content creators, is that they will not find an audience, they won't be able to grow an audience, they won't be able to get traction, they won't be able to monetize it. And then they'll simply move on to the next new shiny thing.

And those who stay, pick maybe just a couple of platforms, and go really really deep into it, and figure out how to reach more people, keep more people, provide tons of value and also figure out how to influence that audience to go do whatever it is that you want them to do - whether it is to inspire people or educate or entertain or sell books or sell ads, those are the people who will go on to win, regardless of the platform. And whichever platform you go to, it's the same case - it's the 1%ers versus the 99%ers.

#2) So I did start by going to the Podcast session first. But the speaker was such a deadbeat, he was from a podcast monetization company - I won't name any names here. But he just absolutely killed it - as in, not in a good way. He was actually killing the audience with boredome. He was speaking on a low, monotonous tone, had the abolutely worst slides I have ever seen, with horribly lazy images that looked like he probably spent no more than 1 minute finding the right image for each slide. No energy, no excitement, and the worst thing? He worked for the company that was doing the presentation that taught you how to monetize your content. See the blatant conflict of interest there? Yeah, it sucked. So Veena and I skipped out after 15 minutes, and that's how we ended up at the neighboring Periscope session. So, it's not just about getting the audience, but you have to be good enough to keep them. And this guy couldn't hold our attention because he sucked big time, and lost us very early. And it's going to happen to you too with your audience, whether you're doing a podcast, or a blab or a periscope. So focus on the hook, on the message, and delivering great content and delivering it in a really good way. The platform is secondary. And you'll be a fool if you ignored podcasting just because it's not as sexy and exciting as Periscope.

#3) If you are going to spend time, money and effort on going to a seminar, then don't waste it all on just going to the sessions. I mean, sure, pick and choose a few, like I did with the Gary Vaynerchuk session at the end of day 1. Gary Vee absolutely rocked the place. Check out his podcast ask gary vee, and he might be an acquired taste for some, but just stick with it for a few episodes, and there's a good chance you'll become a huge fan, like me. So feel free to handpick a couple of sessions, but don't waste all of your time just shuttling from session to session. The biggest gold is out there in the hallways, running into folks, crash conversations if you have to, just don't be a jerk and start handing out your cards. Join the conversation quietly, as long as it's a large enough group, wait for someone to talk to you, just invite yourself. Don't say "Hi, I'm Ravi Jayagopal, Co-Founder & Co-Developer of DigitalAccessPass.com, one of the leading membership plugins for WordPress". Don't do that. Say something like "Hi, my name is Ravi Jayagopal". And wait for someone to ask you what you do. Then say something low-key like "I own a software business. It's called digitalaccesspass". In my case, most people would say, "Oh, DAP, I know you guys" I use DAP or I used to use DAP. And some would say Oh, so what does digitalaccesspass do? And then you give them just a little bit more. You say "it's a membership plugin for WordPress". See how I'm giving it piece by piece, and only when asked. That's the way to enter a conversation with a group of strangers and not be shunned as a jerk. So hang out outside in the halls more than the sessions. You can always pay for the recording of all the sessions. You'll anyway not be able to go to all of the breakout sessions. So if you think you want the content, then order the recordings. And focus as much as you can on networking and making connections. So in our case, Veena and I were invited to a very exclusive party of who's who, so we went home early, got refreshed and drove back for the party. And I'm telling you, it was an incredible group of people that we rubbed shoulders with. Yes, I'm going to drop some names. So sue me. Chris Farrel, Andrew Lock, E Brian Rose from JVZoo, James Dyson and team from Optimize Press, John Lee Dumas from Entreprenuronfire, Jaime Tardy from eventual millionaire, Luria Petrucci, formerly known as Cali Lewis from Geek beat TV and the Leo Laporte show, wow, it was absolutely amazing. In facdt, if you go to the show notes for this show at subscribeme.fm/19, you'll see a cool selfie of me and John Lee Dumas outside the women's restroom. No, we weren't doing anything crazy. Just figured out outside the men's room as we were leaving, that I didn't have a selfie with John. He's such an incredibly down-to-earth guy for someone who's such a big name. In fact, every single one of them there were such movers and shakers, and they were all so incredibly human and humble, that it was just mind blowing. And by the way, John Lee Dumas has also given me an amazing testimonial for my book at SubscribeMeBook.com. Here's what he said about my book:

Ravi is one of the foremost authorities on membership sites & online courses. Every bit of his writing comes from years of selling online and helping others set up membership sites. If you want to learn from the best about recurring income and IGNITE your brand, this is THE book to read. - John Lee Dumas, EOFire.com

Check out my book at subscribemebook.com, also on amazon - just search for subscribe me - one words or two words, and both will bring up my book towards the top.

So that was my mini-soapbox rant about conferences and audience building and platforms.

If you take away just one thing from this episode, then make sure to go deep, then wide. As in, go really deep into your niche, or your marketing platform, before you go wide and move to the next big shiny thing. If you get into podcasting, stick with it. If you write a Kindle book, go deep and don't just launch your book and forget about it. Promote it, get the message out. Go as a guest on other people's shows. Do your "book tour" before you fall for the shiny object syndrome. There's going to be something new everyday. Videos, youtube, kindle, podasting, blab, periscope, and snapchat - man, Gary Vee is so into snapchat, it's just crazy. There's facebook, pinterest, instagram, on and on and on. Don't get caught up with trying to be everywhere all at the same time. You can't. Nobody can. So pick one or two platforms where most of your target audience hangs out, and just go deep into it, and crush it till the cows come home.

Thank you so much for listening to the SubscribeMe show at SubscribeMe.fm.

And if you want to offer me any kind of feedback, or check out the John Lee Dumas selfie with me in front of the ladies room, or for to contact me, go to http://subscribeme.fm/19/

Cheers and talk to you on the next episode.

In this episode, I'm going to talk about why, when it comes to finding a joint venture partner or an influencer or an affiliate to help you promote your product, you would be making a big mistake if all you did was try to go after just the biggest names in your market.


And I'm calling this the "Don't go for the blonde" technique. Now, I mean no disrespect to brunettes, or blondes, or whatever color your hair may be. This is an equal-hair-color opportunity show. But what I'm referring to here, is a scene from the movie "A Beautiful Mind" where Russel Crowe plays famous mathematician John Nash, widely regarded as one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century, who won a shared Nobel Prize in 1994. So let me set up this clip for you...


In this scene, Russell Crowe is setting in a coffee shop with his friends. And in walks a stunning blonde, with 4 brunette friends. And that's where Russel's character John Nash, comes up with his Nobel Prize winning theory...


Now listen to this clip (listen to the episode)

The idea is that if everyone went for the blonde, she would ignore all of them, because she's feeling way too important. And AFTER the rejection, if they now approached her friends, they would now be insulted that they weren't approached first, and would shun the guys as well. So he says, ignore the blonde, and go straight for the brunettes, and that way everyone goes home with a date.


Basically, this is what tends to happen in the real world as well. I've seen a lot of newbies and inexperienced marketers, looking at the big-name marketers in their industry, and lusting after their big lists, and thinking "All I have to do is do a JV with Mr Big-name-marketer" and I'll have them blast my product to hundreds of thousands of people on their list, and I'll hit big time soon thereafter.


Well, that's a very flawed way to look at it. And there are a number of issues with that approach...


1) The biggest names, they might have tens or even hundreds of thousands of emails on their lists. Now, remember, in most cases, they have worked very hard to build this list, probably over many years. And most of them don't endlessly spam their lists - well, some of them certainly do, but they usually lose subscribers pretty fast. So spam karma is usually quick to take effect.


So they have to be judicious in emailing their list with offers, as these marketers usually have their own products to promote. And then there are usually favors that they have to return - maybe a friend of theirs might have mailed their list for this person's launch, and now they have to email their list for that friend's next promotion. And then every so often, comes an insanely great product - like dropbox when it first came out, or some new shopping cart or ecommerce system or plugin - like DigitalAccessPass.com - and they are compelled to participate in it because the product itself is so new and noteworthy.


So by the time they're done with their own products, and their returning-the-favor mailings and the occasional new kid-on-the-block mailings, they're already at risk of burning out their email lists. And they're not going to mail out for your product launch. Not unless you're launching something spectacular. It's got to be spectacular in other people's minds, not yours, because I'm sure you will always think your new book or plugin or product is always going to be spectacular.


So if you're thinking people will email their lists on your behalf just because you came out with a new product, or just because you joined their mastermind group, or because you bought this marketer's products, or because you joined their facebook group, or because they appeared as a guest on your show, then stop. Stop right now, and don't even go there, because it's not happening.


I'll give you a small example of my own. At DAP, we have almost 28,000 DAP users. And we have so many other lists outside of DAP. If you came to us and said that, you have, say, a new WordPress plugin launching, and you want us to promote it to our lists of tens of thousands of users, mostly buyers, which we have built with lots of hard work over the years, then guess what? It's not going to happen.


So don't waste your time following a marketer, buying their products, their books, joining their expensive mastermind or coaching program, just BECAUSE you think they will one-day turn around and promote your product to their lists. You are in for a big disappointment if you do that. Because it just doesn't work that way, and you may not even understand the full extent of it, until you've built your own list, and only then will you realize the true value of having that list, using it more to deliver value than to sell products. And on the occasions that you do wish to promote something, you want to save that for your own products, or to return the favor of someone who has helped you, or to gain the favor of someone who might soon help you. Well, you will know that value even if you have just 100 people, know what I mean?


And the crazy thing, do you want to know of a guaranteed way to get the attention of a big-name marketer? It is to promote THEIR product as an affiliate, sell lots of product for them, and get a big commission check. And if you sell tons and tons for them, then that's when you can expect them to reciprocate. Well, if you had that big of a list already, and had the brand and respect to get people on your list to buy stuff, why sell them other people's products? Why not save that to promote your own book, or podcast, or do a JV with someone who has an up-and-coming product and split the profits as an owner?


Always buy, don't rent. Build YOUR business. Not someone else's.