You might start to see them appearing on eBay as we're having a bit of a clear out of our garage.

Can you imagine my face after going through several weeks of negotiations (and samples) with the Chinese suppliers, when the wrong chargers turned up?

I knew I'd have trouble selling them and sure enough I did, but I guess the time has come for me to shift them at whatever price I can get…

-Frank.

That reminds me of "Only Fools and Horses"

Were you having a "Delboy" moment Frank?

Fascinating to hear about how you got here and your current project - and thanks for the tip off about Camtasia; I was thinking of buying it so that's really useful.  I'll now start playing with it.

The offer of free beer still stands - when you've got time that is!

Regards
John Garner

I'm sorry for not replying sooner to your comments, I've had a few things going on.

Here we go then, in order…

Jack Morehouse : It's a tremendous handful for sure, but I think you have a "breakthrough moment" which comes from just doing what you need to do.  It then becomes second nature and all gets easier from then on.

The Grumpy Old Chef: I AM going to help, I've today started my 7 Products in 7 Days which I mean to inspire people to just get something done and start building a list.

I'll be doing an analysis of what I've done and why afterwards, and also point out things I could have done better.

Gerry Lennon: Hey!  Look at me!  Look what I'm doing.  But make sure you COPY it and build a list yourself.

Mark Bridges: I have one of those - it's a classifieds site for Solihull where I live.  It's something I tried a couple of years ago and it's just floundered even though I spent a lot of time and money on it.

I must be doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what it is.  I'm very close to closing it all down and using the licence (Esvon Classifieds) to build a different site altogether.

Some sites work, some flop.  It's all a learning experience.

If yours works out, please let me know what you did!

Simon: The list is the most important thing you will ever do for your business!

ToolShackDirect: You're welcome I think.  I have my eye on you… 

Kathleen Gresham: Thanks for that feedback, I fixed it!  1 is most important.  A trackback is a bloggy thing. 

If you're referencing a blog by linking to it, then the trackback link lets the blog know that someone has linked to it if the site is another blog (I think).  The best answer must be out there on the web somewhere.

Amin Motin: I've had friends and casual acquaintances say straight to my face they wish they had the guts to do what I've done.  I look at it the other way.  There's no way I could stick a job out until I reached retirement age - in my book, the sheer hell of that far outweighs the (at times) severe risks I've taken.

Things don't always work out either.  My garage has about 500 battery chargers in it all with the wrong pins because the Chinese supplier didn't take the care to do their job properly.  The samples were correct, but the order was wrong.

It would cost too much to send them all back, so eventually I'll get round to selling them at less than cost price, but you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Issues like that are amongst the motivating reasons for me to become involved with digital products instead.

I'll do a formal announce of my new products soon enough.  One a day for this next week, all fairly small items which I'll be using as list builders.  That's if I can meet my self-imposed timetable.

Straight after those, some of my bigger items will come between then and Christmas, including of course SmartDD v2.

Jonathan Paston: I've realised (eventually) that I'm a risk taker.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

I've fixed the survey thank you - 1 is the most important.  At the moment the survey software doesn't tie in with autoresponders, but it'll be something I add with a later release.

Brian Dew: Wow indeed.  It's just amazing isn't it? 

Trevor D: The new version of SmartDD has an export facility to output data either as CSV or an XML file.  Paul is tonight doing a hand over to me for me to have a play with, so I'll be taking a look at that in the next day or so.

We'll be adding in a method of integrating autoresponders into another release in January.  We would have done it for this version, but it's a bigger job than we both thought.

Mike Russen: Hey!  I like making people happy. 

Mike Riley: It's a crock isn't it?  I've bought lorry loads (pun intended) of stuff meant to help me, but a lot of it is junk, sitting doing nothing on my hard drive.

The best things I've bought have been the self-improvement stuff, and the tools to help my business.  A lot of the hyped up courses which promise thousands of dollars a day if you follow their formula are just nonsense.

There's a big one launched today that I will probably receive a kazillion emails about.  I haven't checked that email account yet as I've been busy putting together my first product for release tomorrow.

I always ask myself these questions now.  If the system they're touting is so DAMN GOOD, why the HELL are they selling it?  Why aren't they just employing people left right and centre and mopping up all the competition?

Of course the answer is because it's crap.  It has vital elements missing that someone who isn't the know wouldn't spot.

Yes, I'm angry about it.

Ken: I sat down and thought about it afterwards.  It was actually 200,000 glow sticks.  I bought 1,000 tubes of mixed single colours in 100s, and 1,000 tubes of two colour bracelets in 100s.  I think the single colours were something like $2.60 delivered, and the dual colours were $3.20.

And yes, it was an amazing feeling to earn what at the time would have been about 7 months salary for me, in just 6 weeks - I was earning £30,000 at the time ($60,000).

It paid off my credit cards and a loan.

My wife and I were exhausted.  We were packing constantly and also had my wife's mom packing for us too.  Each day I'd take a trip to the post office with 3 or more big grey Post Office sacks of glow sticks.  One of the guys at the store where the post office was used to call me Santa. 

For about 3 weeks during that 6 week period I was living on pain killers and 2 hours sleep a night.  The pain killers were the only thing that kept me going through the sleep deprivation.

I'm amazed I'm telling anyone that let alone writing it up in a public place!

I think SmartDD rocks too!  Version 2 is even better.

Adam - Concert Reviews: Too right it will.  The big companies have been doing it for years - think about all the junk mail you get from the banks every week.  For a while I was signed up to a mailing list with a gadget company and I was spending a small fortune!  Every Friday they'd send out a mailing with new bits and pieces and special offers, and half the time I'd buy something from them. 

Judi: I've recently realised that the important thing is to be yourself.  Just write about stuff that interests you but remember how you'd feel to be on the receiving end of the email.  If you were reading it, what would interest you?  The fact is there's lots of people out there just like you interested in what you have to say.

Dale Calder: The results have surprised me.  I don't know whether they're skewed because people don't want to admit they're not list building or whether I just happen to have a lot of list builders on my own list.  Either way it's really interesting!

I do know I have a lot of ebook sellers on my list, so it may be that they're clued up.

We'll see.

Steve Roberts: I completely agree. The traffic generation is something I'm working on too, and that's one of the reasons for my 7 products in 7 days exercise.

Georjina Sinese: Create a new blog away from Blogger definitely, as you could have the plug pulled on that at any time because you don't own it.  But keep your Blogger blog going too with the odd reworked article and point the traffic that comes in there to your new self-owned blog.

When asking for info from people, remember the WIIFM - What's In It For Me?  Ask yourself, if you were asked for info, what would make you give it?  A high perceived value freebie maybe?

Jim McRoy: Yep, I sympathise.  We all sell our time one way or another, but when you're self employed and providing a service, it's additionally hard to change directions.

I don't know, but I would have thought that in your niche there would be a ready supply of up and comings who would be willing to work intern style as unpaid employees just for the chance to learn stuff from you?

Get them to do the donkey work while they're learning, leaving you with more time to focus on other things.

It's a hard one I know, but again I would have thought that your niche with a list behind you would be a very profitable one.

Start telling people what you do.  All those little tricks that it's taken you years to pick up.  Watch the respect you get.

Femi: That's what my wife says about size and quantity…  I'm only 5'4" you see.  Everyone is bigger than me. 

I remember being in a Yates Wine Lodge (drinking cask beer) in Birmingham about 15 years ago with some friends (Karaoke night - hilarious).  Two of us both about the same height went off to find the toilets.  On our way back, we walked past two of the biggest blokes we've ever seen, probably basket ball players.

As we walked past we all burst out laughing, because it WAS funny.  One of the blokes turned to his mate and said out loud "is there a circus in town?" - we just howled.

My mate with mock seriousness on his face said, I am NOT happy.  I said "so which one are you then?"

Anyway.  Reminiscing.

Yes you're spot on.  Quality not quantity.  When you have 200,000 subscribers on your list, you can maybe afford to send out quite a few junk emails and get away with it, but not when you have a few hundred.

It's better to have an army of people saying how approachable, how reachable and how helpful you are than having people in awe of you because of your success.

Well, that's what I believe anyway.

Frank: Well thank you kind sir, that really means a lot to me.  I do try very hard.  I don't always get it right, but I do what I can.

James Foss: Yep.  I had an Aweber account for about 4 months before I started filling it just so I could learn how to use it properly.  And that's an interesting point, because once upon a time I would have said host it yourself, but it's getting hard to get emails past all the filters now.

Aweber appear to have a very good reputation at delivering emails.  Whether people read them is another thing.

Mike: Yup!  There are lots of things you can do if you have a mailing list that you just couldn't do otherwise.

Chris - Free eBooks - Hundreds of Subjects: It won't be long.  I'd hoped that more people would complete it.  Maybe I'll offer a freebie with the next one. 

Vern Brown: Twins.  Okay, I'm Danny DeVito, which must make you the big handsome one. 

Mike - Easy Profit Auctions List Building Package: you're right.  I should have been working on it harder, and I should have approached it differently.  I've learned that now.  Too much bad advice I think.

Things are changing.  Stay on my list and watch what happens.

ALL: Thank you very much for completing the survey, and thank you for your comments.  I'm really looking forward to meeting you one day, maybe in 2008.

Cheers,

Frank.

I always love hearing the stories of those who have found success. 

Thanks for sharing,

Mike

Cheers, Chris