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Written by Nez
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Saturday, 31 May 2008 |
 I've been a closet addict for a little while now, and I just can't hide it any longer. Yes, it's true, I'm addicted to GTA4.
I've tried to stay away from the game, I really have. But it just keeps sucking me in.
After a full day (and most of an evening) working on websites, niche markets, and projects for other people, I like to unwind with a book, a movie or a bit of gaming, usually in that order of priority. I'm a rabid reader, I always have a few books going at once, and a massive movie buff, I don't anyone who knows more about movies than I do. But since Grand Theft Auto IV came out both of those pastimes have been getting overlooked.
I just love the game. Most people (mostly those who haven't played it or any other game in the series), can't seem to get past the violence in the game. While it's true there's a lot of shooting, beating up, or running over people, it does the game a diservice to focus on only that aspect.
This is really a hugely multi layered beast. The world that Rockstar has created with Liberty City is unlike anything I've experienced in a game before. While some elements have been present in previous entries in the GTA franchise, things have really been ramped up a notch.
The storyline is one of the most well developed I've ever come across in a game (and better than most Hollywood movies these days too). I'm really enjoying being taken along for the ride, and the main character Niko Bellic has really grown on me.
Some of the side characters have been a lot of fun too. There's a guy called Brucie who is without a doubt the funniest character to have ever been in a game. I've found myself repeatedly going to see Brucie (or just calling him) simply so I can have a laugh.
The interactions you have with people on the street are a highlight too. Bumping into people on the street, or stealing their cars by pulling them out, gets a wide variety of reactions. Some run screaming, some call out hollow threats, and some actually chase you and fight back. It's all incredibly well done.
But now, here's the reason I even wrote this post. The radio stations. The highlight of this game for me, by far, are the radio stations. I'm finding myself jumping into a car and then immediately tuning to my fave station. Players of the game won't be surprised to hear that I'm a fan of Laslow on the Integrity station. So politically incorrect, but oh so funny. On top of that, sometimes you just come across a gem of a track that you haven't heard for ages. I actually drove around the other night singing along to 'I wanna be your dog'. I was on my way to a mission, a song started, and I just kept driving around until it was over. Sad but true.
There is just so much built into this game. See past the cartoon violence and look deeper. This game is a masterpiece. But not a masterpiece for kids, any parent that lets their children play this game needs their head read. The swearing, the violence, and the generally adult nature make the case for R ratings for video games a no brainer. But if you look at this game from the view of adult entertainment, it's really a magnificent achievement.
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Written by Nez
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Saturday, 24 May 2008 |
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Think about all the viral videos we've seen the last few years. As marketers I know you've all paid attention to what has gone viral. There's been some big standouts too. We had the Numa Numa guy, the kid playing with a stick like a lightsaber, the idiot who cryed about Britney Spears, the horribly addictive song Chocolate Rain (I hate the song, but every time I think of it it gets stuck in my head for a few hours), and of course the miriad number of videos of people creating bomb fountains with Mentos and Diet Coke. Another nice little addon is the ever popular "All Your Base Are Belong To Us."
Now, take all of those videos, and a bunch more, and roll them into your new music video. Release the video on You Tube and whatever other video services you like. It's brilliant, just a really clever strategy. I'm expecting Weezer's video to get an absolute bucket load of views and become a viral video itself. My main reasoning is simple, people like to feel smart and a part of the 'in' crowd. People will share it around and tell their friends because they can show off how cool they are.
Check it out.
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Written by Nez
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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As you'd know from my last post, my time in Beechworth was invaluable, what I've called the 'Gamechanger'.
Well, this week Immediate Edge
members have been getting a special treat. Robert Somerville's presentation on Keyword and Market Research has had fresh audio recorded, and the whole thing has been uploaded for Edge members to access.
I follow Ed Dale's Flickr account, and I was a little naughty when I caught site of this little piccy:
What you see there is a little sneak peek of the incredible content that's been getting delivered this week inside the Immediate Edge .
Now Rob's presentation was nothing short of spectacular, which you can read about in my previous blog post.
But more importantly, this is just a taste of what's coming. If you've been sitting on the fence wondering if the Immediate Edge
was really for you, it might just be time to make a decision. If you don't believe you're ready for that next step yet, that's cool. But if you are, now would be a very good time to join.
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Written by Nez
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Sunday, 04 May 2008 |
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So, it's Sunday morning and I've just spent the week at Beechworth. I don't think I could do justice to the experience by trying to detail it all here. And of course, there's quite a bit I can't detail here anyway, as people paid a handsome sum to attend and that knowledge needs to stay indoors.
What I can tell you is what I've taken away from the event on a personal level. When I break it down, it all really fits into 3 areas: Community, Knowledge, and Savvy
Community
More than any other event, internet marketing or otherwise, I met and became friends with so many people this week it's incredible. And that's taking into consideration the fact that there was only around 30 people in attendance. I won't rattle off a list of names here either, as I would no doubt forget someone and that would not be cool. The reason that meeting so many people this time around is doubly important for me though, is that everyone I met is actually doing things online rather than just talking about it.
You go to these conferences (not that this was like ANY conference I'd been to before), and you do meet people. Genuinely nice people most of the time, but the common denominator most of the time is that none of them are taking action. The Beechworth crowd
are a group taking action. In some cases massive action. Fantastic to be around. By the way, the link to the Beechworth crowd isn't everybody I met during the week, there were heaps more people.
Knowledge
Of course you know we had Ed and Dan present during the week. They each have their own style and their own brand of presenting. What they did do the same though, was deliver absolute top shelf content. If you were around for the Ustream show on the first day of the conference you got a taste of what Ed was doing. Just brilliant. Dan on the other hand, wowed us in a completely different way. His content was also nothing short of brilliant, but you won't be hearing about it on this site. I'm not deliberately trying to build it up either, it's just a simple case of not being able to share. Just wouldn't be fair to those that attended.
Another huge highlight for me was Rob Somerville's presentation. It was a real gamechanger for me. Rob really did a fantastic job, and has just opened my eyes up to where I'd been going wrong. Well, not wrong exactly, just not as refined as I should have been. So thanks Rob. By the way, if you're an Immediate Edge
member, Rob's presentation will be available to members in the next week or so. If you're not a member right now, it might be a very good time to consider it. There are some very big things coming to the Immediate Edge this year, and if you're an experienced online marketer there are things coming that will rock your socks off.
There were 2 other presenters at Beechworth, Marc Lindsay, who I unfortunately didn't get to talk to much, and Pete Williams who is just the coolest dude ever.
Marc gave us a presentation on his service PLR Pro . Now, I've been a member of a few PLR services in my time, and I ended up quitting my subscription on all of them after a while. They just didn't deliver the goods. Marc's service does. I've signed up already, and I can't believe the quality I'm seeing. The service caters to groups with a maximum of 200 people, and delivers articles, keywords, top affiliate programs, graphics, etc across 11 niches! That's right 11 niches. There's heaps more I could tell you, but go check it out for yourself, PLR Pro
And that leaves us with Pete Williams. His presentation was superb, and has given me a huge insight into the process of publicity and general PR. He's a terrific guy too, and someone that I'm really glad I connected with. His technique as a poker player is 'interesting' but I can't deny that it seemed to work for him. He took out Ed on our poker night and I think that surprised everybody. If you want to see a bit of fun using some of the techniques from Beechworth, go to Google and do a search for man hunk. You'll find Pete on the front page of google. Pete runs a terrific blog on marketing too, check it out Preneur Marketing.
I should also mention too, that I was one if the winners of Pete's competition he held while he was overseas. Very cool.
Savvy
Presenters and attendees alike, it was just fantastic to be around so many sharp people. I'm in this game for the long haul, and spending time with people smarter than me is never a bad idea. Chatting to people, whether at the conference itself, over dinner (Rob Somerville blew my mind at dinner on the first night), or while playing poker and talking trash, there were just so many nuggets that were flying around. I feel like the bar has been raised on the way I literally do everything online, and that can only be a good thing.
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Written by Nez
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Sunday, 20 April 2008 |
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I've been meaning to write a post reviewing one of the articles Pete Williams
has had publishing to his blog while he's been overseas. My main reason was purely selfish, Pete was running a competition for people who reviewed his articles, and winners would receive a swag of goodies. I really dig Pete's stuff, so I wanted to win.
But I've been pretty busy the last few weeks and time looked like beating me to the punch. But then Pete wrote an article about failure, and there being no such thing, and that struck a cord with me so much that I knew I needed to set a time and write something. So, it's Sunday morning, I have a brilliant coffee in front of me, I have no pressing work to do, and it's time to write a review.
What I love about Pete's article
is the simplicity of it. People need to realise some basic truths in order to overcome them. What Pete suggests, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is that failure is just a perception. There is no such thing, it doesn't exist. Same for success. It's just a perception as well.
Our culture tells us what success and failure is, and we hear it so much and so often that we just accept it as a reality. It becomes a Pavlov's dog scenario, and people judge themselves and others based on what they have been conditioned to believe is so. People go though their entire lives living in this lie. I know this because I see it all around me every day. When I made the decision to leave the teaching profession and make my living full time from the internet, I had many, many naysayers. All of the negativity came from one source, fear.
I believe that fear is the one major controlling factor in all of our lives. In my situation, the motivating fear was to have lived a life where I didn't take chances just in in case, and ended up an old man full of regret. For the people critical of my decision, the fear was grounded in one of three ways. Fear that I would fail, a projection of their own insecurities; Fear that I would succeed, a projection of jealousy or resentment; or fear of the unknown, not understanding this business and therefore being afraid of it. The only people in my life that were happy for me, were those who had no fear associated with the path I chose.
Pete goes on to give a history lesson in the development and acceptance of PostIt Notes. It works on two levels. On the first level we have the classic example of something perceived as a failure. Spencer Silver created an adhesive classified as a failure, spent five long years trying to make it better, until a use was found for the original adhesive. The only reason this first adhesive was classified as a failure was because it was perceived that way. Nobody had found a use for it, so it was seen as a failure until that changed. A shift in thinking is often all that's needed for something to be viewed in a completely different way
On the second level, this is a great example of the concept of fear in action. One group of people (the 3M marketing department), rejected the PostIt notes as a failure. I believe fear plays a part here in terms of fear of the unknown and fear of an product that doesn't sell. If the product didn't sell, the marketing department would've had to wear the blame as the people who brought the product to market.
On the flipside, the secretaries began using the PostIt notes with a complete lack of fear. They had them at hand and found a use for them, there were no perceived or real pressures creating fear to contend with. There was no perception of failure or success, just the reality.
Look at the issues in your life, both personal and professional. Everything you see as a failure or a success, what are they really? Try to remove fear from the equation and just look at things from a fact based perspective. Do things look different? They should.
Pete's Article
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Written by Nez
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Monday, 14 April 2008 |
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I had already written this post once before I realised I'd made an error. Above you'll see the photo Ed posted of his diagram for running an internet based business. I love it! It's the way I plan everything. I also mind map constantly, so paper and I are very close. Like Ed, I'm addicted to technology, but I always rely on good old faithful paper and pen to get my ideas down and to brainstorm. The link to Ed's original post is at the end of this article.
Ed also mentions the book, Back of the Napkin, and introduces us to the concept of visual thinking. He also talks of other big names in the biz like John Reese, Frank Kern and Gary Halbert, and they all use a pad and paper to brainstorm. I know that for many people the concept won't be new, but to hear Ed's take on how he approaches things, and the way he maps out things is pretty cool. Now, the above picture gives you an idea of where Ed is coming from, but only an idea. I had rushed on to write a post explaining all of the cool points about the video Ed made. I even did a few screenshots of bits I really liked.
And here's where I hit my problem. The video. I effecttively had written a review of the video Ed created about the various aspects of online businesses. However I had watched this video as a member of the Immediate Edge . Ed had actually created seven pages, which he then (using Screenflow) had gone on to explain in great detail. It was brilliant! But I can't publish a review like this if most of the people reading it haven't seen the video. So I'm an idiot.
If you want to see the video for yourself you'll have to obviously join up. A word of warning though, the Immediate Edge
is like trying to drink from a waterfall. There is tons of great content there (including Ed's video and a brand new service which just blows me away), but nobody is going to hold your hand. It's not for beginners either. If all of this is brand new, just stick with the Thrity Day Challenge for now. If however, you feel ready, then maybe try out the Immediate Edge
and see what you think.
Ed's original post:
http://tubbynerd.com/2008/04/09/any-internet-business-comes-down-to-this/trackback/
UPDATE: Ed has just realeased the video to the general public. I still recommend the Immediate Edge, but you can now watch the video I was raving about for free. Check it out here: The Video
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Written by Nez
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Tuesday, 08 April 2008 |
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I've probably missed the boat on this due to being so damn busy, but there's no time like the present. I've already gone ahead and bought my Platinum Membership for Butterfly Reports , so know that I believe in this product. In fact, there will never be a product I'm talking about on A Dent In The Universe that I don't believe in.
Anyway, back on task. In case you haven't heard about this yet, Butterfly Reports is Mike Filsaime's brand new service. I'm a huge fan of Mike's, having bought and thoroughly enjoyed The 7 Figure Code last year. That product just blew me away. What Butterfly Reports delivers though, is something far different.
What Butterfly Reports essentially is, is a database of reports and PDF files, from a wide range topics (not just internet marketing) where at least 25% of the links in the PDFs you use are branded with your affiliate ID. That's pretty cool don't you think? When I initially joined up, it was just as a free member. But once there, the offer I couldn't refuse reared its head. I've now joined as a platinum member for the simple fact that 100% of all links in the PDFs I send out will have my affiliate link in there. That's money well spent as far as I can tell.
It's still early days on the site, but this thing is going to grow very quickly. Members submit reports as well, so it's going to get full failry quick. I think that the lack of reports right now may be one of the reasons for the early bird discount. No, I'm not trying to hype that up either, Mike sent me an email not an hour ago saying the early bird offer was finishing in 24 hours. Given the huge numbers that Butterfly Reports will get, simply because there's a paid version and a free one, it's a no brainer for you to head over there and at the very least sign up a free account.
And remember folks, if you do eventually think this is something you'd like to pay for, 20% of your membership paid through this site's link goes to charity.
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 08 April 2008 |
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Well, the first donation from A Dent In The Universe has been made. It hasn't offically come through the the Dent, as I don't have any links or ads up yet. But the money did come via an affiliate link for an internet marketing product, and I thought it was important to get the ball rolling. It's for a grand sum of $75 but hey, it's a start.
Kiva is quite incredible and I'm really glad it's the direction I've decided to go in. The thing that really struck me though, as I was reading through each possibility, was that I was quite simply overwhelmed by them. It was SO hard to actually decide to pick out one loan and go with that. There are just so many that seem so worthy.
But I guess that's what's great about what I'm hoping this site will end up achieving. The money will slowly build up, get paid back, and just get bigger and bigger. I love the idea of being able to fund entire projects
at a time, no matter what the figure.
I haven't adjusted the 'About the Site' page above yet, but I've decided to ramp things up a little. My original idea was to have 10% of all income generated through the site go towards Kiva projects. But after spending quite a bit of time looking through Kiva I've decided that's just not enough. So... 20% is going to go to Kiva instead.
Very soon I'll start to add an ad banner or 2, do some product reviews of stuff I actually like, and also create a mailing list optin. All with the view of providing 3 services: good quality product for sale, generating money for Kiva, and sharing stories behind some of the entrepreuers.
Total transparency is name of the game, and total transparency is what you'll get. I haven't figured out the process yet, but the Dent will have a full disclosure policy on what money goes where.
Expect some more information in the next day or so. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated too.
Update: I just thought I explain better how I'm going to do the 20%:
Product: For example, a $1000 product, regardless of the affiliate commission, 20% ie. $200 would go to Kiva. Any product sold through the Dent will have that flat rate of 20%. It won't matter what the affiliate commission % is, no exceptions.
Obviously A Dent In The Universe will be paying the 20% out of whatever commission they receive, this doesn't effect the owners of the products in any way.
All Other Revenue: This is simple. 20% of any ad revenue or any other revenue the site generates goes to Kiva.
I hope that makes sense.
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