Ian Fernando » Podcast

Outsourcing Your Online Business and How to Start

Ian — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:10:47 +0000

Outsourcing, it is a necessary business move to increase your productivity. I have been outsourcing a lot of work from programming, site maintenance, content, copy, articles, graphics, etc – you name it I probably outsourced it. These tasks were worked on a per project basis, meaning I paid per the completion of the task.

Recently, I have hired 2 VAs from the Philippines to help with SEO work, which is very tedious on one person. When I hired 2 full time Filipinos, I was trying to find a new way to manage them and communicate with them. I wanted to make sure my VA’s were working diligently. While I was searching for content, I stumbled on Tyrone Shum’s blog.

His blog talked about outsourcing and how he is making money with outsourcing – giving his full business responsibilities to workers in the Philippines. I went through his blog and even his Mass Outsource course, there was a lot of information from utilizing a free video recording system to task management tools.

I decided to contact him and see if he would like to have a conversation with me about outsourcing. This would be a great way to get an experts perspective from a person starting to utilize full time outsourcers (me). Since I only outsourced work on a per project basis in the past, I didn’t really have to give rpeated tasks everyday or up keep with the VAs on a daily basis. Having a team that is full time, there is a lot ofmanaging and communication that needs to be done.

One aspect is the time difference from New Jersey to the Philippines. Tyrone and I talked about how to manage this time difference and how to work with both parties with ease. It was one of the troubling things I had because I didn’t know if my VAs had questions or if they were doing work.

Another discussion we dive right into is the big difference between Filipino workers and VAs from India. Personally, I have outsourced work in the past to India and I always never get good results. Everything had to be step by step and very descriptive, they can not think on their own. The most annoying part is they do not like asking questions if they are stuck and rush their work to get onto the next client.

So far with my Filipino workers, they ask questions when stuck and provide daily and weekly reports. They do not rush and take the time to learn and understand, the best part is they can think on their own and even suggests alternative strategies!

After the main conversation, I asked Tyrone to talk about his Mass Outsource, which I think is a great piece of material for beginners when starting to outsource their business. I watched every video and took some great tips along with it.

Listen to this podcast, it is an amazing piece of content. If you are thinking about outsourcing work, listen to the conversation me and Tyrone have. It gives a lot of perspective from how I started to where I am at now. This way you know where to start and how to start finding the best VAs to work for you and grow your business.

Eric Itzkowitz on SEO and Link Building

Ian — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:16:45 +0000

Since I have been doing some SEO, I thought it would be great to get someone that I see as a mentor to me when it came to SEO. I met this person at DK’s ThinkTank, a valuable and small tight group of entrepreneurs that get together to just network and have fun. Eric Itzkowitz, is the person I met that has been adding a lot of great insights to my SEO efforts.

Eric has been in the organic search for 10 years and works on the merchant side of the affiliate industry. He also manage affiliate programs and ppc campaigns for merchants looking to expand their presence online. Although his strengths is organic and I found that out at ThinkTank.

photo by Tim Ash

I believe our discussions started going when we both introduce each other to our business. Ofcourse we were total opposite because of the type of traffic and we both paid interests into how each other gets traffic.

I have been wanting to do more SEO, but I just find it time consuming and it was not until recently where I started heavily digging into it and actually doing it. Even though I am not doing it physically, I am giving a blueprint to my VAs and thy do the work that is, I think time consuming.

After ThinkTank we kept in touch, as I did with most of the attendee of ThinkTank. When I actually started learning, researching, and doing SEO – I gave Eric a call to get a foundation. Ever since I kept in contact and we exchange ideas and see how can help each other in our businesses.

One Eric told me is his tracking plugin for WordPress. Think about Prosper202 for WordPress, without the spy view. It is actually very useful, especially if you are using WordPress as your landing page or if you use WordPress as a mini site. If you think Prosper202 is too complicated, then grab PPC Keyword Tracker for WordPress – it’s Free and it is simple and easy to use.

Anyways, since jumping into SEO I always have questions about links, directories, automation, testing, etc.

So, I decided why not get on a call and have a conversation about SEO to share with my readers. I did just that and we had alengthy conversation, 45 minutes about SEO. Since I come from a paid traffic side, SEO is definitely brand new to me and so far there are a lot of people that has helped me understand how it works.

In today’s podcast we talk about…

Automation – the good and bad
Content Spinning – Why the Internet is all spun content
Gov, Edu, Org backlinks
Getting Backlinks and where and how
Google, Yahoo, or Bing
Longevity of Organic Search
… plus many more

The podcast is 45 minutes but has a lot of good information especially if you are new to SEO. So listen in and just let it play in the background. Enjoy!

Podcast Wars: PPV Traffic within the CPS and CPA Markets

Ian — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:37:09 +0000

The other day I did a podcast on “both sides of the tracks” about PPV traffic and outsourcing. I believe the next day another podcast went up about PPV and how its a bad way to market. Now the difference here that it was beig spoken from two different angles. I spoke from it on CPA side where traffic is just another source for volume. While the other podcast talks about how it is obstructive to the end user.

Early, today I had the opportunity to get 2 other people that relies on PPV traffic for their business. We got on a phone call and discuss the circumstances of the traffic, the good, and the bad. We just had an overall discussion about PPV traffic and its uses on the internet.

I got Cashtactics, Kris Trujillo and Stephon Rudd. These guys base their business on strictly PPV and use it to their advantages. Kris came out with the popular product Mass PPV Traffic and Stephon Rudd who also has his own product called Dark Side of PPV, are the ones on the podcast tonight.

Pics form left to right: Kris Trujillo and Stephon Rudd

Since these guys are big time PPV traffic guys, I got them on a phone call to discuss the concept of marketing and why maybe the CPS side of our affiliate industry thinks PPV is bad.

We also discuss, hardcore, on making a good PPV campaign and how to gather leads for future sales. The discussion is about 44 minutes and definitely a good listen. Kris pointed out great reasons why PPV traffic is frowned upon and so does Stephon. Stephon brings out really good points in the beginning on why PPV traffic is cheap and even how others look at with a bad taste in their mouth.

Later we discuss about how pop-ups interface the user and how obstructive it is. But using it the right way isn’t being obstructive at all. These guys definitely got in a good podcast and got in a really good discussion about PPV traffic and how to use it to better your business.

One thing I did want to get off my chest was the fact about our industry: CPS vs CPA. Why are methods by the CPA users frowned upon. Why are the CPS markets and CPA industry in such a disconnect where we can not seem to help each other. I feel there is a big age difference as well as content for the user vs direct hard selling.

Everyone markets differently but our affiliate industry is divided in two and see the internet as 2 different variables. Hard selling vs content selling. There are ups and downs for both and within tonight’s podcast, we did get some information out about it.

Enough of me chit chatting… I can prob do another post on CPS vs CPA markets… Press Play below and enjoy!

Interview with Glenn from Unique Leads

Ian — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:18:15 +0000

Its been while since I did a podcast, so I decided to do one.

…I just got off the phone with the VP of Unique Leads, Glenn Pagan. We discuss the after affect of ad tech and as well as their network and how they differentiate themselves from others. We discuss international traffic and how lucrative the market is overseas versus domestic.

All in all it was a great interview… If you do not know Glenn you should I interviewed him a while back about the changes our industry is having. Now with more information and a love for our industry he comes back with more information.

Unique Leads is currently having a contest where they are going to fly out an affiliate to the Affiliate Convention in LA. Now I have been to LA and LA is super nice! I personally havent been to the Affiliate Convention but I did hear a lot of good news about it from its first one in Denver.

You can easily win a trip to the Affiliate Convention, find out more about this contest.

Listen to our call and let us know what you think.

Talking to the Mob Boss of PPC Bully

Ian — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:38:49 +0000

The other day I gave an intro about PPC Bully and why it is very beneficial for users to use it. Well I now got a chance to talk to the bully himself and got more in depth about his system and even his secret system that he is currently implementing. Emil is a good friend of another good friend of mine and I was glad to have the chance to talk to him.

We discussed about PPC marketing and the hassle of creating just 1 campaign with a lot of tedious work. We talked about all the trial and error in search marketing and how to not waste too much money or no money at all on launching a successful campaign. We discussed how to look at PPC Bully and even case studies that Emil has launched in the past and made it profitable right out the gate.

With PPC Bully you can see the simple formula below and see how it can be easily implemented with your offers and LP. Let others work for you while PPC Bully just sits and waits for the right opportunity for you to create a new and successful campaign.

I personally use PPC Bully and found it to be a boat load of information, speaking with Emil definitely brought the tension off and explained some things to me that I wouldn’t even think of doing because of the mass of information PPC Bully provides.

Emil has a lot on his hands and has provided a great service for users that want to get into PPC marketing but do not want to do all the testing. Find targeted keywords that work, find targeted ad copies that work, find a successful campaing. The podcast below will give you a great insight of what PPC Bully can do for you and your campaigns. Enjoy

Get access to PPCBully and Start Earning Right Away!

Jim Kukral: Always Fun Marketing

Ian — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:15:09 +0000

Today I have had the opportunity to talk to Jim Kural about some topics such as social marketing, social equity, branding, and marketing in general. I had interviewed Jim back in the day when I was a shy young person, now I have the opportunity to know him from conferences. So I decided to hit him up on his offer for his podcast which he had twittered a while back. We talked about several things and how he is a marketer and a fun marketer at that.

I first met Jim at Affiliate Summit West 2008, from then I seen him at almost every conference I been to. Jim is a great guy to talk to and just hang out with. He is the type of person to just have fun with projects success or flop. He has had several projects and several websites, all base on his interest at that time.

In today’s podcast we talked about several action items base on Jim’s success and of course what I wanted to learn from Jim. Jim helps businesses grow and helps them succeeded. With so many things that are happening right now, especially in marketing Jim has found unique ways to diversify his imagination to help others succeed. One aspect of the podcast and which he recently wrote as well was about word of mouth marketing and how his list grew 300%.

Another great section was about branding and how Jim is taking himself to the next level. He also goes in saying a brand is diverse, you can have social equity by being fun or just being the video guy. I have written several articles on branding and how branding can help your business. Base on multitudes of criteria and how others perceive you. I myself want to somewhat rebrand myself because of what others has stated about me, I even bought the domain (GhettoAffiliate.com) but not sure what to use it for as of right now.

Maybe IanFernando.com is general or maybe too specific? I personally do not just do affiliate marketing, I do alot of other things to get a stream of income flowing in. So the section on branding was really informative to me. Enough ofme talking – podcast below!

Education vs Education with Collin LaHay

Ian — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:24:50 +0000

School has recently started and I got to meetup with an online friend at Blog World Expo. It has been a while since we actualyl hanged out but it was great seeing him. I even got to meet his dad. Collin LaHay is currently a student and an online entrepreneur. He currently runs a blog at Collin LaHay [dot] com and speaks alot about link building. But back about meeting his dad, his dad is very energetic and great person talking too. There was a problem though, school. I jokingly said something relating to school and how Collin should not even bother with it. I just got a laugh and look, but it was cool.

In today’s podcast I got back in contact with Collin to discuss this controversy among young entrepreneurs and students who want to venture in an online business. Now there is a big difference here, Collin is only 18 years old and has successfully started a business online. Direct from his about me page:

I am a young entrepreneur (age 18), and unlike most people my age, I earn a living from the web. I am living proof that anyone who has the will and determination to succeed can make money online, and I hope to inspire you to do the same.

Collin was also in the Top Affiliate Challenge show. He does a different form of online marketing than affiliate marketing. If you read his blog, a lot of his strategies are for link building.

Let’s Get Away from Top Affiliate Challenge

I asked myself if he is making money online and earning a living, why go to school? I personally have been to school for 2.5 years and I quit because of my attitude and getting in too many fights. But it was the best thing that has happened to me, I would never think back to go back to school just to say that I graduated from.

Collin and I discuss this controversy and came up and I agreed that society creates this so called education. I believe education is important, it is just how you view education. Typical students look at education as learning and going to school to get a job. Where I think education to benefit me now and later or to earn an income is far better than learning who the author was on who wrote a famous poem 200 years ago, honestly.

Society does create this type of barrier to others and it was a great oppurtunity to talk to Collin again esepcially about education and the reason why he is back in school, maybe for experience or just to satisfy his parents. I know my parents would like me to get a piece of paper stating I graduated somewhere. Enough and here is the conversation me and Collin had.

A Unique Conversation with Unique Blog Designs

Ian — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:45:21 +0000

While at IZEAFest I was able to grab the whole team from Unique Blog Designs all aside to have a quick discussion about their company. I insisted they owed me a podcast or interview, because I remember when John Chow had his update – I attacked them for an interview. I can imagine their business jumped because of that first design, so I wanted to get their reaction right away.

They have done a lot of blogs such as the famous ShoeMoney and John Chow. They add a unique twists to their designs, it isn’t just color is web 2.0 color. Their styles definitely jump out and they know what they are doing. I learned quite a bit from them knowing Josh is a consultant and finds out what the blogger wants and how Unique Blog Designs can better optimize their blog. It was interesting to hear also they are going into the premium style web designs as well. I highly favorite my friend Brian Gardner‘s Revolution Theme and we even go into discussion about his themes.

They have created a great brand among their team and it is funny all three of them are friends. I know when I try to partner up wit my friends, it was hard – but UBD definitely has their head straight. Though we are all about the same age – around our 30′s – we still hanged out and had fun. I met up with them at IZEAFest and once more at Blog World Expo where they had a huge booth. I met up with them in the night life as well, just ballin as Jim Jones would say.

credit: josh.mullineaux

These guys definitely are focus they have done work for Yahoo and Nike! Getting it in! Before they left, like i said I was able to grab them and just have a great conversation about their company and how they differentiate themselves from other blog designers and premium template designs. The most interesting part is they are releasing something int he affiliate market space – eagerly waiting and might have to do a followup podcast with them about it!

Listen below!

Getting Personal with Monica Durazo

Ian — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:39:31 +0000

Bloggers beware, I have a blogger who’s personality brings a smile to friends and people around her. As we know a blog needs a personality kick, I have or been trying to add some interesting personal experiences on this blog – outside of internet marketing. Monica recently just started a blog and already she is being recognized on the blogosphere. Recently Monica Durazo was the host of Top Affiliate Challenge host and she did a great job at it. There were times within the first couple days it was hard because of criticism of the show. Later on she stayed strong and started to network with everyone at the show.

Entering as a total noob to the internet and internet marketing, Monica started to realize there is potential on the internet. Everyone was telling her to start a blog, since she already does it on her myspace page. Wes Wyatt has helped her register her own domain and John Chow helped her setup her full blog! Everyone was giving her tips and tricks about the internet and even how to benefit from the internet.

Jeremy even had her model for his Fighters.com website. Monica learned a lot from the show and though she was going through rough times while at the show, every contestant made sure she was feeling home. Her personality showed very quickly and almost felt like we all were best of friends.

For today’s podcast, I had the opportunity to talk to Monica for a little bit about her success with her new blog. Her blog has received an enormous traffic from other blogs and just the internet in general. She is getting traffic that other beginner bloggers are trying to get after several months while Monica received it within days of launch of her blog.

Though her blog is very different from a lot of blogs out there, hers is very personal. She talks about her daughter and even does video blogging on her blog! It is amazing how a newbie is doing video blogging because she realizes the potential of video, while others out there are stuck under a rock about vlogging.

Monica jump started her internet stardom right near the end of Top Affiliate Challenge, we all helped her with her blog and she appreciated all of our help. It is a great time to talk to her about her blog and about her experience on the show.

This was a good podcast because I wanted to show everyone out there that it is possible to get traffic and good traffic as long as you do networking. This discussions proves you can make it on the internet and your blog does not have to make money, it can be for personal growth as Monica has stated. I believe this is a great podcast for beginners on the internet when creating a blog because it proves you can have a successful launch within days of releasing your own website or blog.

Listen to the Podcast Below:

“Porcupines in Heat” with Ken McArthur

Ian — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:11:45 +0000

I am flying out today from Nebraska and I had the oppurtunity to have a live podcast with Ken McArthur. I sat in his room and had this podcast and did I learn a lot within 40 minutes. Ken McArthur is one of the gurus on Top Affiliate Challenge and he has brought his team to the top of every challenge. Ken is a great guy and surprise to really meet him in person. I can only imagine to meet the big internet marketing gurus and now I have met one of them.

Before I am leaving Nebraska I wanted to get in contact with Ken to discuss his new book, the Impact. This book has a lot of knowledge and from the podcast with Ken, Ken discusses specific aspects of the book which makes sense in marketing or as a person. I personally have not read this, but I will certainly be reading this while I am on the plane or waiting for my next flight. But talking to Ken live, he goes into a lot of detail with a lot of analogies that just hits your head and leave you thinking. Certain quotes or references just keeps your attention for quite sometime.

According to the book description:

How can one ordinary person make a difference in this noisy world?

Some people spread a simple message that is so compelling that their voice is not solo for long. People rally around their message and spread it like wildfire.

Impact reveals the key strategies used by some of the most influential people in the world. These people create measurable and undeniable impact on millions of people. The stories of these people and ordinary people alike, illustrate vital strategies that enable you to create your own legacy.

How does one person touch millions of lives and have an impact on the way people think and act? Many people dream of having that kind of effect on others’ lives, but few know how to accomplish it.

Ken and I discuss several factors about the show and marketing in general. We also discuss the aspects of marketing as a whole and how it is divided into smaller ‘niche’ categories of marketing. We also discuss a certain vocabulary “Porcupines in Heat” which the concept is so simple yet it is rarely really used. When talking to Ken in his room suite, I was in awe at the simple concept but brilliant idea.

Ken also discusses how he first got started and how he created his first digital product. Going and creating digital products created JV partnerships with other business minded users. With that said Ken was able to release JVAlert which provides an intimate connection between business minded users. Which means we also spoke about Joint Ventures and the different variation of Joint Ventures. Our discussion was very informative and I literally walked out of the room with a total new mindset and a lot of new ideas just bursting to come out – too bad I don’t have a portable whiteboard.

Play PodCast Below: