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I went to an Internet Marketing seminar about two weeks ago.

Haven’t really been to one since I had a taste of success in the field, so this trip definitely feels different.

Okay, so what in the world am I doing at an Internet Marketing seminar like this in the first place if I already knew what they were going to say?

Well, let’s just say it was to show the better half what I have been spending so much time doing online.

The better half had a class before the seminar, so we ran abit late. We drove, and tried to be quick, but were still late by 45 minutes.

There was a good-looking man outside using his laptop. He was not very amused that we were late by 45 minutes.

He proceeded to grill us with questions like..

“Do you know that you’re late by 45 minutes?”

“Are you serious about this?”

“Do you know what this conference is about?”

To which I replied “yes”.

Then he sternly asked “Okay, so what is this about?”

And maybe due to the fact that I just wanted to get this nonsense over and done with so that I could get inside, I actually forgot to get peeved and meekly replied “Yes, this conference is about internet marketing. Sorry we’re late.”

To which he smirkly replied “I just wanted to make sure you’re serious about this. We don’t like people coming here just to have the free dinner.”

Anyway, we were running late, so I was a good boy and obediently followed him to our seats.

The seminar was actually good, to my surprise.

They were selling a Content Management System with a free workshop, for a really, really low price.

I was very impressed with their marketing funnel; I KNEW this seminar itself was not going to make them money.

I KNEW the free workshop is going to be where they will be pushing an upgrade of their software, where the real profits lie.

With the purchase, we’ll be getting good content from the workshop, and a license to a seemingly decent piece of software.

For such a measly price, I would have gladly gone to the workshop; if for nothing, just to check out their marketing funnel and to confirm that I’m right.

They have already handed out the order forms, and have promptly informed us that the LONG-AWAITED dinner will be served as soon as we have filled out our order forms.

So far, so good.

They’re doing ALOT of things right.

I’m sure the conversion rate for this event is going to be sky-high; I won’t be surprised if it lands somewhere MORE than 60%.

Still, at that point in time, the better half and I stood up, packed our things, and left the seminar.

They would almost certainly have gotten my business; at least in this step of the process.

They’ve done alot of things right, but they do not TREAT people right.

No self-respecting business person would appreciate being treated like garbage who attends their seminars for the sake of dinner. I have money for dinner, thank you very much.

We left the place, and had our own dinner somewhere else.

Why was I so peeved? I’m no multi-millionaire, but I probably know more about REAL internet marketing than his speaker at this seminar.

So, thanks but no thanks for the stupid dinner!

Moral of the story: Treat your customers right!

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It’s been a whooping 3 months since I last posted here.

(Yes, I am still very much alive, thank you very much.)

I have been away in the United States for a Work and Travel Program, followed by a one-week travelling trip in the West, and was basically having the time of my life.

The knowledge and experience I’ve gained these past 3 months was priceless; from meeting people from all over the world, working with them, under them, to owning our own vehicle, buying it, taking care of it, and eventually selling it, to planning hikes all over Yellowstone National Park, to getting stopped by park rangers for speeding (twice), to witnessing the most beautiful, breath-taking scenery in my entire life, to seeing bisons, mooses, bears, and even hearing wolf-cries, to first-hand experience of being in Los Angeles and Universal Studios, the beautiful Cornorado beaches of San Diego, biking through the Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco, a little stopover at the bustling New York, and not forgeting our final destination, the short half-day tour we took at Taipei, San Xia and Ying Ge.

It was my first time out of Singapore, and it has definitely brought me tons of fun, made me tanned, improved my driving skills, and (surprise, surprise), undoubtedly upped my discipline and made me a better marketer!

I bought my first issues of Wired and Entrepeneur magazine over there, and finally got a taste of what the fuss is all about.

So, I guess the question is this:

WHY HAVE I BEEN TOTALLY NEGLECTING MARKETING ALCHEMIST?

*Shrugs*

Well, let’s say I never expected the internet connection to be THAT bad in Yellowstone National Park. Well, I should have expected it (we were in the mountains after all), but well, now I’m non the wiser.

I thought I would have been able to provide updates periodically, but the connection was just..

So bad.

There was connection during my travelling part of the trip though, but we were so busy that whatever time I had left, I had to use to sort out my academic matters and to reply to emails and other logistical stuff like that.

And when I finally had the chance to look at Marketing Alchemist, I saw that it had about 400 spam comments, a Page Rank of 1, and that Wordpress 2.6 is now available. (Any advice on whether I should upgrade?)

Just touched down 2 nights ago, and have pretty much been doing nothing other than sleeping away my jet lag, blasting through my RSS reader, and basically catching up on stuff I should be catching up on.

Oh yes, the better half gifted me with a Sony Reader!

It’s an ebook reader, and they don’t even have it in Singapore yet, so I’m right there on the bleeding edge of technology, muahaha!

There are some quirky things about it, with much space for improvement I believe, but I’m still loving it nonetheless; it’s wonderful for reading all my internet marketing ebooks.

Now, after this little getaway from internet marketing, it sure feels good to be back.

I’ve reflected on my business model, and will be implementing several changes to the way I’ll be functioning; in the way I juggle my school work and marketing work, and of course, I’ve made several goals for myself in the meantime too.

(Shows what a getaway could do to you, eh?)

It’s implementation time.

Back to work!

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Awesome short post on copyblogger!

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist… but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going. ~Richard Branson

You’re not a writer.

You’re not a content producer.

You’re not a blogger.

You’re an entrepreneur.

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Finally got around to replacing the default header with my own.

Do you twitter? Add me!

http://twitter.com/kangwei

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Goodness, not another skin change!

Just can’t seem to find a theme that I like; and carry on liking for a long time.

Let’s hope this one lasts abit longer too. Having a nice skin makes you want to blog more.

Here’s how it looks like for now.

Yeah, I haven’t even changed the header graphic yet.

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What a tongue twister of a title eh?

As you can very well see, this blog is not ready for the eyes of humanity at all.

I’m a strong believer in Murphy’s Law. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.”

I was all set for closing down the old blog and having a fresh new start for a good new year, reviewing through the posts made over the past years, and seeing if I have managed to fulfill the new year resolutions I made at the start of 2007.

Alas, on the night of the 1st January, I just had to screw up on some of the settings on that old blog, causing it to become inaccessible. And because I’m such an optimistic young men, like all impulsive young men, I didn’t back it up.

I’m now greeted with an error screen when I try to access the site:

=
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: _c() in /home/kang/public_html/wp-includes/locale.php on line 93
=

 So yes, being the forward-looking and never-say-die warrior I am, I decided to proceed with the soft launch of Marketing Alchemist anyway!*Fireworks soar through the air, applause rages through the fields, and the mood of joy spreads through the crowds like wildfire!*….Okay.Nevermind.So there’s not so much of a fanfare afterall.Instead of reviewing 2007 thoroughly through the eyes of the old blog, let’s just move on to the highlights of the year then!

Without a doubt, 2007 was the best year for my internet business ever! (It’s my first year, you see.)

Jokes aside, I met tons of wonderful folks at the World Internet Summit this year. Folks like Khai, Kevin Riley, Dr. Mani, Mark Joyner, Andrew Hansen and hung out with Dylan. I nearly had the chance to meet up with Chiayee as she came over to Singapore for holidays, but it didn’t work out due to time constraints.Milestones of 2007 include my first writing assignments, first purposeful affiliate sales through both pay-per-click and bum marketing, and of course, the elusive first four-figure month.

Unfortunately, at the apex of my achievements, a new semester at school began, and it has been such a super-busy one for me. I had more modules to take than my peers, in addition to my commitments as Project Director of Cyberia Camp 2007.

(The camp went very well, by the way!)

As such, online activities slowed down a whole lot.

And after I’ve fulfilled my commitments at school, I was so exhausted that I had to spend some time smelling the roses with the better half.

She’s been a very, very welcome addition to my life. (Understatement.)

A story for another day. She is currently functioning as my personal assistant, which has saved me the costs and hassles of the need to hire a virtual assistant. She is diligent, smart, funny, and she even feeds me all the time with her wonderful cooking skills. Where else do you find such a versatile virtual assistant at the low low cost of free?

(Never, ever, let her lay her eyes on the above paragraph though.)

*Update*

Now.. This is interesting. Seems like I did manage to salvage some of the posts from the old blog afterall. Here’s my new year resolutions post from last year.

-=*=-

Happy 2007!
By kang | December 31, 2006

It’s already 4.18 a.m. right here in Singapore, so I’m making this a fairly quick one.

A quick recap of 2006.

I’ve taken huge steps in internet marketing.

The birth of KangWeiAng.Com. My first adsense earnings. My first successful affiliate sales. My little accidents and disasters in adwords and yahoo search marketing. More than a hundred books, ebooks and special reports. Hundreds of threads read on Internet marketing singapore, the warrior forum, Wealthy Affiliate. Techniques learnt, implemented, or stored in the memory bank for future use. New friends and acquaintances in the internet marketing world. Mutual admiration for each other. And not forgetting the ugly side I’ve glimpsed of some less-than-ethical marketers. My realization that there’s nothing much I could do about them and I can do is stay on course myself.

It’s been a huge year for me. I haven’t made thousands of dollars yet, but I’ve learnt tons through hands-on application.

And thanks to people like Travis, Kyle, Carson, Dylan, Alex and Chia Yee, through their knowledge and expertise, I’ve grown alot, and I’m sure their brilliance will rub off on me through sheer contact, and I’m damn sure that 2007 would be a great great one for me!

I hope that it would be the best year for you too!

Come December 31st 2007, I would look back and smile at myself. I would certainly re-read this post again.

I would be moved. Maybe I’d even tear.

As I review the best year in my internet marketing career. My successful projects, campaigns, websites

And here’s what I wish for 2007.

To hit $1000 internet marketing income each and every single month, and to help 5 other people do the same. And when that time comes, all I have to do is duplicate that effort, and I’ll be a happy man! When that day comes, I’ll get myself my dream white Picanto!

And to do that, I will..

Focus on affiliate marketing. Bum plus adwords marketing for traffic. And I’ll build niche mini sites to get those sales.

Short and sweet, because I’ve learnt that focus is of utmost importance.

And education-wise, I’ll hone my speed reading skills and make it a point to be always hungry for information, and to apply my new-found knowledge as much as possible. I’ll stretch my learning ability to the max.

I can’t wait.

Bring it on, 2007.

I am ready.

-=*=-

I can’t help but smirk at the post.

I certainly haven’t been very successful, judging by the standards of that post!

• For one, I didn’t manage to have an income of $1000 every month. I only hit that amount once. And that wasn’t even passive income. Not good, Kang. Not good.
• “Focus on affiliate marketing, especially bum marketing.” Well, I did make quite a number of sales with bum marketing. I’ve grasped the mechanics of it, but then I just grew lazy, as usual, and tried alot of other techniques instead.
• “Niche mini sites?” I did build a few. But again, I didn’t follow through. Earned peanuts with Adsense through these sites; nothing to be proud of.
• It’s funny that I mentioned I realized that focus is of utmost importance, and yet I allowed myself to deviate time and again.
• I guess the only thing I managed to consistently “achieve” from the list of goals for 2007, is to maintain a constant state of hunger for new knowledge. This kind of hunger is like a two-edged sword though, so I’ve got to learn to be able to handle it properly, lest I fall into the proverbial information overload death cycle.
• My Picanto? (A Picanto is a car by the way.) A Picanto with my current level of earnings? *Smiles.*

Well, I did have alot of fun with my online business in 2007, but as they say, “never treat your online business like a game.”

I’m going to carry on having fun, but I will certainly strive to be more disciplined in my daily processes.

So, what am i doing this year that is different from the last?

1. Huge boost in productivity. As mentioned, I’ve overfed myself with lots of information, but fortunately, also discovered many gems along the way. I’ll be actively implementing GTD into my working style. Coupled with all the amazing hacks I’ve learnt from Lifehacker.com, I’m sure I’ll become much more productive in 2008!
2. A protestant work ethic. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but coupled with the hacks I’ve learnt, I guess I have also seen first hand, the miracles that happen when hard work is thrown into a business. For a start, I’ve finally taken the effort to actually list down what I want to achieve for 2008, and a thorough review of 2007. Not a slip-shod one like this of course, but a four-page document, with 10 point size font. It’s an amazing experience. You should try it if you haven’t done that before!

Why do so many people say that new year resolutions do not work? My take is that, publicly stated new year resolutions are merely ego boosters and are too flippant to achieve results! What I’m now a firm believer of..

Is taking some quiet time off to quietly reflect and think. Do not worry about what others might think; you’re not going to show them to anyone after all.

You’ll find that at the end of the process, you don’t even particularly want to show it to other people because if done right, it will have some very personal elements in it, some sensitive issues and even some confidential blueprints to your potential success!

For mine, there is one thing I’d like to share with you.

I did up detailed projected “internet marketing expenses” and “internet marketing earnings” lists. I calculated all that based on monthly standards; meaning recurring income and passive income are not taken too much into account.

I got the shock of my life when I realized that a semi-ideal full-fledged internet marketer lifestyle will lead me to spend a whooping $1537on my business each and every month!

Doh!

What shocked me even more.. Is that at a conservative estimate, and without taking into account recurring and passive income from sites built in previous months and stuff like that, my monthly income, provided that I’ve completed everything I wish to accomplish, is a whooping $5100!

I have no idea whether that is chump change to you, but a profit of $5100 - $1537 = $3563 makes me very excited indeed.

The magic in this.. Is that I have arrived at these figures via very conservative and realistic estimates!

The magic happens..

Only when you make these projections yourself, custom made to your business models and lifestyles!

It’s extremely liberating, trust me. Try it out for yourself!

It’s now 2.14 a.m. here in Singapore.

I guess this marks the end of my first post!

I hope this post has given you a better sense of direction of how you wish to approach your own new year resolutions. I strongly encourage you to try the exercise of calculating your expenses and earnings!

Before I say goodbye…

On Friday, January 26th, 2007, I wrote a post entitled “Weeeeee! I have Page Rank now!”

I’m constantly amazed by the amount of stupid things that can come out from my fingertips, but that old little blog of mine gaining a page rank of 4 was a wonderful achievement for me. I was at the stage of running around like a chicken without a head, trying out new stuff like nobody’s business.

Looking back, it felt right. It’s perfectly fine to celebrate small successes. Small results come before huge achievements.

You made every little step; you deserve all the success you receive!

I worked hard at getting that page rank.

And now, I’m starting off with a blank slate, at page rank 0.

It’s like what people say about millionaires not being afraid of going bankrupt again after gaining millionaire status. Because they already have the knowledge and know-how of success.

Of course, now that I’m more familiar with the mechanics of internet marketing, I realize that page rank isn’t a big determinant of how successful Marketing Alchemist is.

What I wish for Marketing Alchemist to accomplish in 2008, is to help you, whoever you are, wherever you’re from, to succeed online; to fail fast, and to succeed even faster.

Here’s to a wonderful 2008 for all of us!

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