Jade Craven

Dave recently wrote an awesome post about his recent launch and provided commentary about his launch fatigue experience. Now, as his OMG, I got a behind the scenes view of this launch. Many people come to me when they want to make purchasing decisions. I'm in a unique position where I get to see things from all sides.

It's not launch fatigue. It's networking fatigue.

Most of the people that are commenting about launch fatigue are in the Ittybiz crowd. Basically, Naomi is an A-Lister. She may not admit but, she sure as heck is. It may take a while for the industry to accept it but she creates careers. She created Johnny and she created Dave. Most of commentary on this has come from people within this crowd.

There are many smaller groups that are part of the Ittybiz group. The new leaders, like Johnny and Dave, have been teaching many of us how to achieve similar success. This isn't necessarily through paid products – many of us learn just from watching.

Whenever someone releases a product or wants to advance their career, they tap the same blogs to guest post on. When they include interviews in an audio product, they ask the same people.

I'm a member of More Buyers Every Month. Most of us spent a couple of months building up our blog and are now in the process of launching stuff.

• Melinda was building up prelaunch buzz to her list.
• Catherine launched her Awesome Fear Wrangling product
• I launched my own product and chose an anti marketing strategy because I was suffering from buyers paralysis myself and didn't want to provide my friends with yet another choice

It's not the make money online niche that's saturated – it's the particular crowd we are in. We are all trying to sell to each other and it's just not working.

How do you change this?

Encourage your tribe to do the networking for you.

Yeah, I recently read Seth Godin. One of the things that he spoke about was to encourage your fans to do the networking for you.

Very few people are giving the audience the tools to do this. Free content isn't enough for your message to spread. You need to provide your readers with a compelling story and give your audience a reason to share it.

One of my favourite methods is the badges of love concept I stole borrowed from Danielle Laporte. I accidentally encouraged this technique when I did the 30 Bloggers To Watch post. I did that to highlight awesome people. Many people were so proud of their position on the list that they created their own badges linking back to that post. They were able to provide social proof, which allowed people to trust him more, and link to a post which contained other awesome people.

That post helped those within the Problogger tribe - arguably the largest tribe in this niche - connect with each other. It was amazing to watch. Could you provide your fans/followers with the tools to connect with each other without your involvement?

Reach out to other networks.

I'm a connector/maven. I don't limit myself to one particular crowd. I hang out with different types of web entrepreneurs and try to connect peeps from different crowds. And honestly? This has been the main reason I'm now making a decent income.

Most people don't have the time to do this. I spend a lot of time on Twitter, Skype and in my inbox just listening to what's going on. I'd argue this is close to 20 hours, unpaid, each week. It means though that I'm in a very unique position.

So are you. If you are reading this, you're probably friends with me. If you want ideas on how to reach to new audiences, just email me or comment. Or, if you want any tips on how to do this, just ask.

What do you want to know?

It's Saturday morning here. I'll be working this morning - ironically, on helping other people network - so I can take time off during the week. I have many, many more thoughts on this issue but decided it would be better to leave the topic open for discussion.

What are your experiences with networking fatigue? Is there anything you wish would change?

I just know I'm going to enjoy writing this trenches post. Previous editions have focused on what I've learned from my screw ups. This edition focuses on what I've learned as things have started to fall into place.

I've been slogging away at this for 2 years but last month, I got told I was getting evicted. This one change made me change the way I approached business. I started asking for help and many people were happy to give it. I was able to turn things around drastically in just one month.

I've:

• Started a job with Dave Navarro. It's awesome. I'm accidentally learning about launches and am getting paid for a skill that comes naturally to me.
• Starting earning consistent affiliate income. I literally wake up to sales most work days.
• Launched an email newsletter. This was really scary but heaps of people are signing up and interacting with the content.
• Have found joy in my work. It look a lot of experimenting but now I am so happy I can make money from my love.

In this edition, I'll be focusing on some of the factors that have contributed to my success.

A quick note about the job

Part of my job with Dave is monitoring the smaller launches and reporting on the info-product trends in several niches. If you are, or know of someone, that is releasing a product then let me know. Where relevant, I'll pass it on. I can also support you in arranging email interviews with him. Just contact me and I'll help you create a kick arse post.

Lessons Learned:

Starting a list doesn't have to be a scary thing

I procrastinated badly when it came to starting a list. The idea felt foreign and cold. I only started a list because I wanted to knock the project off my to do list.

It has been amazing. I've had my list set up for 2 weeks and have over 40 subscribers. I've sent out just one email and had several people respond. When I tweet about it, I get a lot of friends signing up.

It has been a fascinating journey. I'm really enjoying it and think I will like it a lot more as I learn more about it. I'm so excited about the potential to connect with new people.

The best thing is that you don't need any fascinating programs to learn how to do this. I've been saving email marketing messages for 18 months and am now going through them to find the techniques that worked for me. I'll be applying them to my own newsletters as I learn.

Review products before launch to capitalize on the buzz

My review of The Sticky Ebook Formula marked the first time I'd made my money back from an affiliate based review. I'd considerable income by placing my reviews on high profile blogs but never on my own.

I discovered The Sticky Ebook Formula when visiting the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint. It's an awesome community. I immediately took advantage of the prelaunch special and did a review of the product. I let Kelly know via the forum. She tweeted about it as well as linked to it via the sales page and mentioned it in a follow up post.

I've made four sales from a review that was just a blog page. I've had several people thank me for it and tell me how awesome Kelly is. I learned a lot about affiliate marketing from this one  review.

• Buying and reviewing an affiliate product is a great way to break the ice
• The act of filtering awesome products is a way to network. If people enjoy the product, they'll be thankful to you for pointing it out
• You will capitalize on the buzz if you are one of the first to review. This is something I haven't been able to do due to time constraints but will now be doing.
• Mentioning the review in a newsletter is a good way of driving extra sales.

I now wake up most mornings to an affiliate sale. It's awesome.

Perception is everything

Over the past month I've taken a step back from other responsibilities. Instead, I've been working on the rebranding and focusing on developing my blog.

Since we've started doing this, we have seen a lot more traction. I've been working with Bill on improving the appearance and usability. As a non-techie, I've never really focused on this before. I assumed my content would suffice when it comes to telling my story.

Since I've involved Bill in the rebranding process I've been getting a lot more comments about the design. Every time I've spoken with Dave he raves about the design of my products. It has led to more subscribers and engagement with content.

I've been featured in a product

My corrupting influence good friend Catherine Caine just a course called Awesome Fear Wrangling. It was my honor to participate. My interview appears alongside my friends and idols.

Catherine has had to work very hard to overcome her own fears and rock it online. She has been an inspiration and was recently able to quit the day job and take the leap into full time business. If it sounds like your thing, head over and check it out. If not, I'd still recommend following Catherine on twitter. She's kinda awesome.

Over to you

What awesome stuff has been happening for you over the past month? Let me know if there's a way I can help you guys kick arse too.

This post is a quick one. Its my 23rd birthday tomorrow and while I wanted to provide you guys with lots of value, I also wanted to go hang with the family.

Create a site based around a concept

Stuart Marsh, at Beardy Geek, created Blog Twin after reading a post on ViperChill called The Secret to growing your blog twice as fast with half the effort. He blogged about it here. It got the attention of Glen Allsopp who sent out a tweet sounding pretty darn impressed.

This is one of the best techniques I've seen. You are showing that their post resonated with you enough to take action. They are likely to sneeze that action which means that their audience, which will include other influencers, will see. They'll be inclined to sneeze it because very few people take action, let alone creating a whole site based off a concept.

Create a cool graphic to promote an interview

Andy , from Entrepreneurial Daddy, got on my radar by including a funky graphic on his interview of Dave Navarro. He went to the effort of recreating many facets of Daves picture including the grey scale, theme and facial expression.

I saw it and cracked up laughing. It helped me emotionally connect to Andy and know that he is willing to put the effort into making the interviews fun and engaging.

Provide Resources for Mavens to Share the Word

On her page for mavens and affiliates, Danielle Laporte includes badges of love for people to place on their site. She encourages the readers to 'Let the world know that you like it hot' and even provides the necessary code.

This is a technique that is barely utilized and people are leaving money on the table. Most bloggers have vertical networking covered. They know how to target the influencers and connect with fans on twitter. What most people are ignoring are the chances for your fans and friends to share the word about you.

People will use this badge because they want to share the word about your community. Are you encouraging your community to talk about you?

Create a graphic for your recommendations page

The guys over at Men With Pens created this killer graphic for the resources they recommend. It blends well with their branding and has a compelling call to action. I'll be borrowing this concept for this site.

Have more?

These are just the ideas I came up with when planning the next iteration of my site. If you want a sneak peak of that, check out the Products I recommend and People I recommend pages.

I'd love to read your examples. If you know anyone that is engaging their community or getting in a unique way, let me know in the comments.