Staccato Snap - Week 001

Photo by Mitch (mad skillz, huh?)

Staccato Snap is a weekly journal highlighting my return to Network Marketing.

WHY?

Your card arrived today. It was just wonderful. Damn near cried. Thanks so much. I love you.

Pop

My Thought Processes

Many things happened before I decided to return to Network Marketing.
Here’s a bit of it.

Networking, Friendplaying

If everyone had to wait two years for results, we’d all be broke.
What’s not broken, though, is the bonds of friendship.
Given without expectation of return.
Or - having put the cards on the table - we should let our friends pick them up when they’re ready.
My friend, Kathryn Spencer, did that in style.
She sent me cards.
She gave me a free account to play with.
When I sent my first card to my dad for his birthday, I was thrilled.
When I got his email the day after, I was sold.
Of course, I was in no position to become involved in yet another business.
My original plan was to use the system for keeping in touch with my real estate clients.
I told Kathryn all of this.
And she accepted that.
That’s a friend.

Tempus Fugit (Boy, Does It!)

For the next two years, Kathryn sent me surprise cards, birthday cards and even an enclosed gift card.
We corresponded.
I helped her with a bit of web design planning.
She kept me informed of all of the exciting things happening in her card business.
I invited her to network at various online communities.
She introduced me to Heidi.
Both ladies started sending me cards.
Friendplaying is the true end result of Networking.

Change of Plans

Life happens, get over it, right?
Real estate market tanked soon after I got involved.
I turned my attention to building websites.
Meanwhile, I got sucked into the make money online mess.
Scams and spam didn’t bother me.
It was the borderline stuff and the complex legitimate opportunities that wasted my time.

Through the Ooze, You Lose

I was weary of wading hip-deep in hype. Tired of tripping over chaff while reaching for wheat.
The wacky world of Internet Marketing threatens to surpass grazing bovine as the number two threat to our ozone layer.
Combine the rapid pace of innovation with the avalanche of information and you have a graveyard of obsolescence sprouting evergreen ideas, morning glory tactics and a rare cherry blossom or two.
Time to plant some solid oaks.

Don’t Reinvent it, Just Roll

Having gone down the Network Marketing path before, I know better than to reinvent the wheel.
I let Kathryn and Heidi know that I wanted to get my own card making account.
The first thing I did was to make a checklist of things Kathryn told me to do after joining.

Identity Thrift

We want to come up with the perfect domain name for whatever website we are building.
Trouble is, so do 256 million other people. And they usually beat us to the punch.
Here are some that I tried:

• heartfeltcards.com (so awesome, it’s been registered since 2003!)
• tellheryoucare.com (too restrictive - not necessarily a card theme, either)
• tellhimyoucare.com (ditto)
• mycardwizard.com (too geeky - sounds like a Microsoft product)
• cardinalcards.com (Nice, from Virginia, but not available)

Once I started thinking about birds, the butterfly was next!
I chose MorphoGreetings.com after much consideration.

Let Me Direct You

One of the cherry blossoms in our graveyard of Internet Marketing ideas is the pre-sell.
I’ve never liked the url that companies give their distributors for the corporate websites.
They’re just as SEO-hostile as a free website from your ISP.
Although the websites themselves tend to be serviceable, folks just aren’t going to type in all that stuff!
By registering the “perfect” domain and building a small pre-sell website,
you get a chance to warm up your visitors and give them a compelling reason to click through to the website that does the heavy lifting.
A tempting short-cut is to redirect the domain to the main website.
I think I’ll use anchor text for the time being.

Brand Your Product, Not Your Cattle

Heidi’s daughter owns ChrysalisLogos.com.
She’s helping me to consolidate my brand with a smashing new logo.
I will put up a Morpho Greetings blog that will harmonize with Morpho Designs.

And that’s it for thoughts.

Lessons I Learned

The way to a man’s heart is supposed to be through his stomach (gross!)
But the way to his wallet is through a great product or service.
At least, that’s what works for me.
Kathryn and Heidi have proven that this is a great system for me.
Back in the dark ages, my family designed cards with PrintMaster.
This is waaaay more fun.

Inspiration

Since I’m just getting started, this is the best time to share the energy.
Whatever your dreams are, don’t limit yourself - leverage yourself!

Samples

Since I’m just getting started (do I hear an echo?), I’ll skip the rest of the sections. I’m working on a few images to send out.
Just as soon as I post this.

Feedback

It’s your turn!

You’ll learn more about this series and, the goofy verse is at the end!