"A BIG Dog is just a LITTLE Dog
who wouldn't stop barking!"How to Avoid Computer Hell!
If you have a burning desire to TRIPLE the amount of time you have to spend online, and you really want to end up huddled in a corner of your room weeping uncontrollably, then DON'T heed the following advice!.....
Part I - Use Paper!
One of the common mistakes that we, as Internet marketers, make is to assume that our computer will "remember everything for us." We Internet marketers, we children of the computer age, LOATHE paper, don't we!? We all rely on "bookmarks" and "favorite places" and "filing programs" to do our remembering FOR us. And this is a NATURAL mistake! After all, isn't the basic function of a computer to be a storage device for information?
Now it's fine to use your computer to do these things, but you MUST have something to fall back on "just in case." In addition you will find that over a period of time you have so much stuff floating around in your computer, that it takes you forever to find it. The simple solution is to.....
MAKE.....PAPER.....FILES!!!!!
First of all, get yourself a supply of manila folders, a black marker, and a cheap filing cabinet. Make a "dirt world" type file for every transaction you enter into online, by following the eight step procedure outlined below:
1. I personally purchase so many reports, programs, and ebooks online, that a week later, I quite often don't even remember the key reasons for my purchase! That ever happen to you? To help me remember just WHY I made a certain purchase, I will print out the main pages (this is generally the "sales presentation") of the website in question, and spend a minute or two highlighting the key points that inspired me to make the purchase. I'm not suggesting that you print out every page of the website in question - just a page or two of the major benefits that inspired you to make the purchase,
This stapled "summary" is the FIRST item that goes into my manila folder.
2. Get contact information BEFORE you buy! With any electronic online purchase a thousand things can go wrong. Maybe you can't get that new ebook to download properly. Maybe that new software isn't functioning as it's supposed to. Maybe in the middle of your purchase, the power went out and you're stuck with just half (or NOTHING!) of what you expected. And on, and on, and on..... So, as you're going through the company's site, BEFORE you physically make your purchase, jot down the key contact information for the company you're dealing with. At the very least, get the main contact email address of course. You should also attempt to get the name of the company owner, or other key personnel, the physical street address, and, if possible a telephone number. Now, unfortunately, the majority of online companies do not make this information readily available - you may have to do some searching for it on their website. But if you run into a snag with your purchase, the few minutes it will take you to obtain this information BEFOREHAND will pay HUGE dividends. Jot this information down on a separate sheet of paper.
This is the SECOND item that will go into your manila folder.
3. Now, as you are going through the actual purchase process, there is generally one page on which you input all of your vital information, in addition to the basics, like name and credit card information. This data may also include a username and/or password that you've chosen, or an email address that you prefer to use, etc. NEVER ASSUME THAT THIS INFORMATION WILL BE ON THE EMAIL RECEIPT YOU RECEIVE FROM THE COMPANY! Therefore, BEFORE you click that good 'ol "submit" button, print out this informational page. Six months down the road, you may need to change your password, or the physical address that the company is sending your commission checks to, your phone number, your contact email address, etc. Having a copy of the information you originally gave them, will simplify any changes you may need to make later.
This is the THIRD item that will go into your folder.
4. O.K. It's time to click the "submit" button and complete your purchase. Once this is done, DON'T BE IN SUCH A DOGGONE HURRY! After approval of your credit card, the end result of every online transaction is to take you to that company's "thank you" page. Many times the "thank you" page is only that - a simple thank you for your purchase and advising you to watch out for the standard email receipt for what you purchased. HOWEVER, most of the time it is much more than that! This "thank you" page quite often contains important download information. THIS is where you may find a company-generated password/username, or a summary of your purchase information (like we talked about in #3, above). It may contain vital instructions about how to use the product. Don't assume it is just there for the benefit of public relations. Unfortunately, many, MANY folks just take a quick look at the thank you page, mutter a "yeah, yeah" and close the window - sometimes with disastrous results. As an example, take a brief look at the "thank you" page for our Secrets of the Big Dogs" ebook. (Click on the link below, and then click your browser's back button to return here afterwards).....
I honestly don't know how we could possibly make it any clearer for the ebook purchaser to make a copy of that page, and yet - believe it or not - nearly 10% of all our purchasers send as an email to the effect, "I purchased your book but never got instructions on how to download it," or "I purchased your book but you didn't ask for my street address, so how can you mail it to me?"
PRINT OUT THE "THANK YOU" PAGE because this is the FOURTH item that will go into your folder.
5. The next item that will be coming your way will be the email receipt for your purchase. Almost ALL companies doing business online these days use what are called "third party transaction agents" to do the actual credit card processing. These "third party transaction agents," or "TPA's," are companies that are completely separate from the company from whom you are actually making the purchase. TPA's may provide transaction services for hundreds, or even thousands, of different companies. For example ClickBank/Keynetics, the TPA that Secrets of the Big Dogs uses, provides credit card processing services for over 10,000 different companies! In other words, let's say you make a purchase from a company called XYZ Products. In all probability you won't receive an email receipt from XYZ Products, but rather from their TPA, which might be something like Interent Billing Agencies.
Print out your email receipt for your folder.
(Here's a little "sidebar" for you, by the way. This little tip sounds so juvenile you may chuckle at it, but you would be amazed at how many people do NOT do it. If you are making a purchase with an online check, go to your checkbook NOW and record the transaction! If you are making a purchase with a credit card, you should have a sheet on which you record all of your online transactions. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IF IT IS A RECURRING TRANSACTION. In other words, if your credit card is going to be be billed every month - in the case of a membership, for example - you should have a separate PAPER file (in a completely separate folder) which lists ALL of your monthly recurring transactions. On the first of each month, then, you'll have a handy form that tells WHAT and WHEN a payment is going to be debited to your credit card. And make sure that on this list you place the actual company that will be doing the billing - i.e. "Internet Billing Agencies" - AS WELL AS THE COMPANY ITSELF - i.e. "XYZ Products." Also jot down the dollar amount of the expected transaction, as well as the date you project it is taken out)
6. In addition to your email receipt from the TPA, you will generally also receive a "transaction notification" from the company itself. In most cases THIS is what will contain your passwords, usernames, personal URL's, and other such information. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW! Like we stated above, vital information may very well be contained in the "thank you" page, or elsewhere.
Regardless...print out the emailed transaction notification and - you guessed it! - make it the SIXTH item for your folder.
7. Watch out now for yet a SECOND transaction notification from the company as well. If you are purchasing a membership and ALSO becoming an affiliate of a program, the company may very well send a second, SEPARATE email with your reseller information. Needless to say, this would be the SEVENTH item you would put into your folder.
8. Your folder is now pretty much complete. However, an additional step I always take is to jot down the mst important information on the COVER of the folder. For example.....
username: stantheman
password: 123xYz
main URL: http://www.xyzproducts.com
affiliate URL: http://www.xyzproducts.com/stantheman.htm
company email: admin@xyzproducts.comIf you follow this simple, eight step check list, believe me, you will save yourself a LOT of aggravation and frustration. DON'T RELY ON YOUR COMPUTER TO DO THE "REMEMBERING" FOR YOU! Then...when your hard drive crashes, or you get a virus, or your twelve year old son accidentally deletes some key files...NO SWEAT! You are protected with the oldest and most reliable backup system available.....
PAPER!
Part II - Backup Your Harddrive!
You've probably heard this so many times you're sick of it.
But are you DOING it!?
Listen. Your hard drive IS going to crash. Maybe not today - maybe not tomorrow - but SOMEday. And it's always going to be at the worst possible time.
Lemme tell ya a little story.....
'Way back in dim antiquity (1993), when I was first using computers for an offline business, I had about a month's worth of important reports stored on my computer. I booted my computer one day to discover all kinds of weird lines and colors on the monitor screen, and of course nothing worked. Heck, at the time, I didn't even know a hard drive COULD crash. But my friendly neighborhood computer guy informed me that that was EXACTLY what has happened and that month's worth of files had been lost.
Needless to say, I became VERY paranoid about hard drive crashes after that, and with every computer I owned (over a dozen), I ALWAYS made it an inviolable rule to ALWAYS do regular backups.
Now switch to the Fall of 2001 - eight years later. The Big Dogs program is in full swing and growing by leaps and bounds, forcing us to purchase three state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line Dell computers, each with all the bells and whistles available.
At the time we were also in the midst of making some major enhancements to the program, and we had about a month's worth of irreplaceable information in the computer. Think I had been doing my usual backups? Of course not! Shucks, I had not had a crash for eight YEARS! Shucks, this was the best computer money could buy! Shucks, that last crash back in '93, well that was when computers weren't as sophisticated and as fool-proof as they are today!
Well, shucks, whatdyya think happened!?
Yep! That one month old hard, top-of-the-line drive key-rashed. Oh, Dell was nice enough about it. I called them on their customer service line at 4:00 PM, and true to their word, they had a tech at my office the next morning at 10:00 AM to install a completely new harddrive.
But all my data was (to use a technical term) "toast."
To make a long story short, we have a local tech guy on retainer. By some miracle (even though Dell said it was impossible!), he WAS able to recover all the data. Needless to say, however, it reinforced what I already knew. BACK UP YOUR HARDDRIVE!!!
Seriously, folks, a week doesn't go by when I don't receive an email from one of our Big Dogs asking for assistance because...yep - his harddrive crashed!
You and I wouldn't dream of driving cross country with no spare tire, would we? And yet most of us do it everyday by not having a dependable backup system in place for our harddrive. It's like playing Russian roulette.....over and over and over again. Eventually that hammer is NOT going to click on an empty chamber, and YOU are going to end up with a horror story that makes Dracula seem like a children's fairy tale.
Now, it's beyond the scope of this article to do an in-depth study of the various backup systems available. But we CAN point you in the right direction.
First of all, educate yourself a little. Go to:
In the "search" block, type in the phrase.....
how to back up your computer
Hit enter, and on the page that comes up, under "Member Advice," you'll see a hotlink entitled, "How to back up your Computer." Click on that hotlink and you'll be taken to a series of seven brief one and two page articles about the subject. Read 'em all - it won't take but fifteen minutes, or so, and they will arm you with the basic knowledge you'll need to make an informed decision.
Next, go down to your local Circuit City store, or contact the folks from whom you purchased your computer, and GET THAT BACKUP SYSTEM INSTALLED!!!
Oh, yeah...and USE it regularly!
Can you imagine what would happen to your business if your data disappeared?
Be smart! Back it up!