I’d like to take a moment to share something special with you guys. I just got a wonderful open letter emailed to me today from a good friend of mine named Norman Freeman, who I met in 2007. In it, he talks about his life as an Internet Marketer and some of the hardships and triumphs he has had over the years. I just wanted to share his success story with all of you as he has told it to me.

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Open letter from Norman Freeman (http://www.viralinviter.com) about my life with Mike Filsaime ;)

My name is Norman Freeman, and I am a passionate Shortcut-Software-Developer and Usability fan.
Trying to minimize noise in my business, life, and in my software - for my customers.

I am a family father (one daughter), DJ and a kung-fu philosopher.

In my past life (until about 5 years ago) I was traveling the world as a Techno/Trance Music DJ and had a small record company (yes, with VINYL!), a dance club and a publishing company. (If you want to listen to some of my stuff, read on)

I am located near Berlin, Germany and besides DJing graduated from university as a software engineer/project manager.

In 2006 I came across Butterfly Marketing while teaching at a university in China.

It was the first “U.S. internet marketing” product I ever bought. I had it shipped to China and went through it in record time. I was so enthusiastic and was ready to get my ideas out.

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I DECIDED TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS!
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So I thought about what my first product should be. Some topic I indeed knew a lot about was DJing, so I started to create an ebook (written by ME, no ghostwriting! in just 30 days!) accompanied by 12 international star-DJ interviews - directly shot in those guys’ production studios or homes. It was a perfect product. I had viral report, teaser trailers, videos, and all that stuff in place. Even a comic and a specially developed illustrated character.

I spent about 10k on the development - web-membership site, graphics, videos, new camera, photos, interview-travel, etc. - my months of work not included!

But I DID IT. I just followed through and finally got it to launch.
You might think I was lucky, but it was hard work, I tell you!

I ended up having EVERYTHING (and more) prepared to…

MISERABLY FAIL!

Yes. That’s what I did. Months of hard work and a lot of money invested resulted in exactly 25 (!!!) sales of a $77 offer on launch day.

Wow, I’VE HAD IT!

…

Hell, I was so pumped up. I SO MUCH believed in this product. Frankly, I still think it’s one of the best things I ever created! Go to www.kingofdjs.com, subscribe and you get sent a preview chapter of the book to your email.

This day that was supposed to be my finest hour had become the worst in years. However, it quickly turned into one of the most important days in the “wind of change” that started to rule my life to become successful online.

For some reason, I knew I did not really fail.

I can’t explain it, but I still believed in the SYSTEM of selling stuff online (besides - it was the only way to reach my lifestyle-dream anyway…).

I just instantly knew I had to turn away from the DJ scene and sell solutions TO PEOPLE THAT ALREADY WANT WHAT I OFFER!

And I KNEW what I created there within just 4-5 months, I could do again.

This was one of the biggest A-HAs in my past 2 years.

So I turned around, actively looking for a product idea I could create that would help as many people as possible to save them time, effort or money. Or all of the above. :)

The idea to create Viralinviter (http://www.viralinviter.com) was born.

But this time, before creating the next product that’s ready to fail, I wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that this is a smart way to go, so I made the

************************************************************
SECOND DECISION (enforced by a very small thingy..)
************************************************************

Before creating products for the online marketing community, I wanted to MEET those guru-people. In person. Face to face!

To check if they are all a bunch of scammers, you know..?

So I planned to attended Mike Filsaime’s 7figurebusiness workshop in January 2007.

But on January 3rd… SQUEEEEEEEZE. Plans crossed!

Unexpectedly - I swear! - On January 3rd, 2007, it came to my attention that I was actually GOING TO BE A DAD in late 2007!

Heck, YEAH! A great moment… :)

But wait….

Wasn’t the plan to be able to really fully support a family and to have enough time to enjoy with my kids BEFORE I am actually going to MAKE THEM?
Yeah, that WAS the plan!

So along came the time to make the

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THIRD DECISION
*********************

I actually had a choice. I believe you always have one - even if they sometimes play hide and seek…

1. Go back to 9-5. I was pretty good a consultant for SEO in a multimedia agency I worked for before and I knew they would take me back. However, it would ruin my dream life from the start. I would actually STEP BACK FROM THE COURAGE TO CREATE MY OWN LIFE! And I could forget about the idea to spend as much time with my kids as possible right there…

2. I jump right on to what most of my friends called the “insecure” way: Build my own online business (and destiny, as a side-effect).

I knew I would never forgive myself if I wouldn’t even have TRIED to make my ideal life come true.

In fact, thinking about it I saw not one reason to not at least try it before I fall back to 9-5.

So, together with my wife…

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I made a decision on January 4th, 2007:
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I am going to New York to attend this event. And if I find the sales letters to be true, I am going to make my way there and be able to fully support my family AND work less within 24 months.

Side note about the 24 months: I expected my daughter to fully realize my presence and me being around her by the age of two, so I set this as the deadline to make a living online. I had no idea babies realize you are there FROM THE START!

However, decision made!

I flew from Berlin to New York on January 24th and on that weekend got to know Mike, Steven Pierce, Mr.X, Brad Fallon, Gary Ambrose, Keith Wellman, “The Rich Jerk”, Sterling Valentine, Michael Cheney, Jeff Walker, Rich Shefren and many more personally.

They all were actually very kind people I was able to make sure they were really making the money their sales letters claimed.

This was the day I gave myself permission to GO.

Lesson: Never seek anyone else’s permission - but make sure you get YOURS!!!

-> Side note: I also made 2nd place in the Foosball tournament held at the motel amongst all marketers who attended - defeated only by Diedrichs - He’s a machine!)

4 endless months later

Viralinviter was coded and ready to launch. But I was over-perfectionizing it. I wanted to build in more and more features and never thought it was really ready.

I could have stayed in that loop forever and my motivation would have continued to go down the drain.

On top of that, the calendar said the baby would be there in just 5 months, so I really needed…

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YET ANOTHER DECISION:
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GET IT OUT and make it a low-price beta version to get REAL MARKET FEEDBACK!

> Which was what I completely missed with “KingOfDJS.com”, my DJ-eBook!

I threw some ads up on Adwords on the “tell a friend” topic and was blown away. I wasn’t a millionaire in 24 hours, BUT I MADE SALES!

I actually spent about $10 in ads per $77 sale, which was AWESOME!

Also, it gave me the opportunity to grow my customer base slowly and stay in close personal communication with them to fix bugs and assist customers and improve my support system.

We released about 10 updates in only 4 weeks (yes, we were busy!) and after 6 weeks finally got to a state where we knew it was fair to release it stable.

And guess who was one of my very first customers and after that helped me tremendously to improve Viralinviter to the next stable version - from a usability and marketing point of view?

You guessed it… Mike Filsaime!

He did not get a beta copy from me. He just bought it and we got in touch.

He was supporting me and my team for weeks to improve the software. He was also the first one putting it really to the test in big projects like several of his big launches.

Mike even promoted Viralinviter - but didn’t let me know in advance.
So of course, his promotion crashed my server. Lesson learned! :)

Through Mike’s support, the word spread.

To date, I had Mike, Frank Kern, Mark Joyner, Russell Brunson, Harris Fellman, Sterling valentine, The Mindmovie-Crew and MANY more use Viralinviter.

We continuously improved it and are now close to the next major upgrade with extended functionality - The PRO version.

As always, our existing customers will get a great deal on the upgrade! (In case you read this, guys!)

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WAY more important though:
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Much faster than expected, I was able to spend a LOT of time with my family in the following months. I was able to pick up my daughter from daycare, be the only dad on kindergarten’s Easter egg event and be there if a cold caught my two girls.

It’s been quite an adventure. And I didn’t even start yet… :)

***

I want to close my monologue here with a humongous THANK YOU to Mike!

He became a real friend and I learn new stuff from him every day.

…

I am a pretty normal guy who just DECIDED to achieve something.

I won’t tell you it all went well. And I definitely won’t lie to you saying it was all easy.

But after just one year in this business, I can already feed my family well, move to a bigger penthouse apartment, enjoy more time off and got a couple steps closer to my dream-life.

Was it worth it? Heck YES!

…

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As a personal note
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I want to express my biggest takeaway of 1.5 years in the online-business world through my most favourite quote ever:

“There’s a fundamental truth that is far more important than getting a number 1 record or not. That truth is: If you want to do something… REALLY want to do something… Don’t wait to be asked! Don’t seek permission! Don’t put off until you’ve passed the right exams, or paid or saved up enough money!
But be prepared to risk complete failure. Don’t give a s–t about whatever your mates, or girlfriend or your boyfriend says.
Whatever is, start NOW, TODAY.
Tomorrow is always too late.”

- Bill Drummond, Formerly one half of the group KLF who kamikaze’d pop-music business with their dance-music tracks in the late 80s.

THANK YOU, Mike! :)

Norman

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However, Norman didn’t just stop there. He also added a video as well that showcases his wonderful office in Germany and tells even more of his story.

Till next time,

Mike Filsaime

With the sheer amount of buzz that Twitter has been getting in the past few months, it’s no surprise that people have started to really wonder exactly what Twitter is all about. New York City’s local NBC station decided it wanted to get in on the Twitter action, so they called me in as their ‘Twitter expert’ to help explain the Twitter phenomenon to the general populace. Check out how I did in this clip:

As far as the micro-blogging sensation that’s sweeping the nation goes, I’ve been talking about it all year, so check out some of my previous posts for more information on exactly how you can use Twitter like a pro, and don’t forget to keep up with me @mikefilsaime, on Twitter as well =D

Talk to you soon!

-Mike

http://twitter.com/mikefilsaime

Hey guys, just got back in town after a little trip to San Diego, where a few of us were lucky enough to be invited to hang out at Frank Kern’s secret headquarters after his Mass Control workshop. Check out who was all there!

Overall, it was a great trip. The weather was beautiful and the workshop was spectacular, both in terms of the content presented and the people who came out. Anyway, we’ve got a lot of exciting things in the works here in New York, so I better get going.

Talk to you soon!

-Mike

Quote From R.E.M. -  “FOLLOW me, don’t follow me… I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush”

Quote From Mike Filsaime - “Follow Me and I Will Follow You!”

Hi!

If you are like many. You are wondering what the heck is TWITTER.

If you are like SOME, you have already realized that Twitter has become one of the most revolutionary communication tools on the planet.

Heck, even the new President of the USA, Barack Obama, uses Twitter. In fact, he has more followers that ANYONE in the world.

Why is Twitter one of the most revolutionary communications tools?

Well, imagine if you combined the following:

- Blogging (Twitter is actually Micro Blogging)
- SMS text messaging
- Instant Messaging
- Chat Rooms
- Communities Forums and Social Networks
- Personal Email
- Email Broadcasting
- Search
- Viral Marketing

What would you have?

You would have the most addicting, most powerful, and most incredible communication tool ever made.

TWITTER can be used as a marketing tool, but beware. It is a relationship building tool and the marketing is a NATURAL byproduct  of the relationship you make with people as you build self and brand awareness.

It works with your Laptop or PC or MAC. It  works on your iPhone or cell phone.

There are dozens of “Apps” and websites popping up that support it for sending not just quick updates, but pictures and even maps of where you are right now.

I would LOVE to tell you all the cool “Apps” there is for Twitter, but for now I just want to talk to you about twitter and maybe a few “APPS” you should use.

First off let me get this point out.

YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND what the heck TWITTER is until you

1 - Join
2 - Follow 10 people you like (you can search for people)
3 - Make your first “Tweet”

I also HIGHLY recommend you install “Twhirl” (Google it)

Twhirl allows you to use Twitter more effectively, sort of like a an Instant Messenger Client like Yahoo Instant Messenger or AIM etc…

So what Tweets are good?

Anything really.

- What you are reading now.
- Ask a question
- Take a poll
- What you thought of a TV show you just watched
- When your new website is going to launch
- Ask what is a good name for your new book
- A picture of your cat
- Ask what are the top 10 MUST HAVE Twitter Apps.
- Reply to someone else’s tweet publicly or private to them.
- Retweet someone else’s tweet that you like.

YOU NAME IT…

It is my predication, as well as MANY, that Twitter will become a MUST have tool for your business and life.

Start using it and start “tweeting” and watch how people start to follow you.

Hint: reply to other peoples Tweets with interesting  stuff, and people will find you. Why, that person will reply with YOUR name and many will see you.

Example if You reply to me. I may reply to you like

@johndoe, You really did not like that movie. I did. But I will make sure to watch the Brad Pitt one as you suggested.

–

Now 6000 of my followers will see his name and can follow him with 1 click! Now John Doe can communicate with his followers.

When I first started using Twitter, my followers we slow. It took me MONTHS to get to 1000 people following me.

I went from 4000 to 5000 in 7 weeks.
I went for 5000 to 6000 in 14 days!

I am now getting about 75 new followers per day.

I even add a note in my SIG file when I email people to follow me on Twitter and put logs to do the same on my blog.

*** So I will make a deal with you ***

Follow me and…

…I WILL FOLLOW YOU. FOR EVER

(As long as you do not spam or just trash talk etc.. - Oh, and please upload a photo or avatar and fill out your profile. Trust me it helps.)

So if you want me to follow YOU as well, just get started and follow me.

You can go to

http://twitter.com/mikefilsaime

or

http://TwitterMike.com

** If you do NOT have an account **
Just click the BIG GREEN “Join Today” button and you will follow me and  I will in return follow you!

** If you ALREADY have a Twitter Account ** Just click the gray “Follow” button under my picture and you are all set and I will in return follow you.

Remember, download Twhirl (it’s free) and use it every day.

This is JUST AS IMPORTANT as list building.

I hope to see you on Twitter!

I look forward to seeing what you are up to.

Thanks, :-DD (Tweet)

http://twitter.com/mikefilsaime

He guys we did a beta run of our LIVE “Daily Show” and it went pretty well.

Below is Part 1. - Part 2 had Frank Kern.

Next week we will be adding even more cool stuff, but we wanted to do a test run to see how it would be received and we wanted to test our technology as well.

I must say it was a big hit.

If you want to know when the next show will be, all you have to do is follow me at http://twitterMike.com (See post below this one.)

For now, check out Part 1 of our beta broadcast.

Talk soon!

Mike

Stream videos at Ustream

Hello YOU reading my blog - If you are reading this at MikeFilsaime.com, you may want to head over to read this at our NEW corporate site at http://MarketingDotCom.com

Reason? This site will be something SO NEW soon and for our corporate stuff and blog and forum community we are going with MarketingDotCom.com

Yes, the name says it all. Marketing … Dot Com. That is what I do, right? I Market “stuff” on the Internet.

So stay tuned for the new MF.com soon.

But for now, I want to let you know that in a few days I will be doing a DAILY show at a different time EVERY day and the only way to SEE it will be by following me on twitter.

If you are NOT following me, head over now to http://twitterMike.com and then come back here.

Twitter will let you know all my moves ;)

And yes, when my live show is about to go on, I will send a “Tweet” (that means I just made a Twitter post.) I will give the live URL to my show and you will see me and my staff working and having fun.

It will be like you are a guest in my office getting to hang out with me and my staff for an hour or so while we work, talk smack, talk marketing, and have fun.

Heck we may be eating, or we may even have live guests calling in right into the Mic feed for you to listen to. Yep, I will get my friends on live for you to listen in on. (Maybe I will tell them they are live, moo haa haa!)

We will have 3 cameras so you can catch all teh action as well as mixers to allow you to see my screen and listen in when people call in.

There will be little Q*A. It is going to be more like a “Morning Talk Show” where you get to hear AND see everything that goes on in my office.

Sounds cool? Yeah.. I know… It will be fun.

So make sure to get on TwitterMike.com if you want to know when I my show starts every day.

Talk soon!

Mike Filsaime

Yanik Silver and I are trying to raise $30,000 for Charity.

PICTURES ARE LOCATED HERE: 

http://30kSkyDive.com

We are jumping from a plane at 30,000 feet, tandem style, each of us with an expert.

We are matching the funds donated. As of now we have about $4400 raised so that means we are up to $8800 when we match.

We are asking everyone to donate anything as the funds go to help
young entrepreneurs in Africa through Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite
Charity.

The dive that Yanik and I are doing on July 20th will be one of the highest civilian dives in history.

It is called a H.A.L.O. for “High Altitude” and “Low Open” and it
will be 35 degrees below zero (F) and we will need special suits with
oxygen masks to do the dive or we would not be able to breathe.

The dive will last for 2 minutes and 30 seconds as we free fall to earth for this charity event.

Yes, I am getting nervous, but I am so excited I can not even really
worry about being scared. But I am sure when I get up there I might
just freeze. We shall see :)

For more information or to donate, please go here

http://www.maverickbusinessadventures.com/halo/

All donations over $100 get special marketing gifts from Yanik and
Me. So make sure to help out and get some cool learning material as you
help these young kids in Africa.

Of course it is tax deductible

Check us out here:

http://www.maverickbusinessadventures.com/halo/

Well, exactly 3 years ago, I was sitting in a Las Vegas Hotel off the strip at a cafe with Brad Fallon and Paulie Sabol.

We were at the Green Valley Ranch Resort at John Childer’s event.

Brad was talking about how he was #1 in Google for the search term - the coolest guy on the planet -

Over the years, over 100 people have tried to rank #1 for this term in Google. While Brad slipped for a day or 2, no one has been able to take him down.

Yes, it is all in fun, but some people have tried very hard to take him down… including yours truly.

You see, in July of 2005, when Brad was telling me this story, I raced him to my laptop to register the domain name http://thecoolestguyontheplanet.com

I won! I got the domain purchased faster than he could.

Now, while I was not able to knock him off, at least I am happy to know, according to Google, I am the 2nd coolest guy on the planet.

Maybe in a few years (and if I really really try) I might just be the coolest guy on the planet.

So much for this experiment.

Mike

After 1 week, I have shipped out over 10,000 copies of the Printed and Spiral bound copies of my new $297 product. The only thing is, I gave it away for FREE if anyone paid just the shipping and handling and signed up to test drive my new monthly magazine and newsletter.

That is over $3 Million Dollars in product value I gave away for free. Along with that I gave access to a free issue of my Magazine and 18 Full Color Process maps detailing the blueprints I use to run my Million Dollar Business valued at $197.

To top it all off, I I gave access to my $97 best selling product called “The Butterfly marketing Manuscript.”

That is over $6.2 Million Dollars in product Value given away to over 10,000 people in just 1 week… All to anyone that told me where to ship it.

I am not quite sure if anything like this has ever been done before, but we sure did raise the bar.

If you want to get your hands on this, click the video below to see if this offer is still available.

Thanks,

Mike Filsaime

Finally, a video from Maverick Business Adventures that shows the true spirit of the trip we were on.

This official video, narrated by Yanik Silver (founder) is fun and really gets behind the scenes.

In this video you will see Jesse James, star of the hit TV show Monster Garage as well as all of the people that were on the trip. (Yes, there were 5 Mikes.)

You can even spot me wearing a DO-rag.

Later this week, I will be heading to Las Vegas to do a Triple Threat Top Gun Maverick Extreme Vacation. We will be doing a ZeroG Dive, as well as a Top-Gun Combat Simulated Dog-Fight, and on Day 3 we will be doing a helicoptertour to the Grand Canyon.

The guest business person will be the most popular person in the world of skate boarding. (It is in his contract that we can not mention his name. If you know anything about the world of X-games and skate boarding, only one name would come to mind.)

I will be getting videos for you to watch of that as well, but for now, enjoy this awesome video put together by the Maverick Business Adventures team.

Enjoy!

Hey Guys,

Here is a new video I made with http://animoto.com

It shows some pic’s I took at Yanik Silvers “Maverick Business Adventures.”

This was our trip from earlier this year.

Check out the video below to see some pics of the Baja Dessert from a Dune Buggy!

Also check out Yanik’s “Maverick Business Adventures” if you are a successful entrepreneur that enjoys extreme vacations!

Thanks,

Mike Filsaime

I had a chance to visit Joel Comm’s office today.

He has a great place and a great staff!

Check out the video.

Thanks,

Mike Filsaime

Hey Guys,

I will be doing a new form of blogging I call Jing Blogging.

Today I want to talk to you about Twitter.

Please watch the video below.

Make sure to see what I am up to at http://Twitter.com/mikefilsaime

Thanks,

Mike