Woohoo!  I got my PayPal account back this morning.  It took a little longer than expected… but PayPal was really good through the whole process.

A few tips you can use if you ever run into the same challenge…

Most of the delay was my fault.  Over the years I’ve used my PayPal account for a couple of different businesses.  Because of that I switched the business name, address and website multiple times (since they don’t allow multiple business accounts).

For the most part PayPal doesn’t seem to mind that my account has evolved over the years.  Well, unless they’re auditing my account

It still doesn’t seem that they care whether I switch my account information around… but they absolutely care whether it’s current and matches what I’m doing right now.

The website address on my PayPal account did not match the sales page I was selling from.  Even though that seems minor to me (since I have over 100 websites), it matters when my account is under review.

So if I had to do it again I’d definitely make sure my PayPal website matches the sales page / site where I’m selling from.

Also, I use a virtual mailbox (EarthClassMail.com… really slick) for my physical business address on PayPal.  Again, I don’t think they care.  But it’s awfully hard to validate that physical address.  PayPal needed me to fax in utility bills showing my physical address.  And my physical address doesn’t match my PayPal address.

That slowed things down about a week while we went back and forth and I finally had to sign an affidavit to change some of my core account information to match my physical address and TIN.

So none of it was a really big deal.  But I think I could have cut 2 weeks of delay out of the process if I’d been a little more careful with my account information and its currency.

And I still wonder if I could have avoided this with some advance notice to them.  I’ll probably never know about that.

I do know, however, that it pays to have my PayPal account totally in sync with the promotion I’m running… even if it’s only temporary.  I could have saved a couple weeks… and a little stress, too.

It’s surely not as big of a deal if you have 1 website and 1 product… your account should always be accurate in that situation.  It gets a little more complicated when I have several products across multiple websites.  But a little heads up goes a long way… or so it seems.

Happy day!

Do you want my opinion?  (If not, you really shouldn’t be reading my blog).  Business owners who buy into the “Customer is always right” myth are fools destined for a special kind of hell where they’re always so close to heaven… yet it perpetually remains just out of their grasp.

Have I just committed Business Blasphemy?

I think not.

I own a business because of the lifestyle it affords me.  I value my freedom.  I value my time.  I value my family.  Etc.  Etc.  Etc.  Isn’t that why you’re in it?

So here’s the deal… doesn’t it make sense to choose good partners for my business?  People I actually enjoy working with?  If you’ve ever had a “bad” partnership in business you know what a miserable life it can create.  Mismatched goals and visions.  Unfulfilled expectations. Blame for everyone.  And even when you make money doing it… do you actually get the *lifestyle* you are seeking.

And if you don’t know the answer to that… it’s no.

I am NOT a business prostitute.  And I think it’s okay to say that loud and proud.  Nor am I a pimp who will sell my products, services and support to anyone with a buck to give me.

My customers are my partners.  And I deserve good partners.  So do my customers.

So why try and force a relationship that doesn’t work.  I ought to be able to choose my partners just like they choose me.  Right?

All this is in response to a support email I received this morning.  My (former) customer decided it would be a good idea to let me know just how stupid I am.  Wanted to especially make sure I knew that I could “**** off.”  Oh… yeah… and I got a warm-hearted and richly deserved “**** you” as an added bonus.

And then this customer gave me a true gift.  I could either fix the problem (a 20 second fix, I might add) or refund his money.

No contest.

His money was refunded about 2 minutes later.  Please note that it took me longer to refund the money than it would have taken to issue the support response.

I thanked him for clarifying the kind of customer he was and let him know his refund was done.

As expected, he replied back with a nasty email once again making sure I knew how truly stupid I am and how little I must understand business.  Because, and I quote, “Customers are aways right and worth a fortune as they are hard to replace.”

And… “now I know why, you know nothing about business and how they run, or why would you ever auto down grade an PAID client or not apoligize for such a stupid thing to do”  All spelling, punctuation and grammar errors are as written, by the way… I’m not that creative.

So, here’s the deal.  What if my business isn’t just about raking in as much money as possible?  As it stands I’d be more than willing to put my income up against his income if that’s his measuring stick.  I don’t know for sure… but I’m guessing I would run circles around him.

But that’s not even the point.  I’m in business because it allows me to live a life I enjoy.  And that life is largely free of asses and jerks that I don’t want to deal with.  The flip side of that is that I truly love the people I do work with.

Like anyone else, I drop the ball on occasion.  I have customers that aren’t always pleased with my answers or my schedule.

And I also have customers (and non-customers) who are shocked when I give out my phone number and invite them to call me.  And then I talk for as long as they want about business and marketing.  And I give of my time and energy at a level that is totally disproportionate to the product I sell.

Why?  Because I *LOVE* what I do!  Love It!

And I love it because I only  choose to work with customers (my partners) who are a perfect fit for me.

And that, my friend, is a much, much, *much* better and easier way to build a successful business.  And you’ll actually love what you do and be able to pour your passion into it far more effectively.

The funny thing for me is that the software side of my business is a very small part of what I do online.  I do it because I get a rush out of people using my tools and knowing who I am.  It’s a modified ego trip, really.  And if you’re a customer of mine that can be good news or bad.

On the one hand, I’m overly passionate about what I do.  I get involved at a level far beyond the income or price would justify.  When you learn how to tap into that as a customer / partner you’ll think it’s the coolest thing ever and how all business should be done.

And, on the other hand, I’m overly passionate about what I do.  And I won’t waste my time with ingrates and abusive people who somehow think they own me because they paid me a little bit of money.  Have your money back.  It’s not about that (which you can’t really know until you’ve got a little bit of it and you realize it doesn’t change anything).  It’s about the relationship.  And respect.  And doing cool stuff together that we couldn’t do apart.

As a business owner I *absolutely* reserve the right to be in relationship with people that move my life’s mission forward.  I will fire customers in a heartbeat who rail against my vision and purpose.  And I have a much better life and business for it.  Am I wrong?

Whew… It’s been a loooooong night.  It’s 9:30am and I haven’t been to bed yet.  Not terribly uncommon… but this is probably the 3rd time in the past week it’s happened.  Uggh.

Why this time?

I’ve slowly been moving off my GetResponse account and onto my own mail serving platform (i2icontact.com).  It’s been a long, slow process.  I’ve owned i2icontact.com for *years* and never really got it much past logging in.

But I finally went live with a new list on it last week.  And it was a smashing… headache.

The deliverability was abysmal.  If you bought Site Sniper Pro from me last week you know what I’m talking about.  It didn’t seem like my emails were getting through to *anybody*.

If I had any hair to pull out it would be gone by now.

So I  kept the list on my server and outsourced the smtp sending portion of it, thinking that would make a difference.  Not really.

So I got really serious about it last night and was determined to solve the deliverability issue (at least to the extent that it’s reasonable again).

And that led me down a crazy path of emerging standards and security and authentication and hassles and triumphs that everyone wants to know about… but it seems like very few ever figure out.

Now, I’m not about to claim I’ve figured out how to deliver everything… but I’ll take even a small victory right now.

And here it is…

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of support@i2icontact.com designates 207.58.191.151 as permitted sender) client-ip=207.58.191.151;
DomainKey-Status: good
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of support@i2icontact.com designates 207.58.191.151 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=support@i2icontact.com; domainkeys=pass header.From=support@i2icontact.com
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=default; d=i2icontact.com;
	h=Received:MIME-Version:Date:From:To:Subject:Message-ID:X-Sender:User-Agent:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Type;
	b=ajo1KCm/+flKwwdR9+pcbijbcYMy9/upJ8lptmb9DV9magDeoHjCPHDEq+umvaQMo9sil4GVxRuI6P/KB1eRCc4Om90FcCm76TJGAj3bPDNksDiNCOShHMEljPBtrSiw;

That’s a partial email header from gmail for a message I just sent from my server.

I know… it doesn’t look like much… but it means I got both SPF and Domain Key authentication working on my exim MTA server last night / this morning.  Woohoo!

Don’t know what any of that is?  That’s ok… I barely did when I started this whole thing.  But do a little searching and you’ll find it’s pretty cool.  And pretty hard to piece everything together (until you know where to look).

And, in a nutshell, it means Google and Yahoo (not sure about AOL) can now authenticate my email messages back to me and my server.  And that means they let me (so far) have a free pass to the inbox… provided I don’t screw it up.

I still have some other things to implement, since it seems like everyone has a different standard they want me to support… but I’m closer than I was yesterday.

I’ve oversimplified what this lets me do… but it’s been a thorn in my side for several years now.  Heck, just figuring out what I needed to do took a virtual act of God.  Maybe I’m just dense (not), but it certainly shouldn’t be this hard.

Anyway… I’m off to bed.  Sleeping peacefully knowing that I’m 1 step closer to getting past the demon gatekeepers of the email world.

Do you know the saying “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?”  That’s generally something I believe in wholeheartedly.  Especially when it comes to marketing.  So few people really get what we’re doing as internet marketers that asking permission often leads to a lot of “no” answers.  Especially if I’m getting “creative.”

However, I should know from my experience with Amazon.com, that this strategy often backfires when it comes to people suddenly writing big checks out of nowhere.

And so it was that I made a silly mistake last week.  Not a major one.  But silly.  And frustrating.

A friend of mine wanted to run a campaign for Site Sniper Pro.  Only he wanted to put together a special package to offer and wanted to bypass my order page, which is run by RegNow.com.

No problem, right?

There are lots of ways to do that… with perhaps the easiest being PayPal.  I mean. I have a PayPal business account.  It’s nice and seasoned.  In good standing.  A decent number of transactions over time.  What could go wrong?  Right?

I don’t typically do a whole lot through it (I almost never do direct product sales… I usually have a payment processor that handles affiliates, fulfillment, etc.).  But I do anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month through PayPal in odd payments, small deals, and the (very) rare occasion when I mess around with PayDotCom (I’m not a big Filsaime fan… long story).

And so I ran this offer directly through my PayPal account.  I didn’t think it would be a big deal.  To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting a whole lot from this campaign.  It was a favor for a good friend and his customers.  I would have been pleased with $4,000 - $5,000.  And I didn’t expect much more than that.

As I often do with these small projects, I set a goal for what I’m earning the money towards.  Usually a vacation or maybe a car, or something like that.  This time I decided it would be a success if I could get my wife a new MacBook Pro for Mother’s Day.  Romantic, aren’t I?  Sorry ladies… I’m taken.

So when I hit my goal a couple hours into the promotion I was very pleased.  Very, very.

And when I passed the $10,000 mark on the first day I was giddy (5-figure days are a special kind of fun… you should have one some day).  And it kept going.  Over $13,500 on day 1 in profit.

And day 2 was just about as good.

Now, this was a 2-day promotion only.  So by the end of day 2 I was cheerily checking my PayPal account in between mountains of emails from my 200+ new users (I also learned a lesson about fulfillment… but that’s another story).

And so this morning I woke up and logged into my PayPal account.  You know… just to check and make sure I really had all that money in there.  You know you’d do it, too.

And here’s what I saw…

Whoa!  Uncool.  Totally uncool!

It turns out it’s not really that big of a deal.  But it makes your heart skip a beat when you see something like that.

And I got hit with a long list of demands from PayPal to restore my account.  Most of which make absolutely no sense for me as a software publisher.

Like… I’m supposed to provide detailed supplier information and documentation proving I actually acquired enough “inventory” to fulfill the orders.  And tracking numbers to confirm that I shipped my products.  And invoices.  And receipts.  PAPER receipts, by the way (electronic documentation not accepted).

So, I understand why PayPal did it.  And it was painfully clear that they are still totally steeped in the eBay tradition.  There wasn’t a single question that even hinted at the possibility of digital products or electronic delivery.  So it was a little weird.  And it definitely made me nervous.

So now I’m in a state of limbo with PayPal.  It will all work out in the end because everything was real and done right.

But I can’t help but wonder… could I have avoided this?  PayPal assures me that we’ll have everything straightened out within i a week as long as I cooperate and everything is in order.

I believe them.  And I also know that I thought the same thing would happen with Amazon.com.  Until it didn’t.  And everything wasn’t worked out in a week.  And it took me months to get them to finally give me my money.

<rant>By the way, I’m not surprised by Amazon.com’s recent announcement not to pay commissions on direct-linking ads at all.  As much as I LOVE their technology and all the cool stuff I can do with their platform I am convinced they are anti-affiliate.  They seem to actively seek ways to cut their affiliates out.  Especially their big ones.  I can’t say I blame them… they certainly have the “weight” to do that.  And I think they should just be honest about it.

It’s interesting… because I don’t think they want big sites and affiliates funneling loads of traffic and sales to them… they want millions of small-time blogs and mom-and-pop sites linking back.  It actually makes a strange kind of sense.  But, again, I think they should just come out and say it like that.</rant>

Still… I do think this is just an understandable and easily fixed blip on the radar with PayPal.  No big deal.

But I should learn my lesson.

I know too many marketers who got explosive results, fast.  And got slapped down and beat up by unsuspecting and panicked partners/vendors/merchants (see Jonathan Van Clute & InfusionSoft).  I see it time and again.

I should know better.

And now, so should you.

Look, I’m all for (and all about) asking forgiveness over permission.  And yet there are definitely times when the whole permission thing is simply the easier way to go.  Even when it might lead to “no.”

I still don’t think permission is a good idea for everything.  It gets in the way.  And it’s slow.

But the instant you think something’s going to raise a flag (even if you’re right in the middle of it) I think it makes sense to pick up the phone, or shoot off an email, or something.  It’s time to be proactive.

Looking back, I knew my Amazon.com stuff was starting to go crazy.  When I went from $200 a month to $2,000 a month to $8,000 to $26,000.  In the back of my mind I was wondering if they would notice.  Sure they would.  And I should have raised my hand then.  And just let them know what I was doing.

What I was doing was different.  I knew that.  And I was scared they would tell me to knock it off.  And, honestly, I got greedy and hoped they were so big that no one would notice.

I should have called.

Same thing this weekend.  As soon as I knew that this was going to look totally suspicious to PayPal I should have done something.  They probably still would have done everything that happened.  But I would certainly feel more in control.

And if (when) I ever do a proper launch of any of my products I will *definitely* get permission from those who get the money first… not seek forgiveness later when all the red flags are flying high.  I know from experience it just isn’t worth the heartburn and stress of not-knowing and hoping and praying and keeping my fingers crossed.

Be warned.

So I’m getting ready to head out the door on my way to Toronto.  My flight leaves in a couple hours and I figured I’d check the weather on my iPhone before heading out.

And I always forget when I travel this time of year that some places actually have 4 seasons.  And one of them is cold.

Did you know it’s cold in Canada?  I did too.  But there’s something about seeing that it’s 23 degrees right now in the place I’ll be in a few hours.

To put it in perspective, it’s 64 right now at 3:19am in Phoenix.  Today’s high will be in the mid-80’s.  Every day this week my wife lays out by the pool to get her tan back and I ride my bike just about everywhere I go.  The weather’s great.

I know I’ll pay for it in July when I have to pack my family up and head out for an extended vacation.  But it’s sure hard to leave right now.

I really should be asleep right now resting up for golf, or a climb, or a dive.

Instead I’m up at 3am and heading to Toronto.  In March.  It’s cold.

Why?

I’m off to Gauher Chaudry’s Pay Per Click Formula 2.0 seminar.

Gotta’ keep learning.  You never know where that next golden nugget might come from.

I “invest” probably $30,000+ a year on marketing products and seminars.  Most are garbage.  Some are not.  Learning just 1 or 2 legitimately new things each year can make a *huge* difference, though.

The last time I hit one of Gauher’s events (12/07) I came home and added over $24,000 per month to my income using a variation on 1 the things he taught me.  Worth it.

It doesn’t always work out that way, though.  Most “new” secrets aren’t new.  And they’re not secret either.  It would be disappointing if the same fundamentals applied over and over again didn’t work so well.

But they do and I’m happy.  And the game isn’t usually revolutionary as much as evolutionary.  Tweaking this.  Tinkering on that.  And if I can gain just a sliver of an advantage I’m gold.

So I buy a *lot*.  And I try a *lot*.  And I fail a *lot*.

The most I ever paid for an info-product?  $27,500 in 2005 or 2006.  Pricey?  Yes.  And I promptly made $87,500 3 months later.  Worth it.

What isn’t worth it?  Oddly, it’s usually the $47 - $97 - $197 stuff.  Tends to be stale.  Regurgitated.  Difficult.  More about timing than actual systems.

Want to know one of my greatest secrets?  It’s simple really.  Be willing to pay a steep price for massive success.  It takes more than $47.  And you’re probably gonna’ have to learn some stuff.  And sell some stuff (even you don’t sell stuff).  And do some stuff.  And buy some stuff.

That’s okay.  It’s certainly worked for me.

So I keep looking.  And I keep learning.  It’s important.  And worth it.

After re-releasing all my products yesterday I got emails from a few of you telling me my price processing was broken.

You’re right.  It’s fixed.  Download it again.

In case you’re interested, my friend Chris (AdGrenade creator) has a pretty killer offer going on right now.  In case you don’t know him, he partnered with Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey (Commission Blueprint & Niche Blueprint fame) to create AdGrenade several months back.  In fact, my post kind of kicked everything off for him

Anyway, he’s got a good bonus for Niche Blueprint right now.  Get it through his link and he’ll give you AdGrenade for free *and* Site Sniper Pro for free!

He promised me a scuba trip in Cozumel in exchange for the free licenses of SSP.  Not a bad exchange, huh?

I’m not totally sure (since I got Niche Blueprint during the first launch), but I think Steve and Tim are only making it available again for a few days.  I could be wrong on that.  But if you want SSP (and AdGrenade) for free and you’re thinking of getting Niche Blueprint anyway then head over NicheBlueprint.net and check out Chris’s offer.

After waaaay too many promises to update the licensing server code in my free software I’ve finally given up.  At some point point I just have to embrace my inner procrastinator and admit I have a problem.  Isn’t that the first step?

Hello, My Name is Matt… And I’m a Slacker…

But don’t worry.  I didn’t give up on the software… just the new licensing server.  Once I started playing with it I couldn’t stop.  I began all the new slick features I’ve wanted for so long.  And… like many  (too many) of my projects… it now sits in a mangled state of quasi-usability on my hard drive.

But you don’t have to suffer for my laziness anymore!  Woohoo!

I’ve republished all of my free software and completely removed any licensing code for now.  If I ever get around to finishing my killer new license server I may come back and re-integrate it.  But, for now, enjoy the free stuff.

–> Download Laser URL

–> Download Laser Keyword

–> Download Sneaky ClickBank Cart

–> Download Link Hopper

Whew!

The King is Dead.  Long Live the King.

Well… would you look at that… I'm alive!

I have to apologize for the license server going down on my free software. I had a Windows server that I was paying $170 / mo. for that was hosting a website I was experimenting with. A few months ago I stopped promoting the website and shut down my server. Since that was the only site I was running I went ahead and canceled my hosting account.

And then the emails started coming in. I totally forgot I had my licensing web service on that server for all my free software. Aaargh! And I don't have another Windows web server (it's all .net on the backend).

The good news? I've since rewritten my license server in php (which I should have done in the first place… but .net was sooo much easier for what I had to do).

The bad news? I haven't moved over my free marketing tools to the new server yet… just new projects, so far.

And in the time between now and my last post I had a SCUBA accident that took me out of commission for awhile (running out of air is no fun… neither is decompression sickness). And then I rolled my Land Rover down a mountain in a brutal crash that left me out-of-commission for the past several weeks.

I'm starting to feel like Lemony Snickets

I've got a lot of catching up to do… especially with my tools… so I may still not post a whole lot to this blog. But I'll have my free tools back up in the next few days. You'll probably have to re-download them once I get the new licensing server integrated. Also, I may experiment with a new delivery method. We'll see.

Anyway… if you've been wondering how to get a free license code for my software just keep an eye out here and I'll announce as each product is ready to go.

Thanks for your patience.

Quick post here…  I'm on the "Black Hat is Back" call right now.  Last week's call was a little slow and didn't introduce much new.  This week Howie's actually getting into some good content right now.  It's interesting, though, how life works sometimes…

If you read my last post you already know I'm going to experiment with some MSN domination strategies from MSN Ranking Loophole. Tonight's call with Howie gave me a whole slew of new ideas that I don't think I would have had if I hadn't just gone through MSN Ranking Loophole.  Now I'm even more intrigued than I was yesterday.  I think this has the potential for some really great results.

And, just as important for me, some awesome automation possibilities.  I thnk some of the tools will take several months to get working right… but I think I'll be able to ridiculously dominate a lot of natural search results.

It's a blast to throw up a paid search or CPV campaign and start making money.  But that's nothing compared to a natural site that goes viral or gets tons of organic visits.  *Nothing* beats collecting $50,000 monthly commission checks with *zero* advertising costs.  It doesn't happen much, but I've personally done it twice and it's a huge rush.

It's certainly not my specialty… but it's very, very interesting.  I'd love to add really killer SE rankings to my toolbox.

Oh… and make sure and check back here tomorrow.  If you're a ClickBank affiliate I'll be releasing a slick new free tool for you tomorrow.  It's an offshoot of some of the technologies I'm working on for my bigger (and way more killer) ClickBank marketing strategies.