The FAQ is ubiquitous. Every site and business has their most frequently-asked questions.
You have them, too. C\’mon, think about it. What are the themes that come up again and again in your life? Odds are, people ask you questions related to those same topics, again and again.
It\’s the same for me. There are some questions that just keep coming at me. And so, I answer them.
Well, for the first time on this blog, I am going to share the top 5 frequently-asked questions that come my way, along with the answers that you are undoubtedly dying to hear. (I\’m laying on the sarcasm very thick in case you didn\’t catch that.)
1) Is \”Comm\” your real name?
People think they are being quite clever when they call me Joel dot Comm. I just smile and tell them how original they are.
Yes, my real last name is Comm. My father is Alan Comm. His father was Benjamin Albert Comm. I believe when my grandfather enlisted in the U.S. military, it was spelled Komm. And who knows how the name got butchered when my ancestors made their way through processing at Ellis Island? I would guess that the name was truncated from something like Komminsky. But I\’ll likely never know.
Comm is an ideal name for an Internet entrepreneur and I think it\’s proof that God has a wonderful sense of humor!
I have a grown daughter now. I\’m sure she is grateful we didn\’t name her Dorothy. She would then have been the original Dot Comm. Ugh.
2) Where did the sounds for iFart come from?
When asking this, some people assume we recorded them ourselves. Others just want to know where we might have purchased such realistic flatulence noises.
The reality is, I won\’t tell you where the sounds came from. But what I will tell you is this.
When you entered the men\’s room at the InfoMedia, Inc. offices back in 2008 (when the app was developed), there was a sign on the stall door that said \”InfoMedia R & D. ;-)
3) What is the fastest way to make money online?
People are still looking for the easy button… or in my case, the KaChing Button.
I\’m all for making money online. I\’ve been doing it for a very long time. In that time, I\’ve done just about everything that isn\’t illegal, immoral or fattening.
Affiliate marketing, mobile marketing, app development, software development, book authoring, live events, site flipping, blogging, social media, Internet marketing, podcasting, video production, online games, domain sales, auctions, Amazon selling, infoproducts and member sites are just some of the niches I\’ve had success in.
In the old days, it was somewhat less complicated because there was less competition. But the market was also smaller. The fact is that there is always a place for qualitiy content and product innovation.
However, that can take time and hard work.
So among the FASTEST ways to make money on the Internet would be any method that facilitates selling what you already have. Odds are that you have things you no longer use or need sitting around. These can be turned into cash. eBay is a great place to auction off your stuff to bring in cash. Amazon is another avenue to sell your things.
What if you want to do something on a higher level but you just don\’t have the pieces in place to make it happen?
Go to a live event in your niche. Find like-minded people who you can build relationship with and perhaps explore joint ventures.
If I had to start over today, knowing what I know, but without the relationships I have already developed, I would attend a live event and meet people. Remember that everything we do in our efforts to sell products or services puts us in the middle of business of serving people. And that\’s where I would start.
4) What is your next book going to be about?
The sarcastic, short answer is \”about 200 pages.\”
The real answer is one that changes all the time. It\’s a moving target.
As of this writing, I am getting ready to release the second edition of So What Do You Do: Discovering the Genius Next Door with One Simple Question (The NAMS edition).
But up next on the docket is the long-awaited third edition to the world\’s best-selling book on using Twitter, Twitter Power 3.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. And this time around, I am co-authoring the book with my good friend and prolific author in his own right, Dave Taylor. The book, published by John Wiley & Sons, should be available in bookstores in Spring 2015 (FIVE years since the last edition of the book was released!)
What\’s up next? I have no idea.
But I know that whatever it is, I\’ll be passionate about it and eager to share it with you.
5) Will you promote my product to your list?
If my hair grew a centimeter every time someone has asked me to promote their product, let\’s just say Rip Van Winkle would look bald next to me.
I am extremely selective in what I promote and when I promote it. I choose my partners carefully and I don\’t do the \”I\’ll scratch your back if you scratch my back reciprocity game\” with other marketers.
When I have a product to sell, I invite affiliates to sell it and generate a commission if it is a good fit for them. But that doesn\’t mean that I will automatically promote whatever they are selling. If it isn\’t a good fit for my audience, either because of a niche mismatch or because the product is sub-par quality, I won\’t promote it. And even if it is a good fit, it doesn\’t guarantee that I\’ll mail for you.
I\’m only referring to people that I know so far. So what about people that I don\’t know? Much of the affiliate marketing that I do is relationship driven. That is, I am far more likely to share your product or service with my readers because I already like, know and trust you. Imagine that, I actually seek to practice what I preach!
You may have a fantastic product. It could be the best thing since bacon. But if I don\’t know you and we don\’t have a history, it\’s highly unlikely that a request to promote your product will be met with anything other than well wishes for you. If you attempt to leverage the reputation of someone else without first demonstrating value to that person, it\’s likely that the person you are approaching will be cautious in dealing with you. They may even feel like you are attempting to \”use\” them.
This doesn\’t mean you shouldn\’t ask. There have been situations where I have done business with people I barely know. Usually it\’s because there is something about what they are doing that deeply resonates with me. If I find a strong synergy, I pay more attention.
For the most part, I keep promotions of others\’ products and services to a minimum. I try to create more content which offers value and I share offers when I feel it is appropriate.
So there you have it! Those are my most frequently-asked questions.
Do you have another question you\’d like to ask me? Post it in the comments below and perhaps I\’ll do another series in the future.
I appreciate you!