Name: Tim Davis

Primary Website: http://PostCardFormula.com

Other Websites You Own:
http://CovertOptin.com
http://AskTimDavis.com

Niche: Postcard Marketing, Internet Marketing, List Building

DCS Member Level: Partner

Personal Motto: “You only Fail if you Quit, NEVER quit!”

Favorite Web Tools: Aweber, SendOutCards, and Covert Optin

On Your Vision Board :

The things that really drive me to work hard is my Family, and helping others. As you offer and sell information online and offline, you can help people reach their dreams or you can squander them. There is a lot of good information products out there, and also a lot of bad. I work hard to provide great value and work hard to help others. To truly help others, and teach others, creates some of the greatest joy in my life. I work hard now to have the financial and time freedom to enjoy time with the people that mean the most to me. Also I really have a strong passion for what I do!

About Your Business

What made you decide to build your first corporate cell phone consulting business?

This is actually a funny story! When I was 21 I worked for a company that was a decent job. Over time I became a threat to my manager’s position, and she worked so hard to make my life miserable at work.Eventually she got the best of me, and it was making me unhappy even after I left work. I got frustrated to the point that I put in my “2 week notice”.

The next day (to spite me) she told me I didn’t have to work my last 2 weeks! That night I laid in bed thinking about what I would do. The wheels kept turning, eventually I remember my friend was managing a sales team selling cell phone plans to businesses and was making pretty decent money. I started getting trained for the first week, then my friend quit the job as sales manager. I was left to figure things out on my own, and this took some time and a whole lot of discipline. I was not used to setting my own hours, so sometimes I would work and not play. Eventually I figured things out, and became a sales manager myself. I was building up someone else’s company and was not receiving the rewards and bonuses I was promised, so I left. I then started my own cell phone business called “Cellular Solutions”. My business had contracts with all major providers and we could offer any major provider to our customers.

So in summary, I started my own business because of a lot of bad employers that didn’t live up to what they offered. Loyalty and Integrity isn’t as common as it once was. I decided to open my business so that I could run things the way I wanted to.

What were you primarily doing to market your services?

I was primarily calling, and walking into businesses to drop off my business card and offer a free consultation.Cold Calling was horrible at first, I eventually became decent at it but really disliked doing it. I always did better in person, and could get into many businesses because I wasn’t the typical salesman. My company’s slogan was: “We are happy to serve you!”. I had great pride in offering hands down the absolute best customer service experience possible, which is really rare in cell phones. I had a unique selling point that worked well.

What was the final straw that made you realize you weren’t doing what you really wanted?

The final straw that made me realize I wanted out of the cell phone biz was because of a really annoying call.I was out of town with my family in Park City, Utah and my phone kept ringing with a lady complaining that her speakerphone sounded scratchy! I had a vacation voicemail stating I was out of town and would be back in the office on Monday. She kept calling and I realized that I could never have the time freedom I desired. I started looking on the internet for ways to make money and got sucked in to the addicting web! I found a new passion and loved it so much I could barely sleep because of the potential I saw for financial and time freedom.

What was the biggest lesson on building a business that you learned at that time?

The one single biggest business lesson in building a business is treat others well and they will treat you well!People are sick and tired of being sold to, and you can really set yourself apart from your competition by doing things that others don’t do. If you are honest and treat others well, they will refer others to you.Postcards are a very powerful way to build and keep relationships with your customers. They will keep your customers around longer, you will get more referrals and you will also make a whole lot more sales if you do it right! So the biggest lesson is to treat others well, and it will pay off big time!

What made you decide to transition from an offline business to internet and network marketing?

One of the largest deciding factors of using an online business is the ease of scaling your business and website traffic larger at a small cost. I really liked the profit margins. The other thing that is absolutelyamazing is to wake up and check your email when you roll out of bed to see that you have already made several sales and you haven’t even eaten breakfast. That is the coolest and amazing concept. Since I am leverage technology, I can take off for the afternoon and go biking, go fishing, or go meet up for lunch with an old friend and catch up with them if their schedule allows it.

Tell us about your Postcard Formula and what inspired you to start it.

Russell and I when talking over niches really found postcards very attractive. Here there are so many people that are marketing online, and learning to market online and they are not doing any offline marketing at all!There is an alarming amount of money made offline with existing customers. What I really wanted to show people is this really cool system of how to harness the power of technology, to build and keep relationships, and how to make a ton more money with our simple to implement Postcard Formula. It is surprising that more people are not using it, and I think that’s one of the reasons that it is so effective!

What were the most important things you did that made the launch of PostcardFormula.com so successful ($3,122.39 your first three days!)?

There are a few things that are very important to having a great launch. I would say the first thing is the right sales process, with a great sales letter. Be clear of exactly what you have and if you have a great product, it is your responsibility to market it hard! The second part of the puzzle would be that you need targeted traffic.Traffic is the lifeblood of any online business, and once you know your conversions, you can scale your traffic to receive more and more. Once you have tested and split tested your sales process and price (and know your conversions), let the flood gates of traffic start! The more traffic you get the more money you will make.That is what is so very cool about an online business is the ability to scale larger and larger. And the last thing that I would say is that you need to build your list 110%! I can’t stress that enough, if you aren’t building a list you need to start right now!

How did you replace the income you were making in your cell phone business with automatic residual income?

Well to be completely honest, for me it took a while to start building up a decent amount of residual income. It didn’t come as easy to me as others. There are 2 tricks that I used to help my cash flow up front. The first trick is I used affiliate marketing and internet marketing to give me the upfront cash while I was building the residual up on the backend.

The second trick (especially in network marketing) is to sell tools and retail to your prospects first. This can cover the cost of your marketing erasing your marketing costs to prospect! Everyone needs these tools, and you might as well make a commission helping them out! Think of the gold rush, one of the people that made the most money out of that “opportunity” is the person that provided the picks, shovels etc. So if you are building up a residual income wait to quit your day job if possible before losing your shirt. At first I quit my cell phone business to quickly, and made some poor and very risky investment decisions and “lost my shirt”. So basically make sure that you have enough money and some to cover your bills before diving in full time, start part time if you can.

What was the big success that allowed you to finally walk away from the cell phone business and spend more time doing what you enjoy?

I think one of the largest contributors to being able to do this quickly was keeping a low overhead cost. I really live very basic now to be able to be “comfortable” quicker later. I pay my bills and roll my money over and over again as fast as possible to multiply it as fast as possible. I think that marketing can offer one of the most lucrative return on investments. You can’t just throw paint at the wall and hope it sticks, you must start testing smaller and know your numbers, then scale it larger.

Find something that works and stick to it. I was a victim of “marketing A.D.D.”, and had a hard time focusing on just one thing because I see so much potential everywhere. I have worked on focusing on narrowing my vision to the projects I’m working on now, but don’t have it down completely yet! I just work at it and become better and better each day. I was also taught by a mentor that you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going. Take action.

What advice would you give other marketers who do not have residual income in their business yet?

If you are wanting to have a solid residual income, I would suggest selling tools that are charged a monthly fee creating you a monthly commission. I like tools because that is one of the most used and needed things in a business and one of the very last things to get canceled. Russell and I use a really cool system that you can get paid residual income on with postcards. I use the system to help manage my database and postcard marketing, but also make a residual income for simply referring people through my affiliate link. Residual income is extremely powerful and is very comforting knowing that you are going to get a check that month even if you are traveling that month. If you are not building up a residual income, you need to start this month! It is very comforting, especially with uncertain times in the economy and unemployment. It really gives me a peace of mind, because when I had my cell phone business I was on straight commission. It was either a feast or a famine.

What achievement in building an online business are you most proud of so far?

I feel like writing the 80 page “Postcard Formula Manual” was a huge deal for me. I spend hundreds of hours studying, researching and writing that book. I have never been the best writer, so it was a big challenge for me and it has been very rewarding. I also have enjoyed building my list, I really missed the boat on that my first 2 years of internet marketing. Once I started doing that, things really started looking up for me. I could now recycle my website traffic and now follow up with my website visitors and turn them into customers. I have found that some of the most rewarding things come from doing things that you don’t want to do. A lot of times the thing that you really don’t want to do is the thing that is keeping you from succeeding wildly! If you really hate it that much, outsource it, or take massive action and just get it done.

What’s been the biggest learning experiences you’ve had in building your business?:

The largest learning experiences that I’ve had is that you need to take massive action quickly. I spent almost a year on developing the “Postcard Formula”, and writing the manual took forever! I have learned to outsource. On my newest project, I had the software developed by a team of software developers and had the whole sales system up within 2 weeks flat! I really learned to become a “finisher”, and was able to learn to finish things much quicker! It really bugged me that it took me so long to complete Postcard Formula, so I redeemed my confidence on my newest project of Covert Optin! I think the other thing is to not care about what others think of you, or of their disbelief in your dreams and passions. If you have a passion, go after it 1,000% and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t. You only fail if you quit, NEVER quit!

Can you give us a sneak peak at the projects you’re working on next?:

I just recently launched my newest project that is a software called Covert Optin. I partnered up with one of my best friends and marketing buddies Bob Beckett for this amazing idea. This software helps people build an opt-in email list over virtually any site, whether its theirs or not. This is so powerful for affiliate marketers, and network marketers that are not growing their list. This software does all the hard work for you, and has many features. You don’t even need to know html, or any coding, we even host it for you. We have had an amazing response so far, and I look forward to a bright future with both of my products. Postcard Formula has been a great learning experience, and I have learned how to get things done quicker and more efficient which is worth its weight in gold.

-Tim Davis

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Have a great Labor Day!
Sincerely,

Tim Davis