I deleted the post!  As is usually the case, as soon as I had deleted it, I wanted it back!  There is probably some kind of zen thing there, or at the very least one of those Chinese proverbs; you know the ones, “man goes to bed in evening with coat-hanger in mouth, wake up in morning with smile on face”.  What does that mean exactly.  I can think of quite a lot of things that would make me wake up with a smile on my face (well okay, one thing and I can’t write it here!) but going to bed with a coat-hanger in my mouth would just hurt, really, really badly!  So did someone actually do that then, I mean, go to bed with a coat-hanger in their mouth.  If they didn’t, then how do they know that you wake up with a smile on your face?  Anyways, I digress a little!!

I was fed up and took it out on a poor defenceless blog post.  Instead of trying to rationalise the situation, or at least sleep on it, I kneejerked!  I reacted to the situation and instead of taking a step back and having a thunk, I ploughed right with nil, no, Nada, zip, bugger all consideration for the consequences of my action.  Still, at the end of the day, it was only a blog post!

Back to this post then (collective sigh of relief!).  What does the title mean and why write now (at stupid o-clock in the morning!)?.  Well it means that I have decided to change direction in my erstwhile but realistically fruitless attempts at earning a living online!  I have been trying to do everything; create a product, create a membership, create a shop, maintain a blog, post videos, spin articles, drum up traffic, build a list, create another membership and to what end.  Lots of frustration and nil achievement!  Stuff that then!  And by the way, I’m writing this because a very good friend reminded me in the usual totally unsubtle way that I needed to write a post.  Of course, if said friend had bothered to visit the blog last night, they would have seen the original (now extinct) post and not had to resort to blatant mockery in order to get me to post….thanks though!!

I signed up to the John Thornhill Marketing Masterclass last year and I’ve got about 11 weeks to go until I complete the course.  John is ace and is even acer (!) as of the other day when he sent all members an email stating we had free membership to this years course.  So this is what I have decided to do.  Bin the membership site, blog shop etc and concentrate on two things.

I am going to keep ResellRightsShop going, even though I am extremely disillusioned (more on that in next post).  It would be easy to give on the shop.  It’s a lot of work.  It would be easy if I could do what people on info product sites such as trade-bit do; blatantly ignore the terms of the license, price everything at under a dollar despite the obvious value and earning opportunity if done correctly.  That said, I have put a lot of personal time into ResellRightsShop and don’t want to have wasted that time.  I will therefore keep uploading a product on a daily basis until it is one of the largest (non auction) information product shops in the world, nay the universe!

The second project I am going to keep going is this blog.  I will use it as a sort of buffer for the John Thornhill Marketing Masterclass.  I will start the new course whilst finishing the old course and post regular updates to tell the world what topics we are studying and how they will benefit my marketing campaigns.  As part of the course I will write my first information product and will make it available as a download to my subscribers.  Of course that means you will need something to subscribe to before you can be a subscriber (err, chicken, egg, anyone?!).  Not sure what the product will be yet but probably something on the social networking side of Internet marketing.  There are a hell of a lot of resources out there that will aid any Internet marketer in establishing a secondary “social” list to market to.  There are also a lot of sites out there with resources pretending to help that will actually harm your campaigns.  I have learnt this through often painful experience!  In the meantime, I will maintain the thread of compliant sites, looking at what policies you really need to ensure you don’t have the contents of your bank account taken from you!

So there ya go.  Hope you are still awake and looking forward to the next cunningly constructed (try saying that after a few sherbets!) post.  At the end of the day, there is always someone a little worse off than you are, in my case its the cat and I will have to go and remove my Homer Simpson slipper from it’s backside pretty soon I think!!

That’s all Folks;

John.

PS – I’ve just spellchecked this post and Teco’s aren’t in the dictionary. Ha, sherbet is so that puts Tesco’s lower than a children’s confectionery (even if it is a damn good confectionery and even if Tesco’s sell them, which they probably do as they seem to sell everything else!).

PPS – I managed to change my jeans in the end.  I found the ticket thingy in the pocket!  Which just goes to show………………something!

This may come as a shock but if you have a marketing list (which you should have, at the very least, started if you are an Internet Marketer) and dictate the purpose of  use of said list, then you are a Data Controller! OMG!

This post is subject to my usual disclaimer of IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer!) and the contents of this post cannot and may not be construed as legal advice.

A data Controller is defined by the Information Commissioner’s Office as;

“a person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data are, or are to be, processed.“[1]

Okay, yeah, but, well , like..what’s personal data then? Good question, well asked. The ICO, under Key Definitions of the Data Protection Act, defines personal data as….

“Personal data means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified –

(a) from those data, or
(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller,

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.“[2]

Whoah that was little bit over my head and slightly ruffled the quiff there John.   How exactly do we decide if a person can be identified?

Ah ha, I knew you would ask that question and clearly so did the ICO because they produced an informative booklet with the alluring title of  “Data Protection Technical Guidance – Determining what is personal data”. The booklet does exactly what it says on the tin, or rather, the cover, and defines personal data as……..

“An individual is ‘identified’ if you have distinguished that individual from other members of a group. In most cases an individual’s name together with some other information will be sufficient to identify them.“[3]

And therein lies the problem. If you are collecting email addresses and a name (i.e. the usual sign up form) then you are, in effect, A DATA CONTROLLER.

Stay tuned (via RSS or Twitter) as my next post will cover the responsibilities of a Data Controller when applied to the Data Protection Act.

[1]  Data Controller

[2] Personal Data

[3] Identifiable

Regards

John

Having uploaded the free Cloak Elite software it suddenly struck me that I may need to put some kind of privacy policy on the site.  You don’t know me and certainly don’t know if I can be trusted or not.  How do you know what I am going to do with your email address and name?  I may sell it to the highest (or lowest) bidder, I may give it to someone free of charge or I may even pass it to one of the many list building organisations out there.  I would in actual fact not do any of the above, but you don’t know that!

I put a little research into the matter and rather than copying (legalised stealing) someone else’s Privacy policy off a sales page, I thought I’d create my own.  Now I’m no lawyer but I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent, sound of mind individual (some would strongly disagree with that statement!).  I started to look online and immediately came across the usual Guru selling something that is freely available to an unsuspecting newbie public.  Yes the Federal Trade Commission rules changed in December 2009 for blogs, affiliate marketing and testimonials and as part of that “direct email marketing” had to be affected, but is it really reason to hit the big red emergency stop button……

Errrr, yes, actually!  The rules are pretty tight and the penalties for non-compliance are pretty severe.  Its my feeling that Internet Marketers have not yet woken up to the fact that these guys are serious!  Certainly a lot of the recent product releases have contained the usual re-hashed privacy, terms of use and earnings disclaimers.  They just will not do anymore!

Over the next couple of posts I’m going to try and unravel the mysteries of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC – US), Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO-UK) and the Data Protection Act (DPA-UK).  Hopefully the posts will culminate in the first of a series of short reports that will be available from john-chadwick.com at the usual astronomical price of, well, free!

Hah, I hear you cry!  I’m okay because the FTC rulings don’t affect me as my business is based in the UK.  Or, Hah (again), the ICO and DPA rulings don’t affect me because my business is in the USA.  On the contrary, you are affected because your customer may reside in the US or the UK and is governed by the appropriate country law.  In other words, to be really sure, you have to comply with all three legislative bodies!  Just as you would for distance selling (another small policy that many Internet Marketers overlook, as do their customers!), OMG, another short report in the offing I fear!

Stay tuned as I unravel the mysteries of the FTC, ICO and DPA…..for free.

Cheers

PS – as one marketer has done, I could probably charge for this info but I’m not going to do for three reasons,

• As stated earlier, I am no lawyer (I’m pretty sure the marketer in question isn’t either but he’s obviously got more cheek than I have!).  Not being a lawyer means that I would be somewhat less than honest if I didn’t put a huge whacking disclaimer on relevant posts and reports – something to the effect of  “I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice”
• For people new to Internet marketing there is an awful lot to learn.  I’ve spent two years learning and my learning curve is still pretty vertical.  There are so many “buy this, buy that and get rich quick” schemers out there giving Internet Marketers a bad name.  I think its time to redress the balance a little and give something of value for free so that the majority can benefit (I will sleep better at night and will walk tall – ok, medium then!).
• CBA!  When all is said and done it’s a royal pain in the A*** to sell a product and is sooooo much easier to just give the thing away!