PickyDomains is an interesting service in that it’s “crowd-sourced”. I put my money in ($50 as of this writing) and tell them what I’m looking for in a domain (for the record, I’m pretty picky—I only use .com names, don’t do hypens or numbers, and want my keyword in the name… and I want it to be catchy!). Then their “Contributors” read the details and suggest names.

I like the model because I get lots of smart people thinking on my behalf, but it doesn’t cost me a fortune. They also guarantee the service: if I don’t get a name suggestion I like well enough to buy, I get my money back. That makes it just about as risk-free as it gets… worst case, I’m stuck with the mediocre names I’ve already come up with on my own, but not out any cash. Best case, I get a great domain name!

I’ll let you know how it goes once I start getting my suggestions. Hopefully they’ll pick a winner for me!

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I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

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Now that I’ve read it, I’m glad that I did. It was unusually specific and covered a lot of ground very efficiently. It seems like many times these free reports are just drawn-out ads for an expensive product, but like the Jay Abraham call, I was pleased to discover several ideas that hadn’t occurred to me before and got me thinking.

There is a product associated with this free report (not released yet as of this writing), but I think that Russell is using the free report more to develop his list and do a little market testing than to really push the product.

Some of the ideas that stood out to me were Russell’s method of qualifying buyers (which he effectively differentiates from browsers), his use of offline tactics to promote online offerings, and his photo-rich demonstrations of offline sales offers that get read.

Who should read the IM-Myth Report?

Like anything else, the IM-Myth Report isn’t for everyone. It’s clearly targeted at internet marketers (that’s what the “IM” stands for, not “instant messaging,” which is what it makes me think of ) and will be most useful to folks who have a product to sell and are already using a mailing list or autoresponder. If you have these things and want to increase your leads and sales efficiency, I’d recommend reading the IM-Myth Report right away; it will only take you a half hour or so, and unless you’re already a total expert, I expect you’ll get at least three actionable ideas.

If you’re like me, sort of thinking of venturing into info products and internet marketing, it’s not a bad idea to read the report. It’s not as good a use of time as, say, actually creating a product, but it reveals some tips that are worth tucking away for future use. Similarly, if you’re in an online business other than info products, it will probably be useful for you just because it will get you thinking about creative marketing. There are a lot of ways that the concepts could be applied in different industries.

If you don’t fit into any of the above categories, I’d say you’re probably better off focusing on your core business than taking the the time to read the report. You’d likely find it interesting, but it could be difficult to turn the interest into action. Now by all means, if you really want to read it, don’t let me keep you away! It just may not be as helpful to you as it will be to some other readers (and as something more suited to your industry might be).

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