Enquiries from livestock Farm CEOs regarding my Best Practice Farm Business Solutions continue to reach me – despite the recent loss of my domain. But I’ve noticed consistently, that most of them started out using haphazard methods to formulate rations for their animals.
Usually, they contact me using my website’s contact form or sometimes via email.
However, more recently, an increasing number of them are getting across to me via Facebook.
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Quick Take Away: This article was first published online in 2006. It is based on a true occurrence on my former primary domain – spontaneousdevelopment.com – which got taken over on 4th May 2014 by Aplus.net . Now that I’ve successfully relaunched my website on tayosolagbade.com, re-publishing this article on my new primary domain, I believe, will help those who read my writing understand that these things CAN – and do – happen. So we must simply learn from them and MOVE ON to better heights!
On Tuesday 20th June 2006, I discovered that a hacker exploited a site recommendation script I installed 3 days earlier(!), to send out spam email from my website, causing my web host to take it offline for 7 days i.e. up till Wednesday 28th June 2006 a.m. If you own a website, and are trying to build online credibility towards doing legitimate business, you may (want to?) know how damaging this kind of attack can be – and what you can do to protect yourself.
Incidentally, no matter how big or small your website is, spam robots will come to it – and hackers will test your website for loopholes they can exploit to launch spam attacks – so you must learn latest security concerns and take preventive action to protect yourself.
If you think it can never happen to you, let me warn you: that’s exactly what I thought, UNTIL I made the slip which allowed a spam artist drive a massive “spam mail truck” through my website!
In this article, I offer you an insight into my personal experiences and learnings, plus provide URLs (some sent to me by the support department of my web host – others I found through my own subsequent research) leading to useful advice from experienced webmasters, and professionals with proven competence in this area.
It was the evening of Friday 16th June 2006, and I was rounding up the updates on my websites, when I decided to search online for and install another site recommendation script on my website in place of the one that for some reason I could not fathom, continued to return a “500 – Internal Server Error”. The Google search results page threw up a slew of referral scripts offerings from various authors – some free, others for sale. At this time I was just keen to test and see if I could get one to work on the site.
Soon I settled for one called “The PCman Website Refer a Friend”. Within minutes, I had it installed and running. One thing I did not do, and which I would advise (based on the benefit of painful hindsight) ANYONE who uses third party scripts on his/her site to do, is to check and confirm the programmer has taken pains to secure the script code against exploitation (Specific details/links to URL resources on how to go about this provided further down).
Note: It was only after the event, and following prompts from my hosts, that I checked and found the PCManrefer script had inadequate security written into the code. The resulting “security hole” was what the hacker later exploited remotely to launch a massive spam attack.
After trying repeatedly, and confirming I was using the correct password, I decided to try logging in to my webmail – so as to send an email to the support department for assistance.
This presented a problem as well. Each time, I tried, I got a message like “Dropped by ISMAP server”. Now quite alarmed, I decided to type the URL to my website – http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com. My worst fears came to pass – The browser printed a “Page Not Found” message in bold! At this point, I promptly went to my host’s website and initiated a chat session with the operator.
The following chat conversation took place:
—–start of chat session——
<operator name deleted>: Hello! How may I help you?
<operator name deleted>: hi
Visitor42152: Hi
Visitor42152: I cannot login to my webmail or access my entire website
Visitor42152: MY reg no is <number deleted>
<operator name deleted>: We are writing to inform you that during the past 30 minutes your web hosting account (username = deleted) has sent 625 messages to the email subsystem of the hosting server. This is in violation of our terms of services, and as such, any websites
<operator name deleted>: belonging to that account have been taken offline.
<operator name deleted>: In order to reactivate your account you will need to contact our support department and agree not to abuse our servers again. Any further incidents like this will cause our system to remove your account completely and without warning
Visitor42152: I am working from a cyber cafe I normally do not use though it’s close to my home
Visitor42152: I am certain this is due to activities of email spammers who use the same ISP as these guys
<operator name deleted>: send an email to <email deleted>
Visitor42152: How long will it take to resolve this?
<operator name deleted>: 6 -12 hours
—End of chat session——
Well, I did not get it resolved in 12 hours. In fact, by the time I was finished exchanging emails with the support department, I learnt my account would be suspended for 7 days, with the warning that if it happened again, my account would be reconsidered for termination without notice.
Below, I reproduce the exact text of the explanation given by my host’s Abuse Department, when I requested for details that could help me understand how the problem had occurred, and what I could do to prevent a re-occurrence. You will notice that the Perl script I installed (i.e “pcmanrefer.pl”) some days before the problem, was identified by the administrator as one of three found to have poor security built into their code.
— “Aplus.Net Abuse Department” <email deleted> wrote (I have re-arranged – but NOT edited – the text for readability):
> Hello,
> Basically the attack is performed on scripts that trust the information that the submitter enters and are therefore easily exploitable. You can refer to these two documents that describe in details this very specific attack:
> http://www.anders.com/projects/sysadmin/formPostHijacking/
> http://www.nyphp.org/phundamentals/email_header_injection.php
> I have reviewed the spam evidence sent to us and in the headers the subject is different every time which means the script used is taking the input data from the visitor and doesn’t edit it at all:
> Subject: Incredibly undervalued, you’ll not want to miss this opportunity the protracted I have found several such scripts in your FTP space:
> /cgi-bin/mailer/simplemail.pl
> /cgi-bin/mailer/mailer.pl
> /cgi-bin/pcmanrefer.pl
> There might be others that are compromiseable too but you know better the structure of your website and which exactly script is sending the data unchanged. The bottom line is to filter out all input data as suggested in the two articles above.
> Thank you,
> <administrator name deleted>
When I eventually gained access to my server space, I found confirmation that it was indeed the “pcmanrefer.pl” script that had been exploited: Its referral log file (refer-log.txt), had grown to a massive 11.1 Megabytes size(many million bytes up from its 0 bytes size when I uploaded it less than 9 days before)! Opening the file revealed huge volumes of email addresses and message contents, originating from bogus “addresses” at my sub domain e.g.InvestorsWeekly@spontaneousdevelopment.com; my@spontaneousdevelopment.com; stephannie@www.spontaneousdevelopment.com (“who is SHE??”, I said to myself) – and many, many more!
When my hosting account was suspended, my websites could not be visited, nor could I access mails sent to my webmail account at my domain during that seven day period. But that was just one side of it. ALL the short URLs that I had created to point to various sub domains on my main website were put up for removal by the service provider, who placed a bookmark update link on a page leading to the respective home pages – with the following message:
“Due to enormous phishing spam with our sub domains (<domain names listed here deleted>) we will close this short url re-direction. Please update your bookmarks”
One example of a short URL that was affected by this problem is http://www.cbsolutions.v27.net, which I had set to point to cbsolutions.spontaneousdevelopment.com– the mini site for my Creative Business Solutions (CB Solutions) delivery service.
My mind raced back to all the articles I had published at the Ezine articles directory, in which I had used the short URL addresses in the resource box invitation to readers(at the end of the article). A number of those articles carrying the short URLs had been syndicated on other websites, where I would not have access to make changes to them. I realised that it would only be a matter of time before readers of some of my articles would find themselves confronted with a “Page Not Found” browser error, or a general advert page for domain names sales etc – instead of my site: Definitely not good for the image I was trying to build online!
I provide the above details to give you an idea of just how bad this can be – so you can really understand why it would be in your best interest to make sure you never leave yourself open to the extent that this type of problem can affect your website.
I deleted the “pcmanrefer.pl” script, and the other two that were identified by the hosting provider’s administrator (see email above). I also removed another mailing list managment CGI script that I installed a month before.
In a way, I felt like I was taking medicine after death. 
But at least by this time, I actually had a better idea of WHAT had happened, HOW, and WHY – and what I could do to protect myself for the future.
Next, I visited the URLs emailed to me by my web host. Out of curiosity, I also did a number of searches on Google, to see what else I could learn about “form post hijacking”, and spamming in general.
IMPORTANT NOTES!
1. It would interest you to know that I no longer use a site referral script on my wesbsite. Instead I have developed a simple email recommendation template that anyone who is so keen to tell another about my site can use. Visit http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/referus.htm to see what I mean. There are many other effective ways to get marketing exposure for a website, and I am currently modifying my website design/marketing strategy to accommodate them. As time goes on, visitors to my website will see ample evidence of this.
2. Some of the resources whose URLs are listed below, were published as far back as 2002, so they might not exactly offer relevant or effective remedies that can be successfully applied today. However, the educational value they offer towards understanding the problem(s), in my opinion, would still make them worth a visit.
So, with that note of warning, I wish you happy reading and good luck in your fight to protect your website against exploitation.
1. Using Apache to stop bad robots | evolt.org – by Daniel Cody
http://www.evolt.org/article/Using_Apache_to_stop_bad_robots/18/15126/
2. Why Some Scripts are dangerous to use on your Website – http://webnet77.com/help/dangers.html
3. http://www.anders.com/cms/75/Crack.Attempt/Spam.Relay – By Anders Brownworth
Interesting Crack Attempt to Relay Spam (Comment: this is actually a precursor to the full article referred to me by my web host titled “Form Post Hijacking – How to solve the problem.”)
4. By Anders Brownworth – Form Post Hijacking – How To Solve The Problem article author
http://www.anders.com/projects/sysadmin/formPostHijacking/
5. http://handsonhowto.com/cgi101.html – A Hands-On How-To(Securing the CGI script section – useful) – from Brass Cannon Consulting
6. WWW Security FAQ: CGI Scripts – http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/wwwsf4.html -by Lincoln Stein (lstein@cshl.org) and John Stewart (jns@digitalisland.net) – hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a service to the Web Community.
7. Stopping Spambots: A Spambot Trap – http://www.neilgunton.com/spambot_trap/
8. How to block spambots, ban spybots, and tell unwanted robots to go … Spamming of referer logs is a growing nuisance:
The Phoenix is a mythical bird. Click here to learn more about it, to understand why I’ve referred to it here, with regard to my re-incarnated website presence :-))
I’m gradually putting finishing touches to the new look website and content at TayoSolagbade.com. It’s now leaner, and smarter!
Many thanks again to those who “forced” my hand by taking over Spontaneousdevelopment.com (click to read the full story about how I lost that 9 year old domain)!
I developed an elaborate Web Marketing System for him in June/July 2013.
I should point out that most of my authentic clients have similar relationships with me. We relate more like FRIENDS, than business associates. And that includes those I have NEVER met in the flesh!
By the time we parted ways he’d told me about 3 projects he wanted me to handle. Two for him. One for a private university he runs with Victor Ogar, his Nigerian partner of many years. All three relate to the Web Marketing based Hosting Service I provide.
He has since paid for 2 of the 3 projects. So, it was not all talk :-))
Think about it. One day my website was gone, some days later, I put a better one up.
All the while, some of my clients would have been watching (including prospective ones!) to see how I would deal with the challenge.
What I’ve now successfully done with TayoSolagbade.com, can only make me look more convincing than ever, with regard to my competence as a Web Marketing Specialist who offers website hosting services!
And it’s likely to make it easier any serious minded person, to choose me over any other provider s/he is considering.
“May you also get to live your dream too!“
And while you’re working at it, remember that no matter how bad it looks or feels, there will always be something better that turns up…IF you do NOT give up.
Having said all the above about my hosting service, it only makes sense that I provide some details for anyone who may be interested.
First, let me state this: My hosting service is VERY targeted.
In reality, I mainly offer it to clients who hire me to develop Web Marketing Systems for them.
The number of plans I offer, and their pricing reflect that. And so it may be difficult to compare the “prices” with what some other web host may offer you!
Below is the link to my Hosting Service website:
You’ll notice that the “WebMarketingforCEOs” plan is NOT listed.
That’s because I reserve it for clients who engage my services in Web Marketing Systems development.
Instead, you’ll see the Business and the Pro hosting plans alongside the “Budget Base” plan.
If you wish to host with me, without taking up my FREE Web Marketing Support offer, I recommend you pick either the Business or the Pro hosting plan.
If you pay for TWO years you get FREE Monthly Web Marketing support from me (details when you contact me). And you’ll also be FREE from worrying about renewing your domain name/hosting for 2 years.
Simple. I’ve seen that my clients’ busy schedules makes web marketing hard for them.
This promo enables me help you, since YOUR website’s success is MY success. By helping your website succeed, I make it easier for you to continue making renewal payments.
It is my experience based opinion that succeeding or failing is often 99% of the time a mental game. That’s why succeeding continually requires one to develop a firm control of one’s mind state under ANY conditions.
It’s why champions in sports and life often have coaches, mentors and psychologists.
Everyone experiences setbacks in life. Including successful people. But not all who fall ever recover, talks less of achieving greater success.
But some people do. And many times they are far from being specially gifted. Indeed, quite often they tend to be average people!
This article explains why…ending with my offer to teach you how to defy adversity to achieve extraordinary success, even if you’re just an ordinary guy…or gal :-))
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Knowing “what to do” is crucial. However, knowing “HOW to do it” is the key to ultimate success. The former has to do with your knowledge. The latter relates to your ability to apply that knowledge to achieve results you want i.e. your “know-how”.
Your success in life depends on being able to develop the latter!
To illustrate my point, I’ll use analogies that we can all relate to.
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Useful Resources for Speakers
Burt Dubin works with people who want to be speakers, and with speakers who want to be masters. Click here to visit his website NOW and submit a contact form message telling him what challenges you’re facing, and how you’d like him to help you. Tell him I sent you, and you’ll get a pleasant surprise offer from him. Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“] Get Burt’s mentoring at any of the 3 levels below:1. Top Shelf [Click here] 2. Mid Range [Click here] 3. Budget Delight [Click here] Publications
177 Wow! Wow! Showmanship Stratagems Discover these secrets of making your programs more interesting and valuable to your clients and audiences now.
Burt’s Flagship Album This is the product to own if you can own only one. Why? Because in it you discover principles of platform mastership available to you nowhere else at any price. You hear performance strategies you can emulate. You shorten your learning curve. You see ways to engage and delight audiences with both content and stories . . . plus you experience a bit of fun. With its Money back if not delighted Guarantee hardly any are returned.
Presentation Magic A live example, including a complete audio recording of a program Burt created from scratch–on a topic he knew nothing about and never, ever presented before! See how you, guided by your personal Learning Guide, (Presentation Magic), can do this too and thrill audiences as often as you want. Presentation Magic Manual with new pages added plus 3 audio CDs.
How To Create a Great Program Manual Discover how you can produce a precious memento of you and your program. Capture over 44 model pages you can easily adapt for your use. Engage proven principles that add value to the experience of sitting at your feet and learning from you. This is a reprise of the historic presentation that launched the Speaking Success System. No copy of this 2 CD program and 50 page Learning Guide has ever been returned.
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THEY WROTE… |
“(Tayo Solagbade) is amazing and I think he is going to produce some impressive results online…” – click here to read full comment by Patrick Meninga (US based 6 figure income blogger who gained fame for building a $2,000 per month adsense website and selling it for $200,000). —————————– “Tayo, I honestly believe you are one of those who will succeed at anything he does. Your commitment and effort has been outstanding….Thanks for all your hard work since I’ve been here – you will be sorely missed. I don’t need to wish you good luck, you have the ability to make your own luck. – Andy”(R. Jones)* *Operations Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc Benin Brewery, December 2001 (Handwritten comments in farewell/xmas cards sent to Tayo Solagbade following his resignation to start his own business). ———————– |
| Click here to contact Tayo… |
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Home | Subscribe | About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | My DN Travel News | Web Marketing Systems |Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!) |
A representative of an organisation serving a large farmers group in Lagos yesterday indicated interest in inviting me to give my FREE 1 hour talk to their members. I just published the flyer on my SD Nuggets blog.
The offer is open to farmer groups across Africa.
See details in the flyer below – click the JPEG image version to download the PDF.
Many small business owners hold grossly misguided views about marketing. Most do not track Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA) – a crucial parameter that determines profits! Smallholder farmers in Africa are especially guilty of this. That’s why most will question this article’s title. And it’s also why they rarely find profitable buyers!
Today, I made over 15 “sales” phone calls. Most lasted at least 5 minutes. One actually lasted over 15 minutes.
But about half of those calls involved respondents calling back – when they saw my missed call. Not just that, they readily let me tell them why I’d called – even though I was doing so on their dime.
However, being the dignified professional that I am, I always insisted they hang up, so I could call them at my own expense. Despite my best efforts though, the erratic networks on two occasions terminated my call before I could finish.
Both times, the person I was calling promptly called back at their own expense, and encouraged me to finish telling them what I’d called about. And it’s not the first time this has happened.
Well, they were/are my clients.
But I have NEVER met any one of them in person. And this is despite transacting business with them for upwards of 4 years in some cases.
I believe it’s because they value their relationship with me. They do not see me as a guy just trying to sell stuff to them.
Most are subscribers to my newsletter. Even when I’m out of the country, I make social phone calls to them. We share jokes and exchange information.
Others ask that I refer them to suppliers of items they need for new ventures they are launching.
For instance, I recently sent contact details of a client in Kano (who has links to manufacturers of packaging for livestock feed) to a new Farm CEO in Uyo who asked for it.
All of this happens because I enjoy the trust of these business owners.
And I built that trust through the Web Marketing System I used to attract them to me in the first place.
Most of them are past buyers of at least one of my farm support products. And they’ve found it worthwhile staying in touch with me since then.
My point is that I have this highly RESPONSIVE group of people who have connected with me, because they want what I offer.
But I do not have one million of them.
And I doubt that I need a tenth of that number to achieve my business goals – financially or otherwise.
The truth is that the solutions I offer are NOT meant for mass distribution.
That’s why I do not subscribe to mass advertising channels to promote my products and services.
This is what many smallholder farmers do not understand. As a result they end up (figuratively speaking) fishing in over sized ponds with sparse – and starving – fish populations.
Little wonder they tend NOT to reap bumper harvests in their marketing.
Look, as I type this, I’m talking to about 4 clients about having them share “costs” with a new Kano based CEO who has asked me to develop a Ration Formulator for Ruminants™.
This new application will allow use of concentrates with locally available ingredients of the farmer’s choice.
For instance, it will be used to formulate balanced low cost rations for Horses, Beef Cattle, Dairy Cattle (lactating, pregnant) and other ruminants.
Being a member of my Farm Business Ideas Club, he is entitled to a lifetime discount of 40% on ALL my products and services (with the exception of my Feed Formulation products).
So, of the required investment of N150,000 (One hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira), the Functional Requirement Specification I sent him stated he would only pay N90,000 (Ninety Thousand Naira).
But I also offered another incentive: If he pays 100% in advance, he gets an extra 10% discount.
I sent him the FRS on Sunday afternoon, and he acknowledged receipt.
But since sending it to him, I’ve been thinking it would be useful to bring others on board, so they can split the development costs, making the cost per head much less.
I believe in protecting my clients, because it effectively amounts to protecting myself!
Now, even though those I spoke with said they did not have an immediate interest in or need for the app, 2 of them promised to speak with contacts they believe may be interested.
Past experience assures me they are not making idle promises, as I’ve had many referrals from these CEOs over the years.
So, I use my existing base of serious buyers of my products/services, to reach out to others like them.
It’s a high quality Pre-Qualified Sales Leads Generating System that enables me achieve a low Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA) = higher margin per sale.
PLUS, I get to make sales at premium rates to ready buyers, convinced about the value of what I offer.
Especially in my part of the world.
I’ve said this many times to those who use such platforms.
Little or no profiling of the mobile phone numbers and email addresses in such databases is done.
As a result, those who choose to “advertise” to those audiences are basically shooting in the dark and hoping for the best.
They rarely know what kind of people they are sending their marketing messages to. No demographics or psychographics of ANY sort.
The vendor does not tell them how s/he got the phone numbers. Indeed, many vendors don’t care. They just offer you the “opportunity to advertise to millions”.
For a farm business owner looking for serious bulk buyers, this is not a smart way to advertise.
Not unless you have an outlet like a hotel or restaurant through which you can do so. For instance, selling your catfish or chicken meat in form of special dishes served with drinks or for home delivery.
If you do not have that, sending adverts to millions of phone numbers makes little sense if many are individuals who may only want a few units of what you sell.
Depending on their location, they may find the market in the neighbourhood a more convenient source, compared to your farm, no matter how gre4at your products are.
Sadly, even when it’s pointed out to many smallholder farmers, they seem unwilling to save themselves the hassle.
It would appear they prefer the “easy” way of throwing “advertising” money at millions of phone numbers and emails, then crossing their fingers, to THINKING of smart strategies to connect with high value prospects looking to buy bulk farm products.
If you’re ready to step up your game, and operate at a superior level of sales and marketing, then you want to adopt the approach I’ve described in this article.
To give you an idea of what you’ll get by enrolling for this service, click here to download my PowerPoint Show offering details.
You will be able to book a 30 minute to one hour Needs Analysis Session with me. 24 to 48 hours afterwards, I will prepare and send you a ready-to-use PDF Sales and Marketing Action Plan.
1. People in Your Farm Neighbourhood Are NOT Likely to Be Your Best Buyers
2. You Will Rarely Be Able to Afford the Service of Competent “Sales Agencies” for Your Products
3. Your Best Bet Will Often Be to Take Ownership of Your Own Marketing!
There is so much I can tell you that will make you more effective in the THINKING you employ towards finding buyers for your farm products.
Enjoy MORE successful Farm Products Marketing & Sales.
Email me via tayo at tksola dot com TODAY.
1. A step-by-step Marketing Action Plan: that you can implement to start attracting high profit BULK buyers for your farm products.
2. My DVD: containing the full Sales & Marketing Coaching Video
3. Access to my Sales & Marketing Support Service: in which I help you develop and implement strategies to find long term and profitable bulk buyers using my contacts, and access to relevant networks.
See my PowerPoint Slide Show
4. And I’ll also add your farm products and services to my new online directory’s exclusive listing of Farm Products Buyers & Sellers in Africa (terms apply).
Email me via tayo at tksola dot com for details.
Over a decade ago, I read an article about Bill Gates, in which he said that he saw his software business as a big bus, with no brakes, no clutch, and no rear view mirror.
The bus however had an accelerator pedal, on which was placed a very heavy weight to ensure that it continued moving at top speed, never slowing down, talk less of stopping!
SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE
 |
|
Useful Resources for Speakers
Burt Dubin works with people who want to be speakers, and with speakers who want to be masters. Click here to visit his website NOW and submit a contact form message telling him what challenges you’re facing, and how you’d like him to help you. Tell him I sent you, and you’ll get a pleasant surprise offer from him. Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“] Get Burt’s mentoring at any of the 3 levels below:1. Top Shelf [Click here] 2. Mid Range [Click here] 3. Budget Delight [Click here] Publications
177 Wow! Wow! Showmanship Stratagems Discover these secrets of making your programs more interesting and valuable to your clients and audiences now.
Burt’s Flagship Album This is the product to own if you can own only one. Why? Because in it you discover principles of platform mastership available to you nowhere else at any price. You hear performance strategies you can emulate. You shorten your learning curve. You see ways to engage and delight audiences with both content and stories . . . plus you experience a bit of fun. With its Money back if not delighted Guarantee hardly any are returned.
Presentation Magic A live example, including a complete audio recording of a program Burt created from scratch–on a topic he knew nothing about and never, ever presented before! See how you, guided by your personal Learning Guide, (Presentation Magic), can do this too and thrill audiences as often as you want. Presentation Magic Manual with new pages added plus 3 audio CDs.
How To Create a Great Program Manual Discover how you can produce a precious memento of you and your program. Capture over 44 model pages you can easily adapt for your use. Engage proven principles that add value to the experience of sitting at your feet and learning from you. This is a reprise of the historic presentation that launched the Speaking Success System. No copy of this 2 CD program and 50 page Learning Guide has ever been returned.
|
THEY WROTE… |
“(Tayo Solagbade) is amazing and I think he is going to produce some impressive results online…” – click here to read full comment by Patrick Meninga (US based 6 figure income blogger who gained fame for building a $2,000 per month adsense website and selling it for $200,000). —————————– “Tayo, I honestly believe you are one of those who will succeed at anything he does. Your commitment and effort has been outstanding….Thanks for all your hard work since I’ve been here – you will be sorely missed. I don’t need to wish you good luck, you have the ability to make your own luck. – Andy”(R. Jones)* *Operations Manager, Guinness Nigeria Plc Benin Brewery, December 2001 (Handwritten comments in farewell/xmas cards sent to Tayo Solagbade following his resignation to start his own business). ———————– |
| Click here to contact Tayo… |
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Home | Subscribe | About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | My DN Travel News | Web Marketing Systems |Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring for Africa Based Experts(PDF…Click!) |
When serious potential buyers show great interest in a solution, you don’t want to keep them waiting. Yesterday, I launched a new product i.e. my Sales and Marketing Coaching Service for Farm CEOs. And I’ve not been surprised by the serious enquiries I’m getting about it from old clients.
Sometimes you need to listen to what people are NOT saying, just as much as you listen to what they do say to you.
What they leave unsaid may be a useful indication of where they need help.
The thing is you will not detect such needs unless you train yourself to be alert to their presence.
Years of experience has taught me to devote a good amount of time and effort to diagnosing the unstated needs of those I serve as clients.
And it’s turned out to be a very reliable way to boost the remuneration I get from my work.
Basically, I have now gotten to a point, in which solutions I offer are so value adding, that a growing number of my clients call me to ask that I do more for them.
Among other requests he asked if I could include an interface to generate the Phosphorous content of the derived ration.
He also asked if I could develop a version of the app that would enable ration formulation for cattle and other ruminants using concentrates.
We also discussed about having it generate Least Cost Ration Formulas, and also cater for more elaborate amino acids balancing.
I told him that apart from the aspect of catering for use of concentrates for ruminants, I had already commenced work on a much enhanced version of the app.
This superior version is to deliver all the features mentioned above.
Basically, I check for “popularity of” or “interest in” the new feature requested.
If low or poor, I let it go or wait.
If high, I put in the needed investment of time, effort and/or money to make it happen.
In the case of what the Farm CEO wanted, I noted that no other client had ever asked for it. Not one…even though I also felt it was something that would be useful to have…
And this was what made me adopt the currently leisurely pace I employ in working on it.
So my efforts will be focussed on projects most likely to yield such rewards
With regard to the above, the Sales and Marketing Coaching service assured of ready interest, by potential buyers.
First of all there was the Akure based Farm CEO who’d contacted me via Facebook 2 years ago, and who I spoke with a few days back….
He’d expressed ready interest in purchasing such a solution if I came up with it.
The latter were often in the habit of holding the Farm Owners to ransom with regard to buying their eggs and catfish during glut periods.
That told me my new service would fill a gaping market place need.
Furthermore, when I told another Farm CEO client in Jos, who had bought my Poultry Farm Manager software, he promptly expressed interest.
And he even called back to remind me he was ready to call me to find out how to get it, if I so desired.
And so, I put in the needed work to create and launch it.
Within hours of notifying the Akure based CEO, he responded as follows via phone SMS (see below)
Uploading the introductory video for the service, like I anticipated due to the periodically erratic connectivity we have out here, is taking a while.
I also recognise that this may affect the ability of many interested persons to watch the video as well.
It is for this reason that I’ve created the PowerPoint Slideshow version, which can be downloaded from HERE, and is now also published on Slideshare.net.
This will enable as many people as possible gain access to my offer message, and learn what they stand to benefit, as well as how to signup for the service.
As for the enhanced Ration Formulator, I’ll most likely be offering the Farm CEO asking for the customization, a paid service option to have it delivered to him…
[Verbatim Video Transcript Text] It’s taken me about 9 years of serving farm CEOs to decide to offer this service. During this period I have interacted with farm CEOs of all kinds. Some are part-time farm owners, employed in high profile jobs like Oil companies and multinational manufactures.
I’ve however noticed that many of them lack even the most basic sales and marketing know how, to successfully find buyers for their products.
Most don’t even want to concern themselves with the marketing and sales process for finding buyers.
Instead they depend on buyers who come to the farm/who tell others to do the same.
They hope that over time the word will spread, and more people will come.
This approach works, but most times it takes too long, and can yield unreliable results.
Among others things, they cannot b e sure of the sales they will get, or visits that will happen.
The problem with the latter approach however is often that paying attractive commission to retain the services of competent agents can be difficult for a farm business.
In addition, the profit margins they get can vary, since many times they need the buyers who show up to help them clear out market-ready products, so they can free up space, and avoid losses from spoilage or in the case of livestock, excess maintenance expenses.
Very often most of them claim they want to focus on what the do best.
I’ve heard this said often. And it’s not a bad thing. However, one must avoid extremes, and instead strike an intelligent balance in doing it.
In other words I’m saying even as you focus on doing what you do best, you must not undercut yourself e.g. by failing to put in place a reliable system to get your products into the hands of those most equipped to give you best returns for it.
The importance of knowing and controlling your Cost Of Customer Acquisition (COCA) cannot be overemphasised in this regard.
And if you’re not careful, this can undo you over time as such “losses” accumulate.
Few farm products emerge with enough room for such approaches to work.
This is why I strongly advocate that farm business owners take more direct responsibility for generating their own sales and marketing leads.
Even group activities for sales (e.g farmer cooperatives, associations etc) will not always serve the best interests of all the individual members.
Like everything else in society, it will often be useful for each person to explore independent avenues to achieving his/her sales and marketing goals.
If you really want to make profits in today’s world, you must give buyers a good reason to buy from you instead of the other farm or retailer.
Why should they come to you? Your marketing system is what will determine that.
These are the issues you need to look at if you want to sell – and sell PROFITABLY.
Therefore, this coaching program is designed to teach every willing Farm CEO, the techniques and strategies they can use to develop and implement a system, to endlessly and effortless attract ready buyers, who will pay them profitably, for every single farm product they turn out.
That is why you need a system to manage that process. Because you need something that can work outside of you even when you’re asleep to make it happen.
And it’s going to be a mix of different but complementary and self-sustaining strategies and techniques.
Those are things I teach in the DVD and in my live coaching interaction with you.
But there are basic principles you need to first understand, and which you will put to use on a daily basis. I explain them also on the DVD.
So first of all you need the foundation. You need to understand the concepts.
You need to understand the thinking that will help you achieve the kinds of sales you want from your farm.
And this will happen w ithout you having to chase buyers, or have people dictate unfair prices to buy your products…because they know there’s a glut!
You can actually – as a Farm Business Owner – have your product taken off you, at greatly profitable prices, almost without lifting a finger, IF you do everything I teach you in this program.
However, you’ll most likely need to undergo a complete reorientation with regard to marketing your farm products to achieve that outcome.
What I teach is based on the successes I’ve achieved in marketing and selling my products and services to buyers within and outside Africa.
Many people request my help, to find buyers for their products.
One especially popular article I wrote few years back is titled “Producing Good Catfish is Important. Finding Good Buyers Is Imperative”. It’s been responsible for over 80% of enquiries I’ve gotten in this regard.
This is what I offer. That’s the idea behind launching this coaching program.
I’m not going to offer to do everything for you, including finding buyers. That would be impractical, because I’m simply too busy for that.
Even if I wanted to therefore, I could not do it.
Apart from writing and publishing new content on my website, delivering products and services to clients, I also travel.
As a Location Independent Multipreneur I am travelling slowly across West Africa.
In the past year, I’ve been based in Benin Republic’s Cotonou. In a few weeks from now, I’ll be moving on to another West African nation’s capital.
But I can be available to work with you in a support capacity.
I have a growing number of Farm CEOs in my Farm Biz Ideas club who regularly communicate with me via phone, email, Facebook and even Skype.
Many have been sending me payment for my products for years. Today, I relate with them more as friends than as clients.
This video you’re watching now offers you details you need to make up your mind about my offer.
To proceed beyond this point, you’ll need to signup for my Needs Analysis session.
24 to 48 hours after the session, I’ll send you the Sales and Marketing Action Plan report based on my assessment of your unique situation.
In other words, the questionnaire I administer to you will help me find out you exact circumstance, the nature of business you run. And the resources available to you, the environment in which you operate, as well as key challenges you’ve identified to be limiting your marketing success.
Now, the DVD will contain video presentations that elaborate on ideas you will implement.
I will itemize and outline them. Each of the ideas you will be able to put to use on your own.
So what this means is that first of all I will be educating you.
I will also do some research from my end, using my contacts and my networks. And using what I learn, I would develop the sales and marketing action plan for you.
If you do it right, it will only be a matter of time before you begin having PROFITABLE buyers coming to you, on their own, in increasing numbers.
This will however happen ONLY if you know how to get the serious attention and interest of such buyers.
And this applies not just to chicken or poultry products, but to ANY other farm products.
Indeed any product whatsoever.
It’s just about how you present yourself, and how you intelligently inform potential buyers about what you offer.
It doesn’t have much to do with your popularity. Instead it has more to do with how you reach out to people who can pay you what you want to buy your products.
And that’s what I teach in my coaching program.
NB: This article is a verbatim text transcript version of the Introductory Video for my new Sales and Marketing Coaching Program for Farm Business CEOs. It’s subtitled “How to Attract Profitable REPEAT Buyers for Your Farm Products – at ZERO COST!” (click to read article precursor).
