Following are some peeps I use for protection, opportunity, objectionable-people, peace-of-mind, and sales (acronym: P.O.O.P.S. — i.e. they help me fight against all the crappy thieves, opportunists, and bad vendors out there).
Use them at your own risk, of course.
But so far these particular people and companies and services have made my life a ho’ bunch easier…
1. My merchant account agent
My pal Doberman Dan referred me to this guy Joe — who is to people who use merchant accounts what a good insurance agent is to people who use insurance. He is like a “go to guy” for setting you up with merchant accounts — including multiple merchant accounts, for added protection so your income doesn’t dry up if you’re suddenly shut down by yours. (As Dan Kennedy sayseth: “1” is the most dangerous number in bid’niz). He also goes to bat for you if there are any problems, talks to the merchant accounts on your behalf (freeing up all your time — this alone is huge — plug, you do NOT want to be shut down out of the blue, which can happen to any direct marketer — even if you have zero chargebacks and have done nothing wrong — without notice, reason, or explanation. All it takes is someone at the bank knighting your business as high risk, and BAM!)
Bottom line:
He keeps his finger on the pulse of everything for you.
And, gives your righteous self peace of mind.
Plus, like an insurance agent or list broker:
You don’t pay him.
The merchant accounts do.
So he’s free for you.
Contact me if you want to talk to him.
(Full disclosure: I will get a commission)
2. Takedown Czar
The owner Alastair Evans runs one helluva tight ship that attacks the pirates, thieves, and copyright infringers in all the places they like to pillage and plunder your intellectual property. It amuses me how they keep Google (and all the “secret” so-called black hat forums) cleaned out.
Hat tip to Ryan Levesque for this one.
One of the best business investments I ever done made:
3. Selby Marketing (printing & mailing services)
I’ve written about this outfit before.
If you have any printing, mailing, etc that needs doing, Rich, Trina, and Michelle run a fine oiled machine. They treat your business like it’s their own, and in the 5+ years I’ve used them, I have NEVER had a single problem with them:
4. Morgan Whitney (bookkeeping services)
When I moved back to Oregon in 2012, my books got messed up by doing business with a bookkeeper that was unorganized and didn’t really understand the tax laws well.
Needless to say, my books were a mess.
Morgan swooped in, helped me fix everything, hooked me up with a payroll company, and she does all the tedious bookkeeping tasks for me now (including sharing info with my accountant, getting all my payroll info for me and taking care of creating my profit and loss, financial statements, W9’s, etc).
I don’t really have to think about my books at all.
And, she saves me hours and hours of tedious work and time.
Which is kinda the idea…
Contact me if you want her info.
She’s based in Las Vegas and since she’s been doing my books for the last few years, she’s familiar with the Internet marketing world, and our unique bookkeeping particularities.
5. Russell Fox (accounting)
I don’t know if he’s taking new clients on or not.
But what I DO know is, I’ve gone through accountants like underwear over the past 13+ years and Russ (who is an enrolled agent) is by FAR the best I’ve used.
Plus, his blog is highly entertaining.
(In a dry humor kinda way…)
Always a good, informative read:
He’s also in sync with the bookkeeper above Morgan Whitney’s office, so it makes doing taxes each year a breeze since they already know and communicate with each other.
6. Keith Commins
My web, programming, design “go to” guy.
Keith is the ONLY programmer/designer I’ve ever met who is not a complete, and utter flake (TF is with designers and programmers?) And since he’s highly trained in the exquisite art of direct response marketing, his ability to help you ratchet up response is worth 10 times his cost (easy).
More:
He works on retainer, if you choose.
So each month I get the following:
Set amount of his time and he takes care of everything: setting up and monitoring my split tests (including using analytics, testing software, etc), designing pages, digging into WordPress to do whatever I want, sitting on the phone with webhosting support, making paypal and my merchant account play nice, keeping my sites security and plugins up to snuff, and any and every technical problem that can (and does) happen.
Time is your most valuable asset.
And, he allows you to leverage and keep a lot more than you are now, if you’re always messing with website problems and tech gremlins.
His site is:
7. Shane Hunter (Facebook ads, PPC, etc)
Aaaaaaand, last but not least… my Facebook ad guy.
For years Shane was the under-the-radar guy other testing, SEO, PPC, etc other traffic guys would go to when they needed help. But, until recently, he never really offered his services (he basically worked in “spurts” — making 6-figures per year working maybe 3 days per year, and has done work for guys like Frank Kern and a ton of people in the biz opp world.)
Anyway, his skills are crazy good.
His ability to create ads that demand attention are the best I’ve seen.
And he “gets” infotainment.
That’s something hardly anyone in his world understands.
He has a great offer going right now if you want someone to do all your Facebook advertising over at:
OK, there you is.
My personal “go-to” team of vendors, services, and advisors.
Obviously, do your due diligence.
But, call them you should.
Only then, a Jedi will you be…
Ben Settle
