So, finally decompressed from The Three Amigos of Traffic

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Actually it's sides but I changed it to Amigos, I say that because I noticed at this event everything we very very clicky. It was a tiny event of 50 60 people and it seemed like 80% of the room was one giant click.

I noticed that the remaining 20% that I was in was trying to pierce that clicky force field. I did make some cool contacts and learned a lot. I realized how underutilized my skills are and how much I need to take action and "fail forward" as Howie Shartz put it.

Howie, may the Shwartz be with you… You kick arse, shame we didn't meet but maybe next time.

Fascinating lineup of speakers, you have Simon Leung who is soft spoken and very technically knowledgeable about Google Adwords. Then you have 180 degree shift with Ross Goldburg who is an in you face, how loud can I roar, not afraid of anything, lemme go smoke a ciggy and stay wound up type of guy.

Last but not least, there is Howie who is a hybrid of both of these guys. He is the Sherman Tank Marketer (you had to be there) Attila the Hun type with a strong and obvious commitment to family. I admire his commitment to his family, he would present then disappear for a bit to connect with his little girl and family that were staying at the venue.

Being a family guy myself I really connected to Howie, like attracts like. Also his blackhatish activities were very refreshing. I say black hat just because it's unatural what he is doing and he knows to stay within the boundries of natural.

Here is a live videocast of the event… http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/619564

Mike Filsaime popped by on Day 1, he had a little crew with him. Got to say a quick hello to him (we met at a Tony Robbins event) he we smothered by a bunch of folks at the event it seemed.

Ken McArthur was there as well, I just signed up for his IMPACT site which a participant (Jeffery Yung) recommended. He is giving away a TON of freebies and what seems like really good content on making an impact in the marketing world.

Going back to the event, there were some very very wonderful nuggets throughout the event. I would highly recommend this event to anyone simply because of the one thing that did not happen at the event.

Having had a background in events, one of my pet peeves… more like disgust… is when you pay for an event that trickles some decent or good content followed by a pitch fest for additional purchases of related material.

It's like saying, hey you need to trackback and ping you sites and I have the secret sauce on how you can do that programatically. Let me spend 1 or 2 hours of you paid time upsellng you on software I had made for $500 that I will sell to you for $250. But first let me start with some contrast by offering it to you for $997 because it has bonuses and work my way down.

As I work my way down, I'll increase the tension by adding bonuses, first mover bonuses, limited number bonuses and finally get one free bonuses… always save your best offer for last right?

This stuff is sickening to me when done so blatantly there are more elegant ways to do this… (just go to a Tony Robbins event for that), it has it's place but when I pay 1, 2, 3, 4, 5K for an event, the last thing I want is a 1 or 2 hour commercial instead of content. I have been to an event where they used some popular techniques from Robert Cialdini, where they did contrast on the first day and offered entry level offers such as plastic buckets with labels on them and bundles of books.

That was the first day, let me see how many people I can get to make a small commitment and buy a little item so I can change their psychology on day 1 and line them up for the biggie.

On day two they add home study courses at $300 -$500 a pop, and offer everything that was offered the previous day plus some new bonuses. Now the folks who purchased have to think, well yesterday was just a little drop in the bucket, $20 bucks was nothing. Now I can take a recording of this event, or a video of this event home with me plus all these cool bonuses and I now have excess books and stuff I can give to my friends and turn them on to what I do. Not a bad deal.

So many folks dive into this deal, some who wanted to buy the previous day and some who wanted to purchase but don't mind spending a little more to get the event in DVD or Audio format.

On day 3, the stakes get bigger… Now we are introducing standalone events. These events range in the thousands, from 1K to 5K. Now if you buy into one of these events, you will also get yesterdays offer as well… Whoa, thats a $300 - $500 value! In addition to seal the deal… for the next hour the next 30 people will get a free ticket to have their spouse or best friend join in for free. Thats 2 tickets for the price of one! Plus everything from the previous day.

I have seen this happen and actually while crewing a similar event, I was one of the order takers. It really bugged me to be part of this very well thought out pitch fest. I ended up leaving because it just clashed with my values.

There was the use contrast, people proof, authority, scarcity… etc… just about every analytical persuasion technique Dr Cialdini shares was used. In addition to a whole mess of NLP and spacial anchoring.

This event I am describing ends with a big bang for package that includes all the programs they offer for a measly 15 or 20K, I even think they offered financing.

So, The Three or Four Sides of Traffic was a refreshing event in my opinion and the content was solid. My hats off to Simon, Howie and Ross plus Lee Collins and his sweet wife. It was actually 5 sides of traffic but they called it 4. If your considering jumping on the offer to buy the DVD set and all the extras that come along with the 3 Sides offer, I would say jump on it if your new to IM or if you have been doing IM for a while but need to really step up your game.

Howie's closing really touched on mindset and action, I am taking his suggestion and taking some big leaps.

One last final note, I just signed up for Sylvie Fortins report, ebook… not sure which one on some of the ugliness thats happening online. Check it out at http://www.internetmarketingsins.com