From a Cybercafe near the Persian Gulf

Steamy Heat, Uzbekistan Breakfast & GoogleCash

September 11, 2004

Dear Friend & Subscriber,

It is HOT here in Dubai.

Not only is it 95 to 100 degrees, it’s so humid that when I go outside, my glasses fog up.

United Arab Emirates is 100 miles from Saudi Arabia, 200 miles from Iran and 400 miles from Iraq – here’s a map:

http://infoplease.com/atlas/country/unitedarabemirates.html Dubai is right of center.

This is a fascinating place, a strange mix of traditional and modern, old and new. Yesterday I went to the beach – I’ve never seen women in skimpy bikinis and women in full muslim head coverings (you can only see their eyes) all walking around in the same place. Very strange fusion of cultures and customs. Here’s a photo, and in the background you can a woman walking across the sand in full muslim dress:

Yesterday was Friday, which is the Muslim holy day, the equivalent of our Sunday. They call Dubai the Hong Kong of the Middle East, but it didn’t seem like it yesterday. Little was stirring in the scorching sun, but you could hear hymns and Muslim prayers from the mosques wafting through the air. It’s almost impossible to go anywhere without being in sight of a mosque.

Here’s a photo of a Muslim bakery, where bread is made the same way it was hundreds of years ago:

I met up with Sarfraz, a Pakistani fellow who works here as an expatriate (foreign worker living in UAE). In Dubai, expats outnumber residents in some neighborhoods, making for a fascinating mix of Asians, Indians, Russians, Africans and occasional westerners like myself.

We went to Mercato Center, which is the ultra-modern shopping mall that’s only a stone’s throw from the Persian Gulf, complete with Starbucks and a Barbie store, plus all the famous vanity brands like Gucci and Calvin Klein. Here’s a photo:

Sarfraz got on my email list via Chris Carpenter’s GoogleCash, and he had a ton of questions. Most people have the same questions he asked, so let’s pause for a short business tutorial.

The first lesson comes from the fact that Sarfraz knew I was here in the first place – because he was on my email list.

When you have an email list of tens of thousands of people — and you’ve actually built a relationship with them, and not just hammmered them with sales pitches – amazing things happen.

I’ve gotten gracious invitations of hospitality from people in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and Nairobi. Why? Because building a quality list has been my #1 priority.

(BTW there are some people whom I haven’t been able to respond to, for various reasons – if you emailed me and didn’t hear back, don’t take it personally, it’s the difficulty of managing things from the road…)

With rare exceptions, the most valuable asset any business ever has is its customer list – which by the way shouldn’t just be email, it should be snail mail, too.

Now the GoogleCash method – buying traffic on Google and sending it through affiliate links, and collecting the difference as profit – it can and does work, and it’s the best, least-risky way to enter a new market.

But in my opinion, it’s only the beginning. If you’re only brokering traffic, you’re building no assets. The next step is to build an asset, which is an email list.

So that means assembling some helpful information and giving it out in exchange for email addresses, and building a list before you send people on to the affiliate site, is the very next step. It can double or triple your profitability overnight.

Another question that comes up is: What to sell? Amazon stuff? Ebay? Commission Junction?

Well here’s the thing:

It’s great to know a lot about marketing.

But it’s more important to know about Markets.

What do people love? What do they hate? What keeps them up at night? What do they crave?

If you know answers to those questions, everything else is just mechanics.

So here’s the thing: You are already an expert in five or ten different markets. Professions you’ve worked in. Hobbies you have. Places you’ve lived in. Clubs and organizations you belonged to.

All of those things are markets.

So if you’re trying to decide what to sell, think in terms of the microcosms you’re already familiar with. Dialects you already speak.

At that point, all you have to do is find affiliate programs within those markets and you’re likely to already know what keywords to bid on and where people in that market hang out. You’re already an expert.

Now here’s another tip I gave Sarfraz. He’s from Pakistan, and for him, English is a second language. He does speak excellent English, make no mistake, but writing advertising copy is still a very demanding art. Skill with words is paramount.

I suggested that he read English novels by talented authors. Nothing is better for making your vocabulary richer than books by people like Stephen King or John Grisham. Their colorful language seeps into your brain and it actually makes you more articulate.

As a matter of fact I’m reading one of the great novels of the 20th century, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkien. As I journey through Asia and Africa, I have Frodo Baggins and Gandalf as my companions.

Tolkien is a masterful writer. And people who read great writers think more clearly, communicate more effectively, and have greater imagination.

If it’s good advice for an entrepreneur from Pakistan, it’s good advice for Americans, Canadians and Australians as well.

~ ~ ~

This morning I walked down the street to see what I could see, and happened upon an Uzbekistani restaurant, where I had breakfast.

Couldn’t read a single thing on the menu, because it was written in Russian. So I just told the guy to bring me something he thought I’d like.

It was terrific. Something called Pelmani, which included beef dumpling soup, some sort of egg and ham salad, plus bread and yogurt with an interesting tang. An excellent choice next time you stay at the Diplomat Hotel in Dubai.

~ ~ ~

I talked to Laura and the kids this morning, and she told me about a dream she had last night. She dreamed that I went to an amusement park where I was having all kinds of fantastic fun and going on all kinds of rides.

In her dream, while I was having all this fun, she was just doing laundry.

And more laundry. And more laundry. And more laundry. Do you get the point?

I sure did.

I quickly called up Westgate Flowers in Oak Park Illinois and sent her a dozen roses. The card said ‘Missing you in Dubai.’

One must respond very quickly to such situations as they develop! Like I said a few emails ago, I owe her BIG TIME.

Her old friend Angela is coming to Chicago this weekend and they’re going to have a ladies’ night on the town, which no doubt will include some theraputic shopping :^> and caramel lattes.

Some guys would call that retaliatory spending, but I say more power to ’em. They’re both saints!

Salaam until Next Time,

Perry Marshall

Go on to the next installment: “Voyage to the Heart of Africa”