Back with a post to prepare you for the new year.
As we head into 2008 think about where you want not only yourself to be but also your business. What do you want your business to look like in the new year? At the end of the year? How much revenue do you want to generate? How are you going to make it happen?
You need to get organized to figure out the how. Sit down with a pen and paper and make a business plan if you haven't already, that's important resolution for those who don't have one.
They're not that hard to make and even though most people don't enjoy making them you'll find it helps to get your thoughts down on paper rather than trying to remember them in your head.
Physiologically, it also helps you remember things better if you write them down.
Your business plan doesn't have to be chiseled in stone. It can change over time and in fact should change and grow with your business.
Maybe you want to make the jump from affiliate marketer to selling your own products. You'll need a plan for that also to guide you.
Whatever you business resolutions are taking action should be at the top of the list.
Happy New Year. More next time.
Friday
Marketing Tips from Eban Pagan
Today I have a really special treat for all my readers.
Eban Pagan is the authority of the dating niche. Some of you may have been to his site, doubleyourdating.com. Recently Eban put up some great videos on YouTube to promote the launch of his training program, The Altitude Training Program.
I'm posting 3 videos from his series on marketing here. The video is about 30 minutes long in total length. Be sure to watch with a pen and pad of paper ready because your going to want to take notes.
Make sure to watch his other videos at YouTube. They are definitely worth your time.
Eban Pagan is the authority of the dating niche. Some of you may have been to his site, doubleyourdating.com. Recently Eban put up some great videos on YouTube to promote the launch of his training program, The Altitude Training Program.
I'm posting 3 videos from his series on marketing here. The video is about 30 minutes long in total length. Be sure to watch with a pen and pad of paper ready because your going to want to take notes.
Make sure to watch his other videos at YouTube. They are definitely worth your time.
Wednesday
Sunday
Pay What You Want Business Model?
A quick update about an intriguing business model.
I came across an article about a pay what you want cafe which opened in Seattle earlier this year. Read article. A pay what you want model could have some interesting implications for online business and profits.
I came across an article about a pay what you want cafe which opened in Seattle earlier this year. Read article. A pay what you want model could have some interesting implications for online business and profits.
Saturday
17 Year Girl Builds Million Dollar Website
After a long break I'm back with an interesting story I ran across awhile ago. (The article is from September so it's old news but not those who haven't read it yet.)
The CEO Who's, Like 17 and Teen Millionaire from Yahoo News.
What started out as a hobby for Ashley Qualls turned into a profitable business through viral marketing and social networks. I won't analyze her success because it has been analyzed to death on forums, blogs and the news ever since the success story was made public. Just do what you love, and than market it.
For those who aren't making what they want don't spend too much time analyzing her success, just act.
More next time.
The CEO Who's, Like 17 and Teen Millionaire from Yahoo News.
What started out as a hobby for Ashley Qualls turned into a profitable business through viral marketing and social networks. I won't analyze her success because it has been analyzed to death on forums, blogs and the news ever since the success story was made public. Just do what you love, and than market it.
For those who aren't making what they want don't spend too much time analyzing her success, just act.
More next time.
Internet Marketer with 4 Kids Sends Out Distress Call
I'm making a special post today about a fellow internet marketer who is in need of help.
I just got done reading a post at the Warrior Fourm about Cyrell Price who is a copywriter, a web designer and internet marketer. She has four children one of whom is a small child.
I didn't hear much about her since I have only been a member of the forum for about a year and am not there frequently enough to know all the members well enough. I read a post that she fled from her abusive boyfriend who frequently beat her up, so badly that he broke her hand recently. You can read the thread here.
I’ll be perfectly honest here. Since I've never known this member on a personal level I thought the story was made up and was skeptical. After reading through a couple posts I immediately knew it was not any sort of complex scam. John Reese posted a story he’s never told anyone in public and it literally made tears well up in my eyes.
Why it made me tear up is because I can relate his story and Cyrell's stroy. Even though I have never been through traumatizing physical abuse I still know what it’s like to be bullied. I know what it’s like to feel like when you think you don’t have any control over your life anymore. I know what it’s like to have absolutely no money. I know what it’s like to stay awake at night wishing for a better life.
It's sad and pathetic that this violence happens against anyone in a species that's advanced as the human species. What's worse is this type of violence happens all the time unfortunately, all over the world. Think about if this person was your mother or sister or daughter. Please consider helping this woman out. She needs money to move out and to send her kids to school before the school year starts and is more concerned about her kids than herself.
You can either make a donation to her paypal or send a payment to cyprice@gmail.com You can also buy her product Ezine Income System, which is $47. Yes, that is my affiliate link. I'm donating half of the profits that I make to her paypal account. You can sign up as affiliate for her product also at:
http://www.ezineincomesystem.com/affiliate.html
She is a hard working mother and has taken steps to control her life. She created her own product and set up an affiliate program at Paydotcom and has taken action steps in the past to actually do something about her situation.
Most marketers don't want to do work to get where they want to go but she has and is. It's very humbling to see the internet marketing community band together for a worthy cause of helping people in need out. In many cases they are helping a person out they don't even know. If it weren't for the idiotic scammers I'm sure everyone who read her story would consider helping Cyrell out. Please consider helping her out.
Peace and prosperity. More to come next time.
I just got done reading a post at the Warrior Fourm about Cyrell Price who is a copywriter, a web designer and internet marketer. She has four children one of whom is a small child.
I didn't hear much about her since I have only been a member of the forum for about a year and am not there frequently enough to know all the members well enough. I read a post that she fled from her abusive boyfriend who frequently beat her up, so badly that he broke her hand recently. You can read the thread here.
I’ll be perfectly honest here. Since I've never known this member on a personal level I thought the story was made up and was skeptical. After reading through a couple posts I immediately knew it was not any sort of complex scam. John Reese posted a story he’s never told anyone in public and it literally made tears well up in my eyes.
Why it made me tear up is because I can relate his story and Cyrell's stroy. Even though I have never been through traumatizing physical abuse I still know what it’s like to be bullied. I know what it’s like to feel like when you think you don’t have any control over your life anymore. I know what it’s like to have absolutely no money. I know what it’s like to stay awake at night wishing for a better life.
It's sad and pathetic that this violence happens against anyone in a species that's advanced as the human species. What's worse is this type of violence happens all the time unfortunately, all over the world. Think about if this person was your mother or sister or daughter. Please consider helping this woman out. She needs money to move out and to send her kids to school before the school year starts and is more concerned about her kids than herself.
You can either make a donation to her paypal or send a payment to cyprice@gmail.com You can also buy her product Ezine Income System, which is $47. Yes, that is my affiliate link. I'm donating half of the profits that I make to her paypal account. You can sign up as affiliate for her product also at:
http://www.ezineincomesystem.com/affiliate.html
She is a hard working mother and has taken steps to control her life. She created her own product and set up an affiliate program at Paydotcom and has taken action steps in the past to actually do something about her situation.
Most marketers don't want to do work to get where they want to go but she has and is. It's very humbling to see the internet marketing community band together for a worthy cause of helping people in need out. In many cases they are helping a person out they don't even know. If it weren't for the idiotic scammers I'm sure everyone who read her story would consider helping Cyrell out. Please consider helping her out.
Peace and prosperity. More to come next time.
How Top Bloggers Earn Money
Just some quick news you can use for today. I just ran across this article on Business Week and thought it would be of interest to my readers who are blogger's.
How Top Bloggers Earn Money
How Top Bloggers Earn Money
Monday
Do What You Love and Love What You Do
When marketer’s start out looking to build a business on the internet many often gravitate toward the "make money online" niche or "internet marketing" niche. They ask around forums what the hottest product or the highest paying niches are and search around affiliate sites to see what the highest paying products are.
After that they go off and start marketing products as an affiliate or worse they make their own product.
If you’re just starting out as a new marketer and you haven’t even made a single cent online you are not only going to ruin your reputation and creditability but you don’t have any business telling people how to make money online if you haven’t even done so yourself.
Instead do what you love and the money will come. You do what you love not for the money, but you earn money so you can do what you love. When you start doing this you produce some of the best content on the internet, it is valuable to the people who also love what you do after they find your site after you marketed so hard to get noticed. Some of these people who found your site spread the word about how great your site is. You're more likely to get repeat visitors and have people sign up for your newsletter.
When you do what you love you write content for human beings instead of search engine bots. Search engines reward natural content that offers value to the readers. You write that content in a conversational tone instead of writing it as though you are some sort of android robot or hyping up something in a breathless tone. The site eventually becomes an authority in its niche and it sometimes it goes viral. You'll become more productive and gets things done instead of slugging through something you don't enjoy doing.
Your visitors provide you leverage and begin marketing your site for you through word of mouth, email, posting content on forums, linking back from their website etc..It seems to take on a life of its own once you give it a little marketing push.
Though, it you don’t do what you love and you do something only for the money it becomes burdensome, it becomes boring, the pressure to make money can even become too much and that doesn’t do anyone any good because when you're under pressure to do anything, especially make money, you become desperate trying to create the latest and greatest thing in that niche. Desperate marketing is aggressive, obnoxious and most of all transparent. Not appealing to customers.
Now, there’s the issue of outsourcing the niches that you don’t love and handing over the work to someone who actually does but if you don’t have the money to pay copywriters, freelance writers, ebook cover designers and a host of other people (and make sure they each do the job you paid them to do) than stick with a niche you have a natural strength in, a high level of interest in because you'll be able to provide a great level of value to your customers.
Some readers will think why not just chase after the niches that make the most money? Because starting a business in a niche you have a strength in, a passion for, some level of expertise in could become a major money maker for you. You might make more than if you went after one of the "hot" niches. You still have to research the niche to see if you'll make a profit but that comes with the territory of marketing.
Here's a couple of examples of people doing what they love and making money while doing it:
1. askthebuilder.com
Tim Carter is a carpenter and master plumber and created his website in 1995. He is a leading authority in the home improvement niche. An Adsense case study revealed his site was making around $30,000 per moth.
2. dailycandy.com
Dany Levy started the site in 1999 to inform people what's hot from fashion to food, to travel. Levy started mailing a list of 700 subscribers with daily in-demand information. The personal, friendly site has become a mega money maker for Levy and is was sold for $100 million last year.
3. fark.com
Drew Curtis's site launched in 1999 as a way to share interesting news stories with his friends. It took on a viral effect over the years and attracted visitors. Now it is an authority in bookmarking interesting news and pictures. The site receives around 1.5 million viewers each day and estimates of the revenue are in the range of six to seven figures per year.
There's thousands of examples of these sites in almost every niche you can imagine. If you need more examples check out the list of top 100 squidoo lenses. Think about your favorite blogs.
Start a real business in a niche you have a natural strength in, don't get distracted by make money opportunities. Do what you love and love what you do.
After that they go off and start marketing products as an affiliate or worse they make their own product.
If you’re just starting out as a new marketer and you haven’t even made a single cent online you are not only going to ruin your reputation and creditability but you don’t have any business telling people how to make money online if you haven’t even done so yourself.
Instead do what you love and the money will come. You do what you love not for the money, but you earn money so you can do what you love. When you start doing this you produce some of the best content on the internet, it is valuable to the people who also love what you do after they find your site after you marketed so hard to get noticed. Some of these people who found your site spread the word about how great your site is. You're more likely to get repeat visitors and have people sign up for your newsletter.
When you do what you love you write content for human beings instead of search engine bots. Search engines reward natural content that offers value to the readers. You write that content in a conversational tone instead of writing it as though you are some sort of android robot or hyping up something in a breathless tone. The site eventually becomes an authority in its niche and it sometimes it goes viral. You'll become more productive and gets things done instead of slugging through something you don't enjoy doing.
Your visitors provide you leverage and begin marketing your site for you through word of mouth, email, posting content on forums, linking back from their website etc..It seems to take on a life of its own once you give it a little marketing push.
Though, it you don’t do what you love and you do something only for the money it becomes burdensome, it becomes boring, the pressure to make money can even become too much and that doesn’t do anyone any good because when you're under pressure to do anything, especially make money, you become desperate trying to create the latest and greatest thing in that niche. Desperate marketing is aggressive, obnoxious and most of all transparent. Not appealing to customers.
Now, there’s the issue of outsourcing the niches that you don’t love and handing over the work to someone who actually does but if you don’t have the money to pay copywriters, freelance writers, ebook cover designers and a host of other people (and make sure they each do the job you paid them to do) than stick with a niche you have a natural strength in, a high level of interest in because you'll be able to provide a great level of value to your customers.
Some readers will think why not just chase after the niches that make the most money? Because starting a business in a niche you have a strength in, a passion for, some level of expertise in could become a major money maker for you. You might make more than if you went after one of the "hot" niches. You still have to research the niche to see if you'll make a profit but that comes with the territory of marketing.
Here's a couple of examples of people doing what they love and making money while doing it:
1. askthebuilder.com
Tim Carter is a carpenter and master plumber and created his website in 1995. He is a leading authority in the home improvement niche. An Adsense case study revealed his site was making around $30,000 per moth.
2. dailycandy.com
Dany Levy started the site in 1999 to inform people what's hot from fashion to food, to travel. Levy started mailing a list of 700 subscribers with daily in-demand information. The personal, friendly site has become a mega money maker for Levy and is was sold for $100 million last year.
3. fark.com
Drew Curtis's site launched in 1999 as a way to share interesting news stories with his friends. It took on a viral effect over the years and attracted visitors. Now it is an authority in bookmarking interesting news and pictures. The site receives around 1.5 million viewers each day and estimates of the revenue are in the range of six to seven figures per year.
There's thousands of examples of these sites in almost every niche you can imagine. If you need more examples check out the list of top 100 squidoo lenses. Think about your favorite blogs.
Start a real business in a niche you have a natural strength in, don't get distracted by make money opportunities. Do what you love and love what you do.
IM PSA: Is Internet Marketing Hurting Your Health?
Another Internet marketing public service announcement today this time about a topic I don’t hear much discussion of in the IM community. How healthy is Internet marketing for you?
I’m not asking if it’s healthy to make money online, that’s very healthy for you and your bank account. I’m talking about if it’s healthy to sit in front of the computer for a good chunk of the day everyday? Many internet marketers spend hours working in front of their computer working daily.
There are many health related issues with working in front of the computer for long periods of time everyday: muscle pain, eyestrain, and fatigue among others. I’m not a doctor (as a general cavet) but I know it isn’t good to sit in one place for extended periods of time everyday.
Sitting for long periods of time can cause back pain and all sorts of muscle strain in your neck, legs and arms. In fact long periods of sedentary activity could put you at risk of a blood clot if you don’t take any breaks to get up and move around.
Using a mouse can wear out your wrist and banging away on the keyboard writing your articles or ebook can cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
Looking at a computer screen for long periods of time can strain your eyes and even increase your risk of sight problems (specifically macular degeneration) down the road when you’re a senior citizen.
Than there’s the issue of radiation from your computer screen. Studies show computer screens (especially CRT screens) emit a low level of radiation. Constant, daily exposure to computer screens increases the amount of radiation you are exposed to. (As a general rule of thumb sit at least 2 feet away from the screen)
Stress is another unhealthy side effect of IM. Product launches, expanding products, project management, time management can all cause stress, big time.
Here’s what to do to improve your IM health: outsource your tasks so you don’t have to be a slave to the computer all day everyday. You got into internet marketing because you wanted to be free from a job; even if you supplemented your income you may have made your business into an online job for yourself. That’s not only hurting your income that’s hurting your health too.
Divide your tasks up to freelancers on Craigslist or elance. Get someone to help you even if you don’t have the money and you have to get your spouse to help get the tasks done. You can even read the 4 Hour Work Week with the free time you have.
When your body starts to ache and your eyes get strained than its time to get away from the computer for an hour or two and take a break. No, not browsing websites or plopped in front of the TV. Get out and enjoy the day. Spend time with family and friends. It’s Summer time. Get outside and away from your computer and enjoy life. Than tomorrow make outsourcing a top priority so you can get more done and you don't have to be a slave to the computer.
You’ll thank yourself later.
I’m not asking if it’s healthy to make money online, that’s very healthy for you and your bank account. I’m talking about if it’s healthy to sit in front of the computer for a good chunk of the day everyday? Many internet marketers spend hours working in front of their computer working daily.
There are many health related issues with working in front of the computer for long periods of time everyday: muscle pain, eyestrain, and fatigue among others. I’m not a doctor (as a general cavet) but I know it isn’t good to sit in one place for extended periods of time everyday.
Sitting for long periods of time can cause back pain and all sorts of muscle strain in your neck, legs and arms. In fact long periods of sedentary activity could put you at risk of a blood clot if you don’t take any breaks to get up and move around.
Using a mouse can wear out your wrist and banging away on the keyboard writing your articles or ebook can cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
Looking at a computer screen for long periods of time can strain your eyes and even increase your risk of sight problems (specifically macular degeneration) down the road when you’re a senior citizen.
Than there’s the issue of radiation from your computer screen. Studies show computer screens (especially CRT screens) emit a low level of radiation. Constant, daily exposure to computer screens increases the amount of radiation you are exposed to. (As a general rule of thumb sit at least 2 feet away from the screen)
Stress is another unhealthy side effect of IM. Product launches, expanding products, project management, time management can all cause stress, big time.
Here’s what to do to improve your IM health: outsource your tasks so you don’t have to be a slave to the computer all day everyday. You got into internet marketing because you wanted to be free from a job; even if you supplemented your income you may have made your business into an online job for yourself. That’s not only hurting your income that’s hurting your health too.
Divide your tasks up to freelancers on Craigslist or elance. Get someone to help you even if you don’t have the money and you have to get your spouse to help get the tasks done. You can even read the 4 Hour Work Week with the free time you have.
When your body starts to ache and your eyes get strained than its time to get away from the computer for an hour or two and take a break. No, not browsing websites or plopped in front of the TV. Get out and enjoy the day. Spend time with family and friends. It’s Summer time. Get outside and away from your computer and enjoy life. Than tomorrow make outsourcing a top priority so you can get more done and you don't have to be a slave to the computer.
You’ll thank yourself later.
Saturday
Learn From the Best and Grow Your Online Income
The fastest ways to reach to your goals are by learning from the ones who have achieved your desired goal and have the expeirence to guide you.
In the online business world there are a couple of names recently that have really shined, have a plethora of expeirence under their belt and have the income to show for years worth of hard work.
Markus Frind, of plentyoffish.com, runs the biggest free internet dating site- all by himself. He makes around $300,000 per month from this site.
I remember the day Markus posted his success story on a popular marketing forum, many members were skeptical and couldn't believe anyone could make anywhere near that running a website that big and successful all by themselves. These naysayers were quickly silenced when Markus posted a picture of one of his monthly checks.
Kevin Rose of digg.com
I only need to write digg.com and almost all of my readers know why Kevin makes over six figures a month. Digg has become wildly successful since it was started in Dec 2004 as a news sharing site. It has over 200 million pageviews a month.
Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc. Some of the blogs which make up the network of Weblogs are heavy hitters in the blogosphere: Engadget, BoingBoing, and autoblog. Weblogs was so successful Google did an adsense case study on the blog network.
Tim Carter of askthebuilder.com. Tim's is one of the authority sites on home repair and improvement and Tim makes a comfortable living online earning five figures per month.
Many lessons can be learned from these successful business owners when you study them a bit more closely. But most importantly follow an expert who has expeirence, insight and the income to show for it all.
In the online business world there are a couple of names recently that have really shined, have a plethora of expeirence under their belt and have the income to show for years worth of hard work.
Markus Frind, of plentyoffish.com, runs the biggest free internet dating site- all by himself. He makes around $300,000 per month from this site.
I remember the day Markus posted his success story on a popular marketing forum, many members were skeptical and couldn't believe anyone could make anywhere near that running a website that big and successful all by themselves. These naysayers were quickly silenced when Markus posted a picture of one of his monthly checks.
Kevin Rose of digg.com
I only need to write digg.com and almost all of my readers know why Kevin makes over six figures a month. Digg has become wildly successful since it was started in Dec 2004 as a news sharing site. It has over 200 million pageviews a month.
Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc. Some of the blogs which make up the network of Weblogs are heavy hitters in the blogosphere: Engadget, BoingBoing, and autoblog. Weblogs was so successful Google did an adsense case study on the blog network.
Tim Carter of askthebuilder.com. Tim's is one of the authority sites on home repair and improvement and Tim makes a comfortable living online earning five figures per month.
Many lessons can be learned from these successful business owners when you study them a bit more closely. But most importantly follow an expert who has expeirence, insight and the income to show for it all.
Sunday
The Importance of Making Freinds
Whether you do business online or offline it's always important to continually network and gain friends.
I'm not talking about emailing total strangers for JV proposals, I'm talking about getting to know a like minded person online gradually, speaking on the phone, not just about business but about many other topics and eventually even meeting in person at an event.
Going at it alone in business is tough and the loneliness of doing business alone can be even more lonely when you're an online business. It's good to have contact with like minded people in the offline world who can relate to your specific experiences.
You may have heard of the term "old boys network" or more recently "the circle of friends" in IM. Despite some of the ways these terms are used individuals in the circle or even with one or two other people can get more done than someone can all by themselves. This is the power of leveraging your friends.
A group of friends has their network and those people within that network have a network of their own and on it goes. When you need some extra promotional help if you're launching a product your friend can promote an offer to their list which can bring in twice the business.
If you were to try to do a JV with another list owner online it's very likely they will turn you down, but friends trust each other more than strangers trust each other. Business is about trust and leverage.
Now I'm not saying take advantage of your friends with big lists, and lots of resources in high up places. Never do that. That's a surefire way to loose all your friends very quickly. Build a genuine relationship with people online over time (not just for business reasons) and if you ever need you're friends will always be there for you because that's what friends are for.
I'm not talking about emailing total strangers for JV proposals, I'm talking about getting to know a like minded person online gradually, speaking on the phone, not just about business but about many other topics and eventually even meeting in person at an event.
Going at it alone in business is tough and the loneliness of doing business alone can be even more lonely when you're an online business. It's good to have contact with like minded people in the offline world who can relate to your specific experiences.
You may have heard of the term "old boys network" or more recently "the circle of friends" in IM. Despite some of the ways these terms are used individuals in the circle or even with one or two other people can get more done than someone can all by themselves. This is the power of leveraging your friends.
A group of friends has their network and those people within that network have a network of their own and on it goes. When you need some extra promotional help if you're launching a product your friend can promote an offer to their list which can bring in twice the business.
If you were to try to do a JV with another list owner online it's very likely they will turn you down, but friends trust each other more than strangers trust each other. Business is about trust and leverage.
Now I'm not saying take advantage of your friends with big lists, and lots of resources in high up places. Never do that. That's a surefire way to loose all your friends very quickly. Build a genuine relationship with people online over time (not just for business reasons) and if you ever need you're friends will always be there for you because that's what friends are for.
Monday
Web 2.0 Marketing: Marketing on Social Networking Sites
Web 2.0 is not only changing how we use the internet but it is also changing the way we market on the internet. While email marketing still works web 2.0 marketing is gearing up to be as successful, if not more successful than other forms of marketing.
Sites like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Digg and Squidoo have all revolutionized the web within a couple of years. Google purchased YouTube. Fortune 500 CEO's are jockeying for a piece of the action (such as Rupert Murdoch who owns MySpace)and more big deals are being struck between entrepreneurs and corporate buyers.
As with anything online many people are taking notice at the targeted traffic within theses sites and most are quietly adapting while profiting from it. But some are sharing their secrets.
Tiffany Dow has written a great ebook on how to effectively use Squidoo to get more traffic for your websites and leads for your business. It has been getting high praise from top marketer's Such as John Reese. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about marketing on social network sites.
Learn more about Squidoo Marketing.
Sites like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Digg and Squidoo have all revolutionized the web within a couple of years. Google purchased YouTube. Fortune 500 CEO's are jockeying for a piece of the action (such as Rupert Murdoch who owns MySpace)and more big deals are being struck between entrepreneurs and corporate buyers.
As with anything online many people are taking notice at the targeted traffic within theses sites and most are quietly adapting while profiting from it. But some are sharing their secrets.
Tiffany Dow has written a great ebook on how to effectively use Squidoo to get more traffic for your websites and leads for your business. It has been getting high praise from top marketer's Such as John Reese. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about marketing on social network sites.
Learn more about Squidoo Marketing.
Sunday
Responsiblity and Diligence in Marketing
This week a video of a couple became very popular in the internet marketing commumnity because they were (allegedly) making 2-5 million dollars per month. Those are astronomical figures, but when you look deeper into exactly how that money was made you see they were making it selling diet patches. Yes diet patches.
Pretty soon after hearing that images were conjured up in my brain of scammy sales people on late night infomercials making slick promises such as "slap it on and the fat is gone!"
I'm not sure why people think diet patches work. Maybe it's the promise for people who are desperate that they can put it on and the pounds will melt away. Maybe it's the copywriting or the fake testimonials. Who knows.
Further investigating revealed reports at the rip off report and plenty of unhappy customers. Now, there will always be someone who will raise the flag on any product- whether or not it is really a scam- but there were so many complaints it was hard to ignore. Immediately red flags and alarm bells were going off.
Further digging also revealed this product had no customer support whatsoever and the FTC was investigating the company and its affiliates. The couple were selling their secrets for a big ticket price at a seminar two years ago. Now it became clear how these individuals made their money.
While looking through my inbox later that day and I saw some very big names in the internet marketing industry promoting this product(possibly as affiliates). I was shocked. Some were individuals I trust and take their recommendations very seriously.
It may or may not be their fault they are promoting that certain product. Maybe an assistant sent those emails for them. Maybe they sent it themselves without checking the facts first. Whatever the case due diligence should have been taken before recommending something.
I am not immune to this. Earlier today I came across an email from a well known video site informing me of an upcoming teleseminar promoting a big ticket course on how to leverage your business with press releases and the media. The commissions earned on this product are a couple hundred dollars per item sold. That sounded good enough to me. I had never heard of the individual promoting it but he looked and sounded professional enough.
I put up the offer on this blog and went about my activities. An hour later I decided to do some research on the guest of this teleseminar. I came across a couple of websites that didn't exactly have glowing opinions about this individual. Then I came across some videos at YouTube.
After watching the behavior of this individual in a couple of videos and how he treated guests on national television I immediately scrambled to delete the post promoting the teleseminar. I am not going to promote that teleseminar or any products it offers- no matter what the commissions. If this individual was treating guests on his show like that I can only imagine what he would treat affiliates and customers like.
This reminded me there is a marketing responsibility of making sure your customers actually get value out of the products you recommend them. It also reminded me whatever your do online reflects on you. Make sure the products do what they say they do. If you wouldn't recommend something to your own family then why would recommend something to your customers? You are putting yourself at risk for trouble, not only in the form of a ruined reputation but also lawsuits. You are also putting your customers at risk. It doesn't benefit anyone.
The internet allows us to see individuals in 3D. No one is one dimensional on the internet. People can do a Google search on you, go to internet forums and get opinions about you and your products, etc...
The internet also allows marketers to do this same kind of research on products they are about to promote. Just basic scanning of the website can give you clues. If it doesn't have customer support or an email that customers can reach someone if they need help, don't promote it. Save yourself a tarnished reputation and more importantly save your customers from headaches.
I'm not always the best marketer and today I slipped up a bit but I do have a conscious and know a fundamental rule of business- always do the right thing.
Pretty soon after hearing that images were conjured up in my brain of scammy sales people on late night infomercials making slick promises such as "slap it on and the fat is gone!"
I'm not sure why people think diet patches work. Maybe it's the promise for people who are desperate that they can put it on and the pounds will melt away. Maybe it's the copywriting or the fake testimonials. Who knows.
Further investigating revealed reports at the rip off report and plenty of unhappy customers. Now, there will always be someone who will raise the flag on any product- whether or not it is really a scam- but there were so many complaints it was hard to ignore. Immediately red flags and alarm bells were going off.
Further digging also revealed this product had no customer support whatsoever and the FTC was investigating the company and its affiliates. The couple were selling their secrets for a big ticket price at a seminar two years ago. Now it became clear how these individuals made their money.
While looking through my inbox later that day and I saw some very big names in the internet marketing industry promoting this product(possibly as affiliates). I was shocked. Some were individuals I trust and take their recommendations very seriously.
It may or may not be their fault they are promoting that certain product. Maybe an assistant sent those emails for them. Maybe they sent it themselves without checking the facts first. Whatever the case due diligence should have been taken before recommending something.
I am not immune to this. Earlier today I came across an email from a well known video site informing me of an upcoming teleseminar promoting a big ticket course on how to leverage your business with press releases and the media. The commissions earned on this product are a couple hundred dollars per item sold. That sounded good enough to me. I had never heard of the individual promoting it but he looked and sounded professional enough.
I put up the offer on this blog and went about my activities. An hour later I decided to do some research on the guest of this teleseminar. I came across a couple of websites that didn't exactly have glowing opinions about this individual. Then I came across some videos at YouTube.
After watching the behavior of this individual in a couple of videos and how he treated guests on national television I immediately scrambled to delete the post promoting the teleseminar. I am not going to promote that teleseminar or any products it offers- no matter what the commissions. If this individual was treating guests on his show like that I can only imagine what he would treat affiliates and customers like.
This reminded me there is a marketing responsibility of making sure your customers actually get value out of the products you recommend them. It also reminded me whatever your do online reflects on you. Make sure the products do what they say they do. If you wouldn't recommend something to your own family then why would recommend something to your customers? You are putting yourself at risk for trouble, not only in the form of a ruined reputation but also lawsuits. You are also putting your customers at risk. It doesn't benefit anyone.
The internet allows us to see individuals in 3D. No one is one dimensional on the internet. People can do a Google search on you, go to internet forums and get opinions about you and your products, etc...
The internet also allows marketers to do this same kind of research on products they are about to promote. Just basic scanning of the website can give you clues. If it doesn't have customer support or an email that customers can reach someone if they need help, don't promote it. Save yourself a tarnished reputation and more importantly save your customers from headaches.
I'm not always the best marketer and today I slipped up a bit but I do have a conscious and know a fundamental rule of business- always do the right thing.
Wednesday
3 Easy Ways to Create an Ebook
Most times when people sit down to write their ebook, or any other written material, they may run into writers block and are often stumped on what to write about. Other times someone’s mental editorial process takes over and critiques what’s been written getting in the way of a writing flow. While it’s fun and exciting producing your own ebook it can also be frustrating, tedious and even challenging at times. Here’s 3 easy ways to create an ebook even if you hate writing.
1. Incorporate public domain content
The public domain contains content, which is not under copyright any longer. Many works in the public domain are old works from the early 20th century but this does not mean they don’t contain valuable information or are irrelevant to modern times. A wealth of information on a surprising variety of topics can be found in the public domain at various websites. This is one of the great secrets of some established ebook authors. You can find tons of public domain content at Project Gutenberg.
2. Interview an Expert.
Everyone is an expert on some topic. Including a transcript of an interview in an ebook or part of the dialogue gives your creation a unique edge over other content in your niche because interviews are often useful for readers and provide a unique break from the rest of the content. To provide more value for readers you can even record the interview, burn it to a disc and give away or sell it along with your ebook. An expert may be easier to find than you think, it may even be someone in your own family.
3. Get other people to help
Four little words make all the difference when you want get something done, “can you help please?” Friends and family are naturally inquisitive about your online projects and sometimes even what to get involved. You can get a group of like-minded friends or family members together who have the same interests as you and each person can write a chapter of the ebook. The book will not only have an interesting tones and points of views for the readers, but also your group will have fun writing together.
Ebook creation can be a daunting task for one writer by himself or herself and the writing process can be frustrating sometimes. Instead of forcing yourself to bang out an ebook include public domain content, interview an expert, collaborate with friends and family or do all three. Creating an ebook shouldn’t take months and be a task for the writer, it should be fun and naturally easy. By following these three simple steps you’ll make sure it will be.
1. Incorporate public domain content
The public domain contains content, which is not under copyright any longer. Many works in the public domain are old works from the early 20th century but this does not mean they don’t contain valuable information or are irrelevant to modern times. A wealth of information on a surprising variety of topics can be found in the public domain at various websites. This is one of the great secrets of some established ebook authors. You can find tons of public domain content at Project Gutenberg.
2. Interview an Expert.
Everyone is an expert on some topic. Including a transcript of an interview in an ebook or part of the dialogue gives your creation a unique edge over other content in your niche because interviews are often useful for readers and provide a unique break from the rest of the content. To provide more value for readers you can even record the interview, burn it to a disc and give away or sell it along with your ebook. An expert may be easier to find than you think, it may even be someone in your own family.
3. Get other people to help
Four little words make all the difference when you want get something done, “can you help please?” Friends and family are naturally inquisitive about your online projects and sometimes even what to get involved. You can get a group of like-minded friends or family members together who have the same interests as you and each person can write a chapter of the ebook. The book will not only have an interesting tones and points of views for the readers, but also your group will have fun writing together.
Ebook creation can be a daunting task for one writer by himself or herself and the writing process can be frustrating sometimes. Instead of forcing yourself to bang out an ebook include public domain content, interview an expert, collaborate with friends and family or do all three. Creating an ebook shouldn’t take months and be a task for the writer, it should be fun and naturally easy. By following these three simple steps you’ll make sure it will be.
Sunday
Thinking Outside of the Box
A lot of new Internet marketers or individuals who are trying to make money online express frustration with how to make money or that they aren’t making as much as they thought they could. Many of these individuals start out marketing information products from Clickbank. While that is a good route to go in it is not the only route.
Many people can leverage their money-making efforts if they think outside of the realm information products and start marketing physical products. It is important to set up multiple streams of income. Marketing physical products online is a very good way to make money online-possibly more money than could be made marketing ebooks. Commission Junction has some excellent affiliate programs including ebay.
You can sell anything on ebay as an affiliate including big-ticket items: cars, designer dresses, boats, even planes. The possibilities are endless. Currently eBay’s commission structure is slightly complicated as it is tiered but affiliates earn 30% of the 4-6%% of eBay’s profits on the lowest tier.
What this means for affiliates is if your sell a $20,000 dollar car you will earn 30% of what eBay gets (around 4%) Ebay gets $800 and the affiliate gets around $200- in one day. That may sound like small earnings to some that was the earning from only one item. What if you sold another car? Or a $50,000 car? Affiliates monthly earnings potentials are incredible.
How do you even go about selling a car that costs 20,000 or even more online? You need to position yourself with people who are looking for items like that online. The best place to start is with the Craigslist wanted section. You can search through wanted sections for all the cities all over the world and connect people with the items they’re seeking.
EBay commissions are sometimes higher in other countries, for example eBay Germany will pay out larger commissions.
Here’s a simple and easy step-by-step plan that you can do to take action now.
Step 1: If you’re not already an eBay affiliate apply to become one at Commission Junction.
Step 2: One you’ve been accepted to the program or if you’re already an affiliate go to Craigslist and search through the wanted section in a city (cities) of your choice.
Step 3: Once you find someone who is looking for an item which will give you a reasonable commission go to Ebay’s affiliate tool section and go to the “Flexible Destination” tool to link to eBay listings related to what they are looking for.
Step 4: Go to eBay and search for item they are looking for. You can even search by relative location to their area and by price range. Once you’re done that copy the URL link (select, right click is the easiest way) in your browser and paste it into the flexible destination tool. Don’t forget your publisher ID.
Step 5: Give it some clickable text if your want (such as Chevy Camaro) and create the link.
Step 6: Contact the poster by email. You can use their temporary Craigslist email (Ex: sale-##########@craigslist.org) and it will redirect to their personal email account.
Step 7: Compose your message. A typical message is short, is written in a courteous, respectful manner, and politely links them to the listing. Using Chevy Camaro as an example:
Hi Joe,
I saw your wanted ad and thought I could be of some help. I did a quick eBay search and found a couple Chevy Camaro’s in your area. (Your link goes here) Hope that helps.
Best of luck,
Your email here.
I’ve actually gotten emails from people who have thanked me for giving them leads. I didn’t expect that. As it’s always nice to get recognized for your help it also makes you feel like you’ve made their life better in some way.
You can expand to other online classified websites. You can even take your efforts offline and connect buyers with products. You can post fliers in your area. Or even go to local business owners who need monthly supplies. Junkyard owners are always looking to buy and sell auto part or cars, which could be repaired and resold later.
Classic auto enthusiasts in general, who are looking for those rare, old cars, are also another group on the look out for deals. You can go to car collectors forums and see if there is a wanted section . (Be sure to read the forum rules first so you don't spam) Don’t limit yourself to just cars though, remember you can earn commission on any item. It's mind boggling when you first realize this.
The possible ways of promoting your ebay affiliate links are endless. So take action and most of all have fun.
Many people can leverage their money-making efforts if they think outside of the realm information products and start marketing physical products. It is important to set up multiple streams of income. Marketing physical products online is a very good way to make money online-possibly more money than could be made marketing ebooks. Commission Junction has some excellent affiliate programs including ebay.
You can sell anything on ebay as an affiliate including big-ticket items: cars, designer dresses, boats, even planes. The possibilities are endless. Currently eBay’s commission structure is slightly complicated as it is tiered but affiliates earn 30% of the 4-6%% of eBay’s profits on the lowest tier.
What this means for affiliates is if your sell a $20,000 dollar car you will earn 30% of what eBay gets (around 4%) Ebay gets $800 and the affiliate gets around $200- in one day. That may sound like small earnings to some that was the earning from only one item. What if you sold another car? Or a $50,000 car? Affiliates monthly earnings potentials are incredible.
How do you even go about selling a car that costs 20,000 or even more online? You need to position yourself with people who are looking for items like that online. The best place to start is with the Craigslist wanted section. You can search through wanted sections for all the cities all over the world and connect people with the items they’re seeking.
EBay commissions are sometimes higher in other countries, for example eBay Germany will pay out larger commissions.
Here’s a simple and easy step-by-step plan that you can do to take action now.
Step 1: If you’re not already an eBay affiliate apply to become one at Commission Junction.
Step 2: One you’ve been accepted to the program or if you’re already an affiliate go to Craigslist and search through the wanted section in a city (cities) of your choice.
Step 3: Once you find someone who is looking for an item which will give you a reasonable commission go to Ebay’s affiliate tool section and go to the “Flexible Destination” tool to link to eBay listings related to what they are looking for.
Step 4: Go to eBay and search for item they are looking for. You can even search by relative location to their area and by price range. Once you’re done that copy the URL link (select, right click is the easiest way) in your browser and paste it into the flexible destination tool. Don’t forget your publisher ID.
Step 5: Give it some clickable text if your want (such as Chevy Camaro) and create the link.
Step 6: Contact the poster by email. You can use their temporary Craigslist email (Ex: sale-##########@craigslist.org) and it will redirect to their personal email account.
Step 7: Compose your message. A typical message is short, is written in a courteous, respectful manner, and politely links them to the listing. Using Chevy Camaro as an example:
Hi Joe,
I saw your wanted ad and thought I could be of some help. I did a quick eBay search and found a couple Chevy Camaro’s in your area. (Your link goes here) Hope that helps.
Best of luck,
Your email here.
I’ve actually gotten emails from people who have thanked me for giving them leads. I didn’t expect that. As it’s always nice to get recognized for your help it also makes you feel like you’ve made their life better in some way.
You can expand to other online classified websites. You can even take your efforts offline and connect buyers with products. You can post fliers in your area. Or even go to local business owners who need monthly supplies. Junkyard owners are always looking to buy and sell auto part or cars, which could be repaired and resold later.
Classic auto enthusiasts in general, who are looking for those rare, old cars, are also another group on the look out for deals. You can go to car collectors forums and see if there is a wanted section . (Be sure to read the forum rules first so you don't spam) Don’t limit yourself to just cars though, remember you can earn commission on any item. It's mind boggling when you first realize this.
The possible ways of promoting your ebay affiliate links are endless. So take action and most of all have fun.
Wednesday
Is Free IQ the Next YouTube for Marketers?
YouTube is the place for posting and viewing online video. You can find videos of all sorts there, but many marketers have found it to be a very helpful tool in their marketing arsenal. But YouTube is filled with so much junk like people lip syncing to songs in their bedroom or re-enacting their favorite movie scenes.
Free IQ is the online video solution marketers are looking for because it combines ecommerce and YouTube. Free IQ isn’t only limited to video though. Content producers can also post video, audio, free ebooks and articles to get extra coverage and especially targeted traffic.
What's also great about Free IQ is it has an affiliate program which allows you to earn money from other peoples videos. You can embed the video on any site similar to YouTube and make money if a web visitor purchases a product.
If you’re selling a product you have the advantages of having an army of motivated affiliates help you sell your product. Online video is a very effective method of marketing a product to your target audience and Free IQ is poised to become the YouTube for information gathering. Some people are even predicting the site will be bought by Google or Microsoft in the future.
Go check it out at www.freeiq.com
and get your content on there.
You can also learn more about Free IQ
in this video created by Brad Fallon.
Finally, if you're not in the Internet marketing niche you can tap into the massive traffic at YouTube by uploading simple videos. A funny or interesting video uploaded at YouTube can bring in a steady stream of visitors. See how
Free IQ is the online video solution marketers are looking for because it combines ecommerce and YouTube. Free IQ isn’t only limited to video though. Content producers can also post video, audio, free ebooks and articles to get extra coverage and especially targeted traffic.
What's also great about Free IQ is it has an affiliate program which allows you to earn money from other peoples videos. You can embed the video on any site similar to YouTube and make money if a web visitor purchases a product.
If you’re selling a product you have the advantages of having an army of motivated affiliates help you sell your product. Online video is a very effective method of marketing a product to your target audience and Free IQ is poised to become the YouTube for information gathering. Some people are even predicting the site will be bought by Google or Microsoft in the future.
Go check it out at www.freeiq.com
and get your content on there.
You can also learn more about Free IQ
in this video created by Brad Fallon.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Finally, if you're not in the Internet marketing niche you can tap into the massive traffic at YouTube by uploading simple videos. A funny or interesting video uploaded at YouTube can bring in a steady stream of visitors. See how
If You Build it- They Won't Come
All too often new marketers and even bum marketers will create their websites or blogs and wait for the thousands of daily visitors to come. Though, what they quickly realize is if you build it they won't come. You have to make them come. Web traffic is not going to just show up at your doorstep one day.
So how do you get traffic? Getting traffic is the easy part believe it or not.
One great traffic source to start out with is search engines. Traffic will find you according to what pages of your website have been indexed in the search engines and what keywords visitors are finding your site from.
But the question you should be asking yourself is not "how can I get traffic?" but "what kind of traffic do I want to get?"
Do you want people who are in an open to buy mindset? What kind of things are they open to buying then? Or are they looking for information? What kind of information? How to get rid of weeds? Quick dinner recipes? How to train a dog?
You want to attract and actively seek out visitors who are interested in the specific content on your site. Once you start asking yourself these questions you begin to also realize you don't want anybody and everybody visiting your site. You want targeted traffic.
Bum marketing is a great method to get targeted traffic because you can target long tail keywords (low competition keywords) which are relevant to what you're customers are looking for. This way you are positioning yourself in-front of someone who is in an open to buy mindset or searching for information.
Keyword research is an essential ingredient of Bum Marketing and especially for getting targeted traffic. Targeting the right keywords can give you lots of targeted traffic. See how you can get better keyword research.
Also, discover Niche Marketing Secrets. Whether you are a bum marketer, a full time marketer or just a webmaster targeted traffic is something everyone with a website needs.
So how do you get traffic? Getting traffic is the easy part believe it or not.
One great traffic source to start out with is search engines. Traffic will find you according to what pages of your website have been indexed in the search engines and what keywords visitors are finding your site from.
But the question you should be asking yourself is not "how can I get traffic?" but "what kind of traffic do I want to get?"
Do you want people who are in an open to buy mindset? What kind of things are they open to buying then? Or are they looking for information? What kind of information? How to get rid of weeds? Quick dinner recipes? How to train a dog?
You want to attract and actively seek out visitors who are interested in the specific content on your site. Once you start asking yourself these questions you begin to also realize you don't want anybody and everybody visiting your site. You want targeted traffic.
Bum marketing is a great method to get targeted traffic because you can target long tail keywords (low competition keywords) which are relevant to what you're customers are looking for. This way you are positioning yourself in-front of someone who is in an open to buy mindset or searching for information.
Keyword research is an essential ingredient of Bum Marketing and especially for getting targeted traffic. Targeting the right keywords can give you lots of targeted traffic. See how you can get better keyword research.
Also, discover Niche Marketing Secrets. Whether you are a bum marketer, a full time marketer or just a webmaster targeted traffic is something everyone with a website needs.
Monday
Great Big List of Article Submission Sites
Today I have a treat for all the article marketer's. (I hope most of you are doing at least some article marketing) I'm giving you a big list of article submission sites- all in alphabetical order.
On a personal note I'll be taking a break from my business for a while and this blog as I lost a loved one over the weekend and am working through their loss. Thankfully, this list should keep you busy until I'm able to make my usual post again.
Until next time, here's the list:
Amazines www.amazines.com
Article Alley www.articlealley.com
Article City www.articlecity.com
Article Emporium www.article-emporium.com
Articles Factory www.articlesfactory.com
Article Finders www.articlefinders.com
ArticleSubmissions.com www.articlesubmissions.com
ArticleWarehouse www.articlewarehouse.com
AuthorConnection.com www.authorconnection.com
Business Know-How www.businessknowhow.com
BusinessToolchest.com www.businesstoolchest.com
Buzzle.com www.buzzle.com
Common Connections www.commonconnections.com
Connectionteam.com www.connectionteam.com
Constant Content www.constant-content.com
Createonlinebusiness.com www.createonlinebusiness.com
Digital Women.com www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
Ezine Articles www.ezinearticles.com
Family-Content.com www.family-content.com/articles
Free Content www.certificate.net/wwio
FreeTrafficTip.com www.freetraffictip.com
FreeZineSite.com www.freezinesite.com
Fresh-Articles.com www.fresh-articles.com
GoArticles.com www.goarticles.com
Home-Business-Directory.com www.home-business-directory.com
Home Based-business Opportunities www.home-based-
business-opportunities.com
Home business Tips Newsletter www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com
HowToAdvice.com www.howtoadvice.com
IdeaMarketers.com www.ideamarketers.com
isnare.com www.isnare.com
Jogena's www.jogena.com
jorbins.com www.jorbins.com
Li'l Engine www.lilengine.com
LinkSnoop.com www.linksnoop.com
Main Street Mom www.mainstreetmom.com
Marketing PitBull www.marketingpitbull.com
NetterWeb.com www.netterweb.com
OpportunityUpdate.com OpportunityUpdate.com
Organic-Rankings.com www.organic-rankings.com
PromoteNewz.com www.promotenewz.com
PromotionWorld.com/articles.html www.promotionworld.com
Sales Masters World www.sales-masters-world.com
SearchWarp.com www.searchwarp.com
SmartAds.info www.smartads.info/articles
StoreBuilder.co.uk www.storebuilder.co.uk
T & I Grafix www.tigrafix.com/articles.htm
TheEzine.net www.theezine.net
Top-Web-Marketing.com www.top-web-marketing.com/article
Web Host Industry Review www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral
UniTerra.com uniterra.com
upromote.com www.upromote.com
The Warrior Forum - http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=11(Please DO NOT spam the forum)
Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral
WebMomz.com -www.webmomz.com
WebProNews.com -www.webpronews.com
WebsiteFuel.com -www.websitefuel.com
website-promotion-ranking-services.com www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/article.htm
Web-Source.net -www.web-source.net
Womans-Net womans-netnews.com
WorkAtHomeArticles.net www.workathomearticles.net
Work-at-Home-Jobs-Iowa.com www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com
Work911.com www.work911.com
Xongoo.com www.xongoo.com
zinos.com www.zinos.com
On a personal note I'll be taking a break from my business for a while and this blog as I lost a loved one over the weekend and am working through their loss. Thankfully, this list should keep you busy until I'm able to make my usual post again.
Until next time, here's the list:
Amazines www.amazines.com
Article Alley www.articlealley.com
Article City www.articlecity.com
Article Emporium www.article-emporium.com
Articles Factory www.articlesfactory.com
Article Finders www.articlefinders.com
ArticleSubmissions.com www.articlesubmissions.com
ArticleWarehouse www.articlewarehouse.com
AuthorConnection.com www.authorconnection.com
Business Know-How www.businessknowhow.com
BusinessToolchest.com www.businesstoolchest.com
Buzzle.com www.buzzle.com
Common Connections www.commonconnections.com
Connectionteam.com www.connectionteam.com
Constant Content www.constant-content.com
Createonlinebusiness.com www.createonlinebusiness.com
Digital Women.com www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
Ezine Articles www.ezinearticles.com
Family-Content.com www.family-content.com/articles
Free Content www.certificate.net/wwio
FreeTrafficTip.com www.freetraffictip.com
FreeZineSite.com www.freezinesite.com
Fresh-Articles.com www.fresh-articles.com
GoArticles.com www.goarticles.com
Home-Business-Directory.com www.home-business-directory.com
Home Based-business Opportunities www.home-based-
business-opportunities.com
Home business Tips Newsletter www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com
HowToAdvice.com www.howtoadvice.com
IdeaMarketers.com www.ideamarketers.com
isnare.com www.isnare.com
Jogena's www.jogena.com
jorbins.com www.jorbins.com
Li'l Engine www.lilengine.com
LinkSnoop.com www.linksnoop.com
Main Street Mom www.mainstreetmom.com
Marketing PitBull www.marketingpitbull.com
NetterWeb.com www.netterweb.com
OpportunityUpdate.com OpportunityUpdate.com
Organic-Rankings.com www.organic-rankings.com
PromoteNewz.com www.promotenewz.com
PromotionWorld.com/articles.html www.promotionworld.com
Sales Masters World www.sales-masters-world.com
SearchWarp.com www.searchwarp.com
SmartAds.info www.smartads.info/articles
StoreBuilder.co.uk www.storebuilder.co.uk
T & I Grafix www.tigrafix.com/articles.htm
TheEzine.net www.theezine.net
Top-Web-Marketing.com www.top-web-marketing.com/article
Web Host Industry Review www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral
UniTerra.com uniterra.com
upromote.com www.upromote.com
The Warrior Forum - http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=11(Please DO NOT spam the forum)
Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral
WebMomz.com -www.webmomz.com
WebProNews.com -www.webpronews.com
WebsiteFuel.com -www.websitefuel.com
website-promotion-ranking-services.com www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/article.htm
Web-Source.net -www.web-source.net
Womans-Net womans-netnews.com
WorkAtHomeArticles.net www.workathomearticles.net
Work-at-Home-Jobs-Iowa.com www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com
Work911.com www.work911.com
Xongoo.com www.xongoo.com
zinos.com www.zinos.com
Sunday
Finding and Using Low Competition Keywords
One of the most time consuming and even dreaded tasks to do in IM is keyword research. It is can take a better part of an afternoon, it's tedious and you need to look at more than one source to get a good idea whether or not you should target a keyword. But it is crucial for marketing.
Finding low competition keywords is very beneficial to both Adwords advertisers and niche marketers alike.
One of the most important aspects to marketing is finding the markets first before finding the product. Finding what markets people are buying products in. Although, there is an endless supply of products you can promote you need to know what markets people are buying products in and why are they buying products in this market.
Keyword research is a very important component of any successful marketing process to find out why people are buying product's in a certain niche. But where do you go to find good keyword's?
There are a few resources you can use to easily and quickly find information about a niche. You can do more research about what customers want by visiting groups, forums, social networking sites and other online communities. Here are just a few examples of the many possible places to do market research:
MSN Groups
Yahoo Groups
Yahoo Answers
Google Groups
Google Trends
Google Zeitgeist
MySpace
Facebook
Xanga
Squidoo
There are also many keyword research tools you can use to conduct in-depth research about keywords once you have enough data about your market:
Wordtracker
Nichetaxi
Spyfu
Adwords Suggester Tool
Keywords Dynamo
Good Keywords
SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool
Keyword Elite
Using the above resources allows you to find what people are talking about, and what people are currently buying.
When doing keyword research be on the look out for keywords which start with the phrases "buy...", "how to...", "purchase...", etc... These phrase indicate people are in an open to buy mindset while searching for information.
I recommend targeting keywords which don't have much competition because these will be easier to get a higher ranking for. For example, let's say you're in the automotive niche. You might think a good keyword to target may be "cars" That keyword currently has 398,000,000 competing webpages. Far too many. You'll be competing against heavy hitters like The Washington Post, Disney, Pixar, edmunds.com and cars.com for a number one position.
Instead you'll want to focus on a keyword that has less competition such as "how to fix cars." (11,500 competing webpages) or "best cars for your value" or "best cars for your value 2007" (Both of those keywords have zero competing webpages yet).
You can even make variations of the same keyword such as "best cars for your value 2006" or "best European cars for your value."
Once you find good low competition keywords you'll want to put them to work for you. One way to put your keywords to work is through article marketing.
Article marketing is one of the fastest ways to get your name out there and let people know your service or website actually exists. Article marketing is also one of the best ways to gain credibility in a niche(s).
For those who don‘t yet know article marketing method of marketing which involves helpful and valuable writing articles about a topic or niche with a hungry market (a market that is already buying products), submitting these articles to article directories with a link to a relevant affiliate product in the bio box, and getting them picked up by the search engines for the low competition search terms scattered throughout your article body.
You can sprinkle your keywords not only throughout the article body but you can also have your target keyword as the title. The key with article marketing is you want to make your articles and article titles search engine friendly. For example, having a catchy title such as "Hot Town Summer in the City" is clever but it won't give you the results you're looking for.
Plus, you'll be targeting a keyword that will give you traffic searching for the lyrics to a song performed by the Motown group, Lovin' Spoonful.
However, having a title such as "Summer Health Issues: How to Avoid Heat Exhaustion" is a more straight forward, more search engine friendly and will give you targeted traffic.
Let's take my first example of the automotive niche to show you how you can bring together your low competition keywords and article marketing to make money. You can have an article about "The Best Cars for Your Value of 2007" giving readers information about what cars stand up to their warranty, fuel efficiency, etc... You can insert other low competition keywords throughout the article to make sure that article will be picked up for other keywords so you can marketing more efficiently.
In your bio box you could link to a targeted product of your own. You can also link to an ebay mall with the cars that made the grade in terms of best value and collect affiliate income that way. (Just as a little aside, you have to link to your own website or blog from Ezine Articles so you need to have one before you submit articles.)
People using your articles on their sites or blogs and traffic searching for your low competition keywords will in time generate sales for your affiliate product’s. Some sales will be generated faster than others.
Having your articles on other people’s sites will also lead to more traffic not only from other people’s sites but also from search engine traffic searching for your keywords after your article is picked up by the engines.
There’s a couple great places to submit your articles. The first place I mentioned already is Ezine Articles.
Ezine Articles is very powerful for articles and can get you a ranking with a much as 10,000 other competing sites. Ezine Articles does not allow you to place affiliate links in your bio box so you will have to either link to your website or to a blog pointing to an affiliate product.
Please be respectful of their rules and don’t try to sneak affiliate links into your articles. You’ll get your article declined. This not only wastes your time but it will also waste the editor’s time. Ezine Articles is a very good resource so please don’t abuse it.
The second place you can submit articles is at Go Articles, which does allow you to place affiliate links in you bio box. Go Articles is a good resource also but it does not have as high a PR as Ezine Articles. Still, it should be included in your article marketing arsenal.
This is only one of the ways to use low competition keywords. There's so many ways to use them it's almost overwhelming. I'm giving away a keyword list for free with over 300 low competition keywords in a variety of niches. Also included are 3 easy and quick marketing methods to use these low competition keywords.
If you just want more targeted traffic or are looking for more sales then the search engines are the place to start and 300+ keywords are all conveniently packaged in one place so you don't have to do the tedious time consuming research. (It took me a couple hours and to hand pick these keywords- and that was before MS Word decided to crash).
Whether your niche is business or sports get 300 these keywords and the 3 ways to use them. Get it now.
Finding low competition keywords is very beneficial to both Adwords advertisers and niche marketers alike.
One of the most important aspects to marketing is finding the markets first before finding the product. Finding what markets people are buying products in. Although, there is an endless supply of products you can promote you need to know what markets people are buying products in and why are they buying products in this market.
Keyword research is a very important component of any successful marketing process to find out why people are buying product's in a certain niche. But where do you go to find good keyword's?
There are a few resources you can use to easily and quickly find information about a niche. You can do more research about what customers want by visiting groups, forums, social networking sites and other online communities. Here are just a few examples of the many possible places to do market research:
MSN Groups
Yahoo Groups
Yahoo Answers
Google Groups
Google Trends
Google Zeitgeist
MySpace
Xanga
Squidoo
There are also many keyword research tools you can use to conduct in-depth research about keywords once you have enough data about your market:
Wordtracker
Nichetaxi
Spyfu
Adwords Suggester Tool
Keywords Dynamo
Good Keywords
SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool
Keyword Elite
Using the above resources allows you to find what people are talking about, and what people are currently buying.
When doing keyword research be on the look out for keywords which start with the phrases "buy...", "how to...", "purchase...", etc... These phrase indicate people are in an open to buy mindset while searching for information.
I recommend targeting keywords which don't have much competition because these will be easier to get a higher ranking for. For example, let's say you're in the automotive niche. You might think a good keyword to target may be "cars" That keyword currently has 398,000,000 competing webpages. Far too many. You'll be competing against heavy hitters like The Washington Post, Disney, Pixar, edmunds.com and cars.com for a number one position.
Instead you'll want to focus on a keyword that has less competition such as "how to fix cars." (11,500 competing webpages) or "best cars for your value" or "best cars for your value 2007" (Both of those keywords have zero competing webpages yet).
You can even make variations of the same keyword such as "best cars for your value 2006" or "best European cars for your value."
Once you find good low competition keywords you'll want to put them to work for you. One way to put your keywords to work is through article marketing.
Article marketing is one of the fastest ways to get your name out there and let people know your service or website actually exists. Article marketing is also one of the best ways to gain credibility in a niche(s).
For those who don‘t yet know article marketing method of marketing which involves helpful and valuable writing articles about a topic or niche with a hungry market (a market that is already buying products), submitting these articles to article directories with a link to a relevant affiliate product in the bio box, and getting them picked up by the search engines for the low competition search terms scattered throughout your article body.
You can sprinkle your keywords not only throughout the article body but you can also have your target keyword as the title. The key with article marketing is you want to make your articles and article titles search engine friendly. For example, having a catchy title such as "Hot Town Summer in the City" is clever but it won't give you the results you're looking for.
Plus, you'll be targeting a keyword that will give you traffic searching for the lyrics to a song performed by the Motown group, Lovin' Spoonful.
However, having a title such as "Summer Health Issues: How to Avoid Heat Exhaustion" is a more straight forward, more search engine friendly and will give you targeted traffic.
Let's take my first example of the automotive niche to show you how you can bring together your low competition keywords and article marketing to make money. You can have an article about "The Best Cars for Your Value of 2007" giving readers information about what cars stand up to their warranty, fuel efficiency, etc... You can insert other low competition keywords throughout the article to make sure that article will be picked up for other keywords so you can marketing more efficiently.
In your bio box you could link to a targeted product of your own. You can also link to an ebay mall with the cars that made the grade in terms of best value and collect affiliate income that way. (Just as a little aside, you have to link to your own website or blog from Ezine Articles so you need to have one before you submit articles.)
People using your articles on their sites or blogs and traffic searching for your low competition keywords will in time generate sales for your affiliate product’s. Some sales will be generated faster than others.
Having your articles on other people’s sites will also lead to more traffic not only from other people’s sites but also from search engine traffic searching for your keywords after your article is picked up by the engines.
There’s a couple great places to submit your articles. The first place I mentioned already is Ezine Articles.
Ezine Articles is very powerful for articles and can get you a ranking with a much as 10,000 other competing sites. Ezine Articles does not allow you to place affiliate links in your bio box so you will have to either link to your website or to a blog pointing to an affiliate product.
Please be respectful of their rules and don’t try to sneak affiliate links into your articles. You’ll get your article declined. This not only wastes your time but it will also waste the editor’s time. Ezine Articles is a very good resource so please don’t abuse it.
The second place you can submit articles is at Go Articles, which does allow you to place affiliate links in you bio box. Go Articles is a good resource also but it does not have as high a PR as Ezine Articles. Still, it should be included in your article marketing arsenal.
This is only one of the ways to use low competition keywords. There's so many ways to use them it's almost overwhelming. I'm giving away a keyword list for free with over 300 low competition keywords in a variety of niches. Also included are 3 easy and quick marketing methods to use these low competition keywords.
If you just want more targeted traffic or are looking for more sales then the search engines are the place to start and 300+ keywords are all conveniently packaged in one place so you don't have to do the tedious time consuming research. (It took me a couple hours and to hand pick these keywords- and that was before MS Word decided to crash).
Whether your niche is business or sports get 300 these keywords and the 3 ways to use them. Get it now.
Tuesday
Turn Words Into Traffic
In the current state of marketing and advertising online how do you get someone to take your most desired action?
A realm of marketing exists both online and offline calling out for our attention almost every single minute, everywhere we turn. There's ads in the phonebook, ads in newspapers, magazines, on highway billboards, trains, buses, banners on planes, on the side of buildings, TV and especially all over the Internet.
With all these ads everywhere and anywhere people have completely shut down to responding to them and have put up a defensive wall to shut them out completely. The media mad world of modern advertising has overloaded the senses of many consumers.
Other consumer's have developed advertisement detection senses to avoid ads or anything that seems like a sales pitch.
Marketer's are constantly trying to figure out how to break down this wall and reach the consumers so they at least consider what's being offered to them. How do you reach these walled up individuals?
You reach them by respecting them by changing their view of you from obnoxious marketer who hit's them with ads, pitches and offers when they least want them and transform yourself into a trusted friend or advisor by doing the following:
1. Establishing your credibility
2. Establish expertise.
Establishing yourself as a credible expert will allow you to be "let in" so to speak by potential customers and thus you can break down their wall of defenses by being the valued consultant or trusted advisor.
Trust will give you the sale more often than anything else. If a person doesn't trust you than it will be hard to sell anything to them.
How can you get trust and credibility in the online world where prospects are wary of any marketing message?
Write articles in the area of your expertise. This is a fact in the world of Internet marketing. It's the way many began making their money and a way many get more targeted web site traffic every day.
Are articles really more effective at selling a product than a product? To find out take a break from reading this and flip through a magazine or newspaper.
What did you trust more for information? The advertisements or articles? The articles of course. Why? Because when we're looking for information advertisements don't supply much of it or the little information that is supplied is really a thinly veiled advertisement.
Though, articles inform and educate prospects which provides them with more value than any advertisement. Articles are also more credible for reliable information than ads. Information in ads are carefully worded or have a marketing message slanted in the products or services favor.
So don't be shy. Write those articles and share your knowledge. Get free prospects and leads. Show people you are doing more than just trying to sell them a product; you're providing them with valuable information. Article marketing is a win win situation for both you and the customer. So don't let your words
go to waste. Turn words into traffic.
A realm of marketing exists both online and offline calling out for our attention almost every single minute, everywhere we turn. There's ads in the phonebook, ads in newspapers, magazines, on highway billboards, trains, buses, banners on planes, on the side of buildings, TV and especially all over the Internet.
With all these ads everywhere and anywhere people have completely shut down to responding to them and have put up a defensive wall to shut them out completely. The media mad world of modern advertising has overloaded the senses of many consumers.
Other consumer's have developed advertisement detection senses to avoid ads or anything that seems like a sales pitch.
Marketer's are constantly trying to figure out how to break down this wall and reach the consumers so they at least consider what's being offered to them. How do you reach these walled up individuals?
You reach them by respecting them by changing their view of you from obnoxious marketer who hit's them with ads, pitches and offers when they least want them and transform yourself into a trusted friend or advisor by doing the following:
1. Establishing your credibility
2. Establish expertise.
Establishing yourself as a credible expert will allow you to be "let in" so to speak by potential customers and thus you can break down their wall of defenses by being the valued consultant or trusted advisor.
Trust will give you the sale more often than anything else. If a person doesn't trust you than it will be hard to sell anything to them.
How can you get trust and credibility in the online world where prospects are wary of any marketing message?
Write articles in the area of your expertise. This is a fact in the world of Internet marketing. It's the way many began making their money and a way many get more targeted web site traffic every day.
Are articles really more effective at selling a product than a product? To find out take a break from reading this and flip through a magazine or newspaper.
What did you trust more for information? The advertisements or articles? The articles of course. Why? Because when we're looking for information advertisements don't supply much of it or the little information that is supplied is really a thinly veiled advertisement.
Though, articles inform and educate prospects which provides them with more value than any advertisement. Articles are also more credible for reliable information than ads. Information in ads are carefully worded or have a marketing message slanted in the products or services favor.
So don't be shy. Write those articles and share your knowledge. Get free prospects and leads. Show people you are doing more than just trying to sell them a product; you're providing them with valuable information. Article marketing is a win win situation for both you and the customer. So don't let your words
go to waste. Turn words into traffic.
Wednesday
How To Write Your Ebook in 5 Easy Steps
Ebooks are one of the best ways to make money on the Internet right now. It seems everyone on the planet now has their own ebook but it's true, everyone has at least one ebook inside of them.
Whatever you do in life and wherever you go, you build and absorb knowledge. Though, some people think what they know is not important or people would never buy a book about what you know. You'd be surprised.
There are people who are waiting for your knowledge right now, in some cases what people know isn't readily available on the online and a large group of people are just waiting to grab up your knowledge bundled inside an ebook.
Many ebook authors write about a wide range of subjects such as photography, architecture, travel, collecting and any other subject you can think of and they make money doing it too.
If you're thinking of writing an ebook don't keep your knowledge to yourself, make your knowledge sell. But before selling your knowledge to thousands of potential customers you need to consider some important general points:
1. Choose Your Topic
There are a variety of topics you can write about. Anyone can write about virtually anything, even though you can write about anything write about what you know. Everyone has an ebook inside of them because everyone knows about a certain topic. Stick to your area of expertise.
2. Research Your Audience
You can write the best ebook on your topic but if no one is searching for that topic your ebook won't sell. Before picking a topic asks yourself:
-Will this ebook sell?
-Is there a ready and waiting market?
-If so, where are these people located on the internet?
Do keyword research with various tools such as Overture and Wordtracker.
3. Target Your Niche With Precision
Target a tightly focused niche in your topic area. Don't try to target everyone on the Internet. Targeting your niche market is twice as easy when you are a member of your target market. Writing about what you know also makes the marketing process easier because you know exactly where to go to promote your ebook and where your audience is.
If you find your topic has too much competition, think about what you can do to stand above the rest. How can you approach the subject differently to stand out? Consider taking promotional methods offline.
4. Write For Your Readers, Not Yourself
Readers of your ebook could care less about you, they are looking for information and potential solutions about your topic- and they want these solutions fast. It's fine to include a few sentences about yourself and/or your website in the very beginning of your ebook, but going on and on about yourself will waste your readers time and most likely annoy them.
Also, don't write about each and every little thing you know about your subject in your ebook. All too often ebook authors try to cram everything they know into their ebook. Readers don't want to waste time reading over unnecessary details. Write about the most important parts of your subject and get to the point of each part.
5. Spell Check
Most readers will not be happy if they bought an ebook filled with spelling mistakes. If your copy is filled with tons of spelling mistakes your visitors will flee and you most likely won't get any sales. Having a few spelling mistakes is alright. It shows you actually wrote the content instead of a robot or a hired hand.
Though, having too many spelling mistakes will ruin your long-term publishing reputation. Who would want to buy products from someone who can't even spell? If spell check doesn't catch your mistakes and your not sure have someone else check it out. When in doubt have someone else check it out. A fresh pair of eyes will most likely catch some mistakes you missed.
Or will you?
Most people get going and then burn out or never even get going at all. One reason for this is many people have the notion one ebook has to be written over the course of a month or more.
The reality is you can write an ebook in a week or less. It doesn't have to take a long time to write a good ebook, in fact it shouldn't.
Find out how you can make six figures a year as a freelancer writer.
Tuesday
Never Give Up On Your Goals- Ever
There's a great thread going on at the Warrior Forum right now about someone asking for help who was on the verge of giving up. While I seldom respond to threads over there and opt to silently browse through the topics that thread ignited something inside of me to respond and help.
Let me share with you a story which I hope will inspire those who are on the verge of giving up to continue on. I've never revealed this before.
I nearly gave up myself trying to make money online, on more than one occasion.
When I started out online I would get mesmerized by ebooks, sales letters and other success stories about people earning six figures or more per year.
I was motivated to make that kind of money also. I set off in that direction not knowing how to bridge the gap between where I was and where I wanted to go. I had very little SEO knowledge, absolutely no marketing knowledge and no plan.
I signed up for Adsense and waited for the money to come rolling in when I put up the code on my brand new site. When I checked my stats the next morning and every morning after I saw I hadn't gotten one click. Needless to say I got discouraged after a couple months. The truth is I was bumbling around not knowing what to do or how to do it to get myself going.
When I finally got a couple of people to visit my site and I got my first Adsense click many months after signing up. I was elated; money could be made with Adsense after all. It was only a couple of cents but I saw the potential to make it grow. I wasn't quite sure how though, I didn't get any more clicks after that for the rest of the month.
Doubt and fear started to close in. With limited knowledge of website promotion I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Yes I got a couple cents but that wasn't near the amount I wanted. Could I actually make a livable income from the Internet or was I being lied to? Would I only get a click or so a year?
I began to feel the financial strain on my life. My family began loosing faith in my online business. It got to a point where arguments would break out at the dinner table. People told me I would never earn enough to make a living and the only way to make any money was at a job. I gave in and started to look for a real job. I was on the verge of giving up.
Though, one day while browsing through the classifieds, I remembered a quote I heard from an episode of 20/20 about successful entrepenur Christopher Gardner. I always think of it when I feel fear, doubt, worry or wonder: "Whether you think you can or you think you can't your right."
I had backed myself into a corner and I was the only one who could get myself out of it. I was faced with a fork in the road where I could throw in the towel and get a job or I could roll up my sleeves, find information as I take action and accomplish what I originally set out to do.
I started to take action slowly at first and then taking more as my confidence increased. I eventually promoted affiliate products, got more visitors to my website, and discovered article marketing among other forms of marketing. I got some more Adsense clicks and a month later I got my first affiliate commission.
I was just as happy as when I got my first Adsense click, if not more. The money came in slowly and then on a weekly basis.
Take action and do more of whatever is working. I realize now I wasn't taking enough action on the level of where I wanted to be. I also realize if I gave up there would be no chance of any success. I wouldn't have accomplished what I have done thus far. I wouldn't have learned all the valuable information about business. I wouldn't have grown as a person either because I would be giving into my comfort zone.
Finally, I was setting my short-term financial target too high. While it’s great to have large profits in mind you need to make one dollar before you make a million.
Make a plan of action, take that action and never give up on your ultimate goal. Learn what you need to know in order to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be and take action, repeatedly.
There's golden information online. But don't get hung up on trying to find all the information you think you need before you take action. That's like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green on you route before pulling out of the driveway. Just focus on a proven method to make more money and learn as you go. You don't have to be perfect you just have to get going.
Don't be afraid to fail either. Failure is not a punishment, only a teaching tool. If something doesn't work out the way you wanted it to, it's okay. The world won't end. You can always adjust and rectify a situation if needed.
Whatever you do just don't give up. The world would have never progressed to where it is today if the great inventors or entrepreneurs just gave up. Change your mindset to get rid of fear, doubt, worry and wonder as you work.
Don't let other people's conventional wisdom stand in the way either. Remember, whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right.
Let me share with you a story which I hope will inspire those who are on the verge of giving up to continue on. I've never revealed this before.
I nearly gave up myself trying to make money online, on more than one occasion.
When I started out online I would get mesmerized by ebooks, sales letters and other success stories about people earning six figures or more per year.
I was motivated to make that kind of money also. I set off in that direction not knowing how to bridge the gap between where I was and where I wanted to go. I had very little SEO knowledge, absolutely no marketing knowledge and no plan.
I signed up for Adsense and waited for the money to come rolling in when I put up the code on my brand new site. When I checked my stats the next morning and every morning after I saw I hadn't gotten one click. Needless to say I got discouraged after a couple months. The truth is I was bumbling around not knowing what to do or how to do it to get myself going.
When I finally got a couple of people to visit my site and I got my first Adsense click many months after signing up. I was elated; money could be made with Adsense after all. It was only a couple of cents but I saw the potential to make it grow. I wasn't quite sure how though, I didn't get any more clicks after that for the rest of the month.
Doubt and fear started to close in. With limited knowledge of website promotion I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Yes I got a couple cents but that wasn't near the amount I wanted. Could I actually make a livable income from the Internet or was I being lied to? Would I only get a click or so a year?
I began to feel the financial strain on my life. My family began loosing faith in my online business. It got to a point where arguments would break out at the dinner table. People told me I would never earn enough to make a living and the only way to make any money was at a job. I gave in and started to look for a real job. I was on the verge of giving up.
Though, one day while browsing through the classifieds, I remembered a quote I heard from an episode of 20/20 about successful entrepenur Christopher Gardner. I always think of it when I feel fear, doubt, worry or wonder: "Whether you think you can or you think you can't your right."
I had backed myself into a corner and I was the only one who could get myself out of it. I was faced with a fork in the road where I could throw in the towel and get a job or I could roll up my sleeves, find information as I take action and accomplish what I originally set out to do.
I started to take action slowly at first and then taking more as my confidence increased. I eventually promoted affiliate products, got more visitors to my website, and discovered article marketing among other forms of marketing. I got some more Adsense clicks and a month later I got my first affiliate commission.
I was just as happy as when I got my first Adsense click, if not more. The money came in slowly and then on a weekly basis.
Take action and do more of whatever is working. I realize now I wasn't taking enough action on the level of where I wanted to be. I also realize if I gave up there would be no chance of any success. I wouldn't have accomplished what I have done thus far. I wouldn't have learned all the valuable information about business. I wouldn't have grown as a person either because I would be giving into my comfort zone.
Finally, I was setting my short-term financial target too high. While it’s great to have large profits in mind you need to make one dollar before you make a million.
Make a plan of action, take that action and never give up on your ultimate goal. Learn what you need to know in order to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be and take action, repeatedly.
There's golden information online. But don't get hung up on trying to find all the information you think you need before you take action. That's like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green on you route before pulling out of the driveway. Just focus on a proven method to make more money and learn as you go. You don't have to be perfect you just have to get going.
Don't be afraid to fail either. Failure is not a punishment, only a teaching tool. If something doesn't work out the way you wanted it to, it's okay. The world won't end. You can always adjust and rectify a situation if needed.
Whatever you do just don't give up. The world would have never progressed to where it is today if the great inventors or entrepreneurs just gave up. Change your mindset to get rid of fear, doubt, worry and wonder as you work.
Don't let other people's conventional wisdom stand in the way either. Remember, whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right.
Monday
Reaching Goals: Give Yourself a Reason
After nearly a month long holiday break I'm back.
There's nothing more important to me than family and friends and it was good to take a break from my business and spend some time with the one's I love. It feels good to work when I want where I want and be able to do what I want. But my business is not only about my wants, it's was started with others in mind.
Many people get started online without first setting a definitive, specific goal. Goal setting is a crucial step to becoming successful in anything.
The goal of starting your own business is not just to make lot's of money, it's to get freedom to do... what you want, when you want, where you want.
When you give yourself a better reason to reach or finally go for your goals and eventually become successful. Your specific, individual reason will change something inside of you. Something will click and you will become driven to achieve your goal(s) more readily than if you just state a vague goal.
For some people it's the goal to live a certain lifestyle. Have the dream house, luxury car(s) and the power to buy what you want.
For others it's about family. They want their kid's to get a great education. They want to see their parent's not have to work for someone else. When you incorporate others into your goals you give yourself greater power to archive them because your doing it for someone. Your success becomes their success.
One of my favorite mantra's is the more money I make the more money I can give back.
What's your reason to achieve your goals? Is it about living the life? Being your own boss? Family?
Give yourself a specific reason and watch your success increase.
There's nothing more important to me than family and friends and it was good to take a break from my business and spend some time with the one's I love. It feels good to work when I want where I want and be able to do what I want. But my business is not only about my wants, it's was started with others in mind.
Many people get started online without first setting a definitive, specific goal. Goal setting is a crucial step to becoming successful in anything.
The goal of starting your own business is not just to make lot's of money, it's to get freedom to do... what you want, when you want, where you want.
When you give yourself a better reason to reach or finally go for your goals and eventually become successful. Your specific, individual reason will change something inside of you. Something will click and you will become driven to achieve your goal(s) more readily than if you just state a vague goal.
For some people it's the goal to live a certain lifestyle. Have the dream house, luxury car(s) and the power to buy what you want.
For others it's about family. They want their kid's to get a great education. They want to see their parent's not have to work for someone else. When you incorporate others into your goals you give yourself greater power to archive them because your doing it for someone. Your success becomes their success.
One of my favorite mantra's is the more money I make the more money I can give back.
What's your reason to achieve your goals? Is it about living the life? Being your own boss? Family?
Give yourself a specific reason and watch your success increase.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)