Archive | December, 2018

Imagine having a time machine that would allow you to travel into the future. Once you got there, you met with your future millionaire self to find out what you did between now and then to build such a successful online business.

You then traveled back to today and (hopefully) began implementing at least some of the lessons learned from your much wiser and wealthier self. Here’s some of the core lessons you would have surely learned by now:

Get clear on what you want and WHY you want it. Once you get the goal and the reason for the goal clear in your mind, it’s a lot easier to take those steps necessary to attain it.

You are smarter than you think. Stop stalling and get started. Now.

Motivation comes from within. Waiting to work on your business “when you feel like it” means one thing: Failure.

Speaking of getting distracted – STOP IT. Make a plan and work the plan. Find your big picture and only do the things that will get you there.

The magic button that creates money out of thin air? Does not exist. If it did, would they be selling it for $97?

There’s nothing noble about doing things the hard way. Automate and outsource ASAP.

Step back. Are you still going in the right direction? Course correct.

Stop complaining. Just. Stop.

Don’t worry about your competition. The vast majority of your competition is mediocre anyway, and you’re not stopping until you reach great.

Never stop learning. You know enough right now to start, but not enough to sustain your business long term.

Face your fears head on. If you let fear rule your life, you’ll never accomplish anything new and you’ll never experience anything exciting.

Making money is simple. You take certain steps, you get certain results.

Smart successful people have goals. f you don’t write down your goals, you’re just playing at building a business – not actually DOING it.

Never compromise your character or your good name. Remember, anything placed on the Internet might very well STAY on the Internet forever.

Be yourself. You have far more to offer others than you realize.

Now then, student of your future millionaire self, here are your next lessons. Use them wisely.

If you already have 2-3 excellent products on your computer on how to money online, you likely have enough information to make 6 figures a year. No joke. We’re going to figure you don’t care for one of the methods but you’re fully capable of implementing at least one of the other two.

There are literally thousands of people who have already proven this is true – you only need one solid workable system to make real money online. So stop searching for new qet rich quick schemes and get busy. Now.

Be warned: Others might not understand what you’re doing. They might even resent it. They might try to hold you back. They might discourage you. They might be a total energy drain. And they might do everything in their power to stop you. Their motivation? Many and varied, but the bottom line is that your new business is perceived as a threat to them.

If they’re family, explain that you need to do this and you are not changing your mind. If they are friends, consider placing some distance between yourself and them. You can catch up with them later once your business is rocking – at which time you might be surprised to find out you need new friends because your old ones resent your success. Sad but true.

What you do today will predict what you become tomorrow. Are you diligently moving forward? Or are you putting things off? Choose your habits wisely. I wish I could tattoo that on your hand so you would see it every day. Choose. Your. Habits. Wisely.

Stop focusing on the economy or the politicians and just get busy. I know people who spend their days watching economic news and then lament that it’s impossible right now to successfully start a business. And I know others who ignore that same news and make news of their own, starting tremendously successful businesses in the weakest of economies. Remember, whatever you focus on gets bigger.

It’s all about selling. Period. You’re either selling a product, a click, a service, or something else, but you are in fact selling. If you are not selling, you are not making money. Focus 90% of your time on the sales process, and that includes getting traffic, converting that traffic to a list, and selling to that list.

Content rules. Social networks, applications, software, etc., will come and go, but content has always and will always work because people will always demand high quality content, regardless of format.

Don’t start with just one product, start with 3. Launching a single product with no follow up plan is a recipe for a few quick bucks and then nothing. Instead, know what you’re going to upsell or cross-sell before you even get started. Yes, they can be other people’s products. For example, launch your own product and then OTO an affiliate product, then upsell a second affiliate product.

Build your own tribe. Pick your corner of the Internet, whatever that might be (call it a niche if you like) and then build a solid and ever-growing tribe of people who know you and trust you as THE GUY or GAL in that niche. Don’t worry about those that don’t fit your tribe – just focus on those who do and you will always have an income online.

Don’t buy “stuff with your profits.” That new TV and new car will wait another year or two. Right now invest all of your profits back into your business. This is how people retire in just 5 to 15 years, by reinvesting now to scale up their businesses. Work the numbers. If you’re buying traffic for $1 that yields $2, then you are effectively doubling your money over and over again. If you instead invest that money in a new car, that money and it’s future earning potential is forever lost to you.

Use deadlines. This is your business, not a hobby, so treat it like a business. Think strategically about what needs to be done and write it down, complete with deadlines. Then do everything in your power to meet those deadlines, no matter what.

In the beginning, do not take a day off. Focus on your goals daily or they will fall by the wayside. Missing even one day can lead to missing two days, which can lead to missing a week which leads to a month lost. Every day re-read your goals and do at least one thing that takes you closer to reaching your goal, even if it only takes 20 minutes. It’s not about how much time you put in, it’s about how much you get done with the time you have, and how consistently you make progress.

Forgo all distractions. Hobbies, television, video games, vacations, etc., are all things you can put off for at least your first 4 to 8 months. Set a goal of what you’re going to accomplish by a 6 month deadline, and only when you accomplish it can you afford to be distracted. Yes, you’ve got to get serious about your business – enough monkeying around, it’s time to actually DO it.

Find a mentor. Or a coach. If you want to accomplish a whole lot more in a whole lot less time with fewer mistakes along the way, find someone who’s already doing what you want to do and hang onto their coattails for dear life until you can do it on your own. Yes, coaches cost money in the short run, but in the long run it’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make.

Figure it will take 2-5 years to build real wealth. Look back at where you were 5 years ago and imagine if you had started your business then, where you would be today. Now look ahead 5 years and realize it all begins now.

Build a support team. This might simply be a group of 4 to 7 people who get together twice a week on Skype to brainstorm and report progress. Nothing beats having fresh minds looking at your business, or the moral support of being in company with others going through the same process you’re living. And if possible, get a couple of more experienced marketers to join your group and act as mentors.

BONUS: This one is for the long haul: Have an exist strategy. There may come a day when you want to sell your business, either to start a new one or to retire. By planning for this in advance, you might be able to sell your business for more. For example, be sure to actively build individual lists of prospects, buyers and affiliates because not only will these make you money – they’re also tremendous assets when you sell.

And give your business a name and brand of its own. If you name it after yourself, it will be difficult to sell unless you find another person who shares your name. And also do everything to solely own that name. Purchase all of the domain extensions available and any variations, along with getting all applicable copyrights and trademarks.

Something to think about: Research shows that 80% of pentamillionaires (those with a net worth of $5 million or more) are entrepreneurs who sold their businesses.

Imagine you’re standing on a time line at the exact juncture where it branches in two different directions. One direction takes you to that million dollar business, and the other direction has you spending the rest of your life just as it is now, with no changes and no big success.

You choose which path to take. The million-dollar-future-you is waiting to guide you to that destiny – if you choose. Or you can do nothing, and the other destiny will happen pretty much on its own. Your choice.

You can turn your blog comments off or on at will. So the question is, will you accept comments or not?

On a positive note, allowing comments sometimes gives you great feedback on your posts. If you have a highly read blog with lots of comments, it also provides social proof to newcomers that you and your blog are popular. But on the negative side…

1, Allowing comments opens the door to spam. Frankly, the majority of blog comments tend to be a waste of time for your blog readers. Some are outright advertisements, and others simply contribute nothing to the conversation. Of course you can install spam prevention software. But some spam will still get through, meaning you now have to invest time locating and deleting those comments or pay someone else to do it for you.

2. The tumbleweed effect. This is when you allow comments, but then you don’t get any or you only get one from your Aunt Silvia. If you enable comments but get very few, it will appear as though no one is reading your blog. You and I both know that most people who read blogs don’t comment, but most blog readers don’t know that. They’ll assume your blog is unpopular and they’ll be less likely to stay themselves.

3. Watered down SEO. While a small percentage of comments will help you with your SEO, a larger percentage can actually hurt your chances to get your post on the first page of Google.

4. Loss of control. Unless you’re prescreening comments, anybody can post anything. This means your competitor can post lies about you and your products, and those comments could be on there for a day before you see them and delete them.

Then there’s slander. Someone posts libelous falsehoods about another person or company. Sure, there are laws to protect you. But until things get sorted out, do you really want to endure a lawsuit? Unlikely, but it can happen.

5. The reply catch-22. Someone leaves a great comment and you reply. Or someone asks a question and you post an answer. So far so good, right? But now EVERYONE expects a reply. This is a great way to encourage comments – and it’s also a great way to spend your entire day answering replies instead of creating new content.

Now then – for every reason to not enable comments on your blog, there is another reason to do so, most of which you probably already know.

Bottom line: If you already have comments enabled and you like the results, then don’t change. But if you’re just starting your blog, or if you’re tired of having to act like the blog police to weed out the riff-raff, you might do yourself a favor and disable comments.

It could result in the best night’s sleep you’ve had in weeks.

Have you noticed there are some marketers who struggle for years to build a responsive list and only end up with a list of people who won’t open their emails?

Conversely, you’ve also witnessed new marketers busting into the scene as complete nobodies, and in no time at all they’re commanding lists of mega thousands of eager and loyal followers. So how do they do it?

It really all boils down to one thing – how you craft your content. Whether you’re shooting videos or scribbling down your thoughts, there are certain tricks that will make others want to follow your every word and buy all products.

1. Don’t just tell – show them with stories. Even the shortest of stories can be helpful in captivating your audience and sticking you and your info to their brains like glue. For example, depending on where you went to grade school, you might have been told two different ways to spell arithmetic. One of course is a-r-i-t-h-m-e-t-i-c. But the other is “a rat in the house might eat the ice cream.”

Which one do you remember decades later? It’s the rat mnemonic of course, because that one little sentence tells you a story of a rat in the house maybe eating the ice cream. You only have to hear it once to remember it.

More importantly, as Robert McKee says, “Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”

Stories captivate, increase your open rates and conversion rates, and even hypnotize your audience. Do you want people read your content and follow your suggestions? Then become a master at storytelling.

2. Use cliffhangers and open loops. You’re watching your favorite TV show when BANG! One of your favorite characters is shot. Will he live? You don’t know, because the show ends and guess what? It was the last episode of the season. Now you have to wait until the start of the next season to see if he lives and to find out who did it. That, my friends, is the classic cliff hanger. There is action and suspense but no closure. It’s unresolved. Unfinished.

And human nature dictates that we very much NEED to have that closure, so we tune in next season to get it. Of course, we never really do get closure because every episode leaves us hanging in some way.

So let’s say you’re writing a series of emails or blog posts, and you end each one with a promise to reveal something in the next. It can’t be just anything – it’s got to be something that preys on your audiences’ minds, making them eager for the next installment. For example, maybe you’re dong a series on traffic generation. You outline a method that works well, then promise to show them how one little change can instantly triple their results. Tune in tomorrow to find out what that is. 🙂

Open loops work much the same way, only the cliffhanger comes at the beginning of the content and the answer comes at the end. These are especially great in sales letters and longer blog posts and videos. You might promise at the very beginning to reveal 3 foods that effortlessly melt pounds – and then say something like, “But before we get into that, did you know that there are really easy, simple techniques you can use to burn extra calories throughout your day?” They are compelled to continue reading (or watching) if they want to discover those 3 foods that melt away pounds.

3. Engage the senses. First, use words that activate the senses, such as dazzling and glowing [visual] crackle and sizzle [auditory] fluffy and slippery [touch] delectable and refreshing [taste] fragrant and spicy [smell].

Second, use video. Video engages far more of the senses than the written word, and as a bonus, it can actually be faster than writing.

4. Be funny. This one tends to scare marketers – “But I’m not funny!” they say. The thing is, most people are genuinely funny when they are being themselves. This is not the place to try your stand-up routine or recite jokes you learned as a kid. Instead, it’s the time to show your not-so-perfect side, to laugh at yourself, and to find the humor in everyday life. If you need help with this, read “Make ‘Em Laugh and Take Their Money: A Few Thoughts on Using Humor as a Speaker or Writer or Sales Professional For Purposes of Persuasion” by Dan Kennedy. Dan might also get the award for longest book title ever.

Okay, so WHY do you want to be funny? You probably already know the answer – people like people who are funny. They relax when they’re in a good mood. They want more of that good feeling, and so they continue to consume your content looking for that feeling. And perhaps most important of all – people buy more and buy more happily when they’re in a good mood.

5. Grow your genuine personality. Whatever your personality is, magnify it and grow it to the point of being bigger than life. People follow bloggers, not blogs. They follow a marketer, not a marketing website. They follow you, or they don’t follow at all. Be hot. Have the personality that appeals to your ideal prospect.

6. Then take it a step further and be DIFFERENT. Look at what everyone else is doing in your niche, and then go in a totally different direction. Be contrary not for the sake of argument, but for the sake of shedding an entirely new perspective on a problem or challenge.

Don’t be normal. Don’t be a cookie cutter. SURPRISE people. Do the unexpected. Make them stop dead in their tracks. Shock them. This isn’t so hard – just look at what’s normal in your niche and then do something else.

In fact, if you were to follow only one piece of advice out of this entire article, it would be to see where the herd is going and then call them into an entirely different direction. You won’t get the entire herd to follow you, but you will captivate their attention. And those who do follow (you’ll be surprised how many do) will follow you to the ends of the earth.