Archive | November, 2022

As an online marketer, there are 3 kinds of speed you need to focus on to be successful.

The speed of your customer service. If a customer emails you today, you need to answer today. If you can’t, hire a virtual assistant. If you can’t do that, then at least set up a help desk that lets customers know what hours you work, so they know when you will be getting back to them.

Your website speed. How long does it take for your website to load? For every second added to a website’s load time, the conversions decrease by a shocking 2% to 7%, and page views are reduced by 1% to 2%. That’s per SECOND. In addition, Google factors in loading speed when determining the ranking it’s going to give your website. I’m not going into a technical tutorial here, so I suggest you Google how to make your site load faster and take it from there – or suffer the consequences.

That sounded dire. Sorry. I’m eager to get to my third point, and that is:

Your own speed. When you have a great new idea, how long does it take you to act upon it? When your customer gives you a brilliant new product request, do you begin today? Tomorrow? Or do you put it off until never? When you’re in the shower and you have a brilliant thought on how to increase subscribers, do you put it into action now? Or will you “get around to it?”

I’ve found that if I don’t act within 24 hours on a new idea, I will almost certainly never act on it. In addition, if I do act but I wait until I get it perfect before rolling it out – it gathers dust and becomes a total waste of my time and resources, along with an almost imperceptible blow to my confidence and self esteem.

I have a theory, and it’s this: Each time you have a brilliant idea but don’t act upon it, you’re one step closer to dying the death of a thousand cuts. Sure, one or two is no big deal, but they add up. Pretty soon you’ve got a long list of brilliant ideas that never saw the light of day, and you’re business is stalling.

Speed to paramount to success. You almost can’t have one without the other. I encourage you; take something you’ve learned or thought of today, and begin work on it RIGHT NOW. Outline what you need to do to get this idea off the ground, and then do the first thing on the list. When that’s done, cross it off and do the second. Have it done by tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow.

I guarantee; you’ll become addicted to speed and your business, your confidence and your income will thank you.

Hint: Do the Opposite and Success Will Be Yours!

Is the Internet easy money? A lot of people seem to think so, which might be why we see Internet businesses come and go faster than feathers in the wind. And sadly, while it takes a lot to succeed in business, it really takes very little effort to fail.

But you can turn the tables and give yourself a head start by NOT doing the following:

1. Bringing nothing new. You see what someone else is doing and you copy it. FAIL. Unless you do it faster, better, cheaper, stronger, more effectively, etc.; you won’t make a dent in the market. You’ve got to differentiate your business by either offering something new or something vastly improved.

2. Not prioritizing. If you’re obsessed with trivial things like getting your latest article perfected – rather than focusing on the big things like making sales – you’re going to fail. Decide what’s most important to making your business a success (aka: getting new customers and taking care of your current customers) and spend your time and resources on those activities.

3. Doing everything yourself. Sure, you’re lousy at building websites, but who wants to pay a pro, right? So you spend 4 weeks building a website that frankly looks like it was made by a junior high student doing just enough to get a barely passing “D” grade. Forget about it. Hire outsourcers to do the things you stink at, and focus your efforts on what you do well.

4. Pleasing everybody. You’ve got a product that everybody needs and wants, and you’re going to sell billions of them, right? Probably not. First of all, how do you reach a market of “everybody?” Second, when you try to appeal to everyone, you generally wind up appealing to no one. By targeting your product or service to a specific group of people you vastly increase your odds of success.

5. Not being obsessed. If you’re laid back, working now and then when you ‘feel’ like it, and wondering where the truck full of cash is hiding, then guess what: It’s not coming. You’ve got to put in long hours in the beginning of your business to make it succeed, and if you don’t then you’ll never have a business – only a money sucking hobby that annoys your spouse and wastes what time you do spend on it.

6. Changing course repeatedly. Hey, you were going to write great content about fishing and promote fishing related affiliate products, but you just bought this great course on how to sell backlinks, so you’re going to do that instead, except there’s this other course on how to make a killing servicing the Forex community… STOP! Choose your business model and then strap on a pair of blinders so thick you can’t tell if it’s daytime or nighttime.

Once you’ve got those blinders on, the ONLY things that get through are methods and tools that help you on your present course. Anything that could divert you off course is totally, completely irrelevant and will be shunned and ignored to the full extent of your laser focused abilities.

7. Thinking the universe will do it for you. Yes, you’ve watched The Secret a dozen times and read all the latest books on manifesting your destiny. Now all you need to do is sit back and visualize your success 24/7, and it’ll happen because you’re just that kind of guy (or gal.) Get a grip. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to be because you MAKE it happen, not because the Universe owes you a debt of gratitude for you being, well, you.

8. Being a cautious genius. You’ve got a good idea of what to do, but there’s just a few more things you need to learn before you take that first real step because you’ve got to get it just right. After all, in school it was all the studying that got you the good grades, right?

Well guess what, this isn’t school and studying won’t even get you out the door. Yes, you need to know what you’re doing, but no, you don’t need to write your doctorate before you take action. There are times when you need to throw caution to the wind. If you’re procrastinating, if you’re scared, if you’re “not quite ready,” then it’s time to stop preparing and start DOING.

9. Clutching pennies so tightly they scream. You go with the $1 a month hosting because it saves you $9 a month. Then your website crashes the day of your first launch, and there’s no phone number or online chat to get a hold of anyone.

In fact, reading the fine print on your web hosting site, you discover that they only accept correspondence via carrier pigeon, and then only on the third Tuesday of the month. Yes, you need to watch expenses. No, you do not need to cut corners so badly you ruin your own business.

There is an exception and it’s this: If you happen to have a lot of money sitting around gathering dust, you can hire people to perform most of your online marketing tasks for you. You’ll still need to determine the course of your business and guide it in the right direction, but what you spend in money can save you in time.

Then again, having a lot of money to throw at a new venture is often its own recipe for failure, so beware and be careful if you plan to employ this method.

10. Screwing your customers. What’s important is making the sale, not making the customer happy, right? Wrong. Refunds, bad reviews and disastrous customer service will ruin your business faster than termites will eat tree houses in the tropics. Take care of your customers, give them more than they expect, thank them and then ask what else you can do for them. Remember: No customers = no business.

11. Failing terrifies the stuffing out of you. Maybe you shouldn’t do ____ because you might fail. (You fill in the blank.) Guess what – failure is GOOD. Without failure there is no success. The only person who has never failed is the person who has never attempted anything in their life. Do you want to be that person? No. Then expect that you will fail now and then, and when you do, you’re going to pick yourself right back up and keep going.

There you have it – 11 ways to fail or succeed. The choice, my friends, is up to you.

(You Just Don’t Know It Yet)

Think you don’t have anything to share? Think again. Your life experiences along with what you’re learning can make great content. All you need to do is take notice of it, seize it before you lose it, and transform it into an article, blog post or video.

For example, what mistake did you, one of your clients or one of your colleagues recently make that others can learn from? Everyone likes to hear about other people’s boo-boos, and it’s always cheaper and less painful to learn from others’ mistakes rather than our own. So keep your eyes and ears open and you’ll find a ton of content with this idea alone.

While you’re looking for mistakes, keep your eyes open for success stories. What did they accomplish and how did they do it? By learning from the success of others we can find vital clues on how to create our own successes.

Sometimes the real story isn’t in the success but in the challenge they overcame to reach that success. If you or someone else discovered a new way to break through an obstacle, it’s guaranteed that other people will want to hear about it, too.

Has someone given you a terrific piece of advice? How did you use it and what happened? Or have you discovered a new tool with a benefit too good not to share with others? Then you’ve got great content in the making.

Maybe you’ve got a unique solution to a problem others are having. This kind of content is so good you can sell it. Or perhaps you’ve got a story about something that didn’t work at all – others will want to know to steer clear of it.

The real trick to creating great content is simple – look for it. As you read, work, interact with others and go about your day, always keep a lookout for things to share on social media. Keep a notebook in your pocket and jot the ideas down and you’ll find they rapidly multiply into more than you can even use. You’ll never be stuck for great content again because you’ll see it truly is all around you.