I’m always asking myself this question and I thought it might be useful to share it for others who might get the same benefits I do.

Here’s what it means:

1 - Being at ‘Effect’ means from your perspective, you are experiencing the effect of things happening in the world and you need to be ready at all times to deal with whatever life throws at you. Usually when you’re at effect, you have thoughts such as:

“it’s tough right now because of the economy”

“other people are making things difficult for me”

“If it wasn’t for X, Y or Z…… I’d be more successful”

“If only I had more X, Y or Z….. things would be better”

“I can’t see how things are going to turn out well for me”

“Success isn’t coming my way”

“My boss is making my life hell”

“My partner is making me unhappy”

These are the things that can go through your mind when you’re ‘at the mercy’ of the world and its challenges.

2 - Being at ‘Cause’ means you think that you are the cause of the things that happen to you and around you.

In this case your questions are:

“How did I make this happen?”

“What am I doing that’s attracting this?

“Why am I choosing to react this way?”

“What is the reason I am choosing to feel this way?”

“Why am I choosing to feel bad about my boss?”

“Why and I deciding to feel bad about my partner?”

“I think the economy will make things harder for my business, so what must I do differently?”

“Why am thinking about negative things instead of positive when I know that’s a bad choice?”

“What can I do to put the odds in my favour?”

“What can I do to attract success?”

“How many ways are there that I can get the results I want?”

“Do I have a strategy for getting motivated when I slip into a poor mental state?”

I’m sure you can see the difference - It’s HUGE and makes ALL the difference in the world.

If you’re struggling with your online business and feeling like ‘everything is against you’ or ’success isn’t coming your way’, take a few moments to ask yourself - “What am I doing to attract success to me?” or “How can I change the way I do things so that they’re easier and more likely to succeed?”

When you realise that YOU are in control and you create your results (rather than ‘they happen to you’) you’ll stop thinking about why some people seem to have all the luck, and why other people have success - you can be sure they’re not getting it by letting it happen to them, they’re rolling out the red carpet and turning on the success magnets and attracting it like there’s no tomorrow.

The big difference between the two positions if you didn’t already spot it a mile away is that from one position you have no power - things happen to you. In the other position you have all the power in the world and there is no situation that leaves you unable to expect a better future.

When I’ve traveled I’ve seen people thriving and succeeding in the most diverse situations, that many of us would naturally think would make you give up hope. It can mean the difference between happiness and depression.

In relationships it means you’re always in control of your emotional happiness and while  you can let people in and be loved, you’re under no illusions that you can only be happy if they behave in the right way or do the right things - your happiness is your choice. Happiness is a process where you’re constantly deciding whether you want to feel happy - when someone doesn’t put out the trash - you only feel bad if you’ve given yourself a set of rules that says in this situation you should feel bad. The same applies to love - YOU decide to allow yourself to feel loved based on the filters you have.

When you put yourself at ’cause’ - you have control of your life and your results.

So, whenever I start to feel bad or worried about something - I just ask myself if I’m at cause or effect. I’ve been doing it long enough now that as soon as I ask myself I already feel better because I know from past experience that I always end up realising feeling bad isn’t the right choice and doesn’t make sense.

If you want better results for your business - put yourself at ’cause’ and get real about what you’re doing and what you expect to be the results of that, and whether you need to rethink or adapt your current strategy.

At the very least - you never need to feel about about it.

Andy

I posted this on a well-known forum and got a massively positive response and thought I’d share it here too.

This post is for newbies to the forum and IM in general.

You may have heard the term ’sell the sizzle not the steak’? (it means if you’re selling something sell the exciting part rather than just give boring description of the product itself)

Well - I’m just here to warn you that much of the sizzle you’re being sold doesn’t actually come with steak.

Here’s a reality check.

Most people in IM are not making money. Probably 90% of those who are - are making less than they’re spending on IM stuff.

Of that remaining 10% - probably half of them are not making enough for it to be their only income.

Making ‘good’ money online REQUIRES A LOT OF WORK.

Now, I know you’re being fed sizzle that says - here’s how to make a few grand in a few days, and yes it is possible - I’ve done it and even shared how I did it, but……

Even when someone says it and it’s true - it’s not the reality for most people that try to copy it.

I’m not just saying this from personal experience - I get out and about a lot and meet people, other IMers who are working hard to make money - most of them are not really making any money.

The real kicker to this is - that is regardless of what tools, courses and systems they’ve bought which promise to short-cut their success.

These tools, systems, courses, ebooks, videos etc…. will not suddenly make you great money.

The MAIN factor that will effect your success is - HOW MUCH WORK YOU DO.

Now, obviously there’s a certain amount of knowledge required and many people are buying information products and coaching etc to short cut their knowledge gathering - that’s absolutely fine and a good idea.

But I’m telling you - if you think that you’re just waiting until you finish your first ebook - then you’ll be rich, don’t kid yourself. 70% of IMers have written at least one ebook and even if they sold some, it usually doesn’t last and it’s just a tiny part of making money.

What you don’t see is just how MUCH people making money really do.

For instance - I have several hundred websites of my own and several hundreds blogs and social accounts etc…

Why? because it means that I don’t need to rely on anyone else for me to be able to get traffic, links and sales to my own products.

The biggest problem most people have is being able to turn their traffic on when they need. If you have that targeted traffic tap - then you can always make money.

The problem is - it takes time to build it.

I know that people are always telling you to get this tool or that system - the thing is - did you notice how every one of them seems to be the ‘only one you need’ or ‘the best tool of its kind’ - and the underlyng assumption is that it’s all you need.

The Twitter tools are a classic example - as soon as a few marketers realised that Twitter is popular and people will buy stuff if you tell them they now need twitter and the latest Twitter abuse tools - they create whatever they think is what people want to see and sell the hell out of it.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that most of the Twitter ‘automatic adder’ tools will get your account banned. Twitter hates people abusing their systems the same as Google does.

These tools are not the answer to your problems.

They’re adding to your problems.

With all that said - we’re making the situation worse every time we buy into the latest hype or tool.

The things you’re doing to ‘help’ yourself are the very things that are sabotaging your success.

Looking for shortcuts all the time is NOT the way to be successful - can you imagine an olympic athlete saying “I’m going to stay in bed today instead of my morning run - I have this drink that says it will give me energy when I need it”, or for that matter a farmer who waits until 2 weeks before harvest and then tries to quickly grow his crops at the last minute because he couldn’t be bothered to put the time in and plant them when they should have been.

You need a plan - a plan that actually points you to a successful result. Not some generic thing that ’should get you ’some’ results.

If you went to your bank manager and said “I need $5k to start an online business” and he asked “so can you show me how and when you’ll make that back” and your answer was “well, I’m going to spend $2k on this traffic course, then pay some people I don’t know below minimum wage to write articles for me and then just watch the cash roll in” what his reaction would be?

There are 2 pieces of advice I would like to humbly offer you today.

1 - Don’t underestimate the amount and consistency of work that is being done by people who seem to be ‘easily and quickly’ making great money.

2 - Before you invest yourself fully into your online activities (this is something you need to do really) when you get to the point where you’ve read about or heard of an ‘easy’ way to make money - take a deep breath, sit down somewhere quiet and be really honest with yourself and ask this question - “Do I really KNOW what the plan for my online business is? (are you hoping to pay your mortgage, or support your family) and will the activities I’m planning to do be able to get me there? if I’m not sure - are they activities that I can measure and be able to tell whether I need to supplement/replace them at some point?”

People will tell you all sorts of things, usually for the right reasons, often out of enthusiasm or excitement - but most of it will not be true for you.

Don’t base your business and your dreams on what people are telling you. Use your brain, assess things for yourself and make a plan that’s right for YOU.

Certainly model the success of others but don’t expect copying people or buying the latest “how to make $5 in 5 days” WSO will answer your problems.

Ask yourself the questions that challenge whether someone is trying to make you cut corners and not do your business in the way you know really needs to be done.

Take your business seriously and don’t kid yourself that hard work is involved. Almost ANY IM money making strategy will work if you just get focused and take consistent action in a direction that you understand and can see how and why it will work.

Don’t waste your money buying lots of tools - they’re just there to help you be more effective once you already know what works for you.

And don’t be afraid for ask for help - working with others makes your IM journey MUCH more fun.

Andy

I’ve spoken before about the Pareto principle and the need to ensure you’re spending the right time and the most effective activities.

Lately I’ve been rehashing my life and deciding what’s important and what I want to spend my time on in 2010.

Aswell as my IM activities and consulting business, I’ve decided to build-in my music in some way that also brings me an income (to ensure that I have one extra reason to ensure I’m still doing something often.

So, I spent the morning sat in my favourite coffee shop running myself through a ‘wheel of life’ workshop to make sure I’m considering all of the things which will be affected by my choices and that I end up with a well-formed outcome that means I’m making money while doing things I enjoy and include all of the things which are important to me.

This exercise is a great way to ensure that you’re actually doing the things which are important for your business to grow in the way you’d like.  If you’ve been thinking about how to make 2010 the best year ever for your busines, take some time out to sit down and think about how you spend your time and whether your current actions actually line up with what is needed for your business to grow the way you want.
Andy

While I was wandering around my local country park this morning, for some reason I noticed the noise of the birds more than usual, with all the sqwarking, chirping, squeeling and tweeting I could hardly hear myself think.

But for some reason it reminded me about online marketing

There was something about a group of hungry birds, of all types, flocking around one particular area that reminded me about the phrase I often use in niche research - “find a hungry market”.

The was, I probably walked 3 miles around the lakes of the park today and although these birds could gather anywhere, they were mostly at this one spot.

The reason why - There was a child throwing bread.

Now, usually when it comes to marketing it seems like you need to go and find the hungry crowd, but apart from going to the country park, this form of marketing seemed to state that even if you’re only in the vicinity of the hungry crowd - if you have something they really want, they’ll find you and spread the word.

This is much more powerful than you chasing around trying to convince them you have what they want.

Throwing a little out there for them to taste results in them following you pretty much wherever you go in the hope you’ll provide more.

This is actually a very powerful insight and something which many people fail to realise. You don’t have to chase down your market - you just need to be in their radar with the right product at the right time and they’ll find you. As long as you create excited followers - word will spread.

Try and see for yourself.

Andy

Online success or creating revenue can be really simple and most people complicated way more than necessary.

I gave this advice to someone and thought I’d share it for you here.

You don’t really need anyone to give you a system. I know this is what most people are looking for - but in reality you have all the information you need within a few clicks of your mouse.

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll already understand what’s necessary and it’s probably just a matter of you choosing a direction and going with it.

The beauty of the Internet is that you can choose your own model for making money that works your skills and suits your preferences.

No-one else can give you what you’re after.

There are MANY different ways to make money, and unless you get behind one and work it - it’s irrelevant which one you choose.

If you do fully get behind a model, again it’s almost irrelevant which one - most will make you decent money if you take them seriously.

There are only a few aspects to it and I’m sure you already know them:

1 - Identifying a group of people that you can access that want something.

Accessing them is the hard bit, but even that can be easy in most niches with the use of PPC, so there’s really no reason for not being able to do this.

2 - Having something to sell

Accessing people is only useful if you have what they want to buy - again this is easy as you can slice this any way you like and don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Sell someone elses product, make your own, outsource it, information, audio, video, software, services etc…. you can do whatever works.

3 - Creating a way to make follow-on sales

This is usually as simple as putting an auto-responder in place with a series of follow-on offers to ensure you keep that relationship with the customer and allow them the opportunity to buy more from you.

This also acts as building intrinsic value in your business which you can eventually sell if you don’t intend to keep running things yourself.

4 - Leverage, Scalability and Systems

The big area most people miss out on is taking things to the next level. Creating your business in a way that doesn’t take all of your time, money or energy to keep it growing is where the big money is at. As long as you don’t try to do everything yourself - you can grow your business way beyond your own abilities.

That’s about it….

Andy

Hi,

I’ve been looking into creating vector images a lot lately as I have several reasons for needing them.

If you’re unfamiliar with Vector images, they’re basically images which have a lot of computations done on them so that they can be resized without losing the quality. So when they’re drawn they’re described by mathematics rather than just with only the information to describe them at the size they were drawn.

This means if you need to resize images for use in any of your marketing efforts, T-shirts, press releases, ebook covers etc, this might be just what you need to do.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, here’s a good article I found that describes how to turn a jpeg image into a vector image.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4421430_convert-jpeg-vector-image.html

That is free, but if you’re looking for a program, here’s another place I found. I’m not affiliated with them, so use at your discretion.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4421430_convert-jpeg-vector-image.html

Have fun

Andy

Hi,

I was going to talk about traffic generation today but I got a message from my friend Martin Avis telling me he has finally launched a product about how he makes money with newsletters.

Now, I should say that although I have lots of Internet Marketing friends, Martin is someone who I consider in a special category, not only because I’ve known him for several years, but because he’s one of the few people who I’ve always respected. He’s truly one of the good guys.

Grab Newsletter Success Formula Here

Other marketers love to have Martin speak at their seminars - not because he has a ton of high ticket products to sell and make them money, but because he’s a genuine, honest, intelligent guy who has rock-solid ethics and loves to help people. He’s on my shortlist of people I respect and call a friend.

Martin isn’t a hypey guy who’s always releasing products, he a solid and focused marketer who has always been considered a go-to guy for ezine marketing. He’s very well respected and always positive and polite.

So, as you probably already know - I don’t often promote products to you here (even my own), so you can be sure that me telling you about Martins new product is something special. I’m not a launch pimp and I generally don’t care to join the bandwagon promoting peoples stuff, so this is a genuine recommendation for a product from someone I trust to look after you and overdeliver on your expectations.

I don’t want to waste your time repeating Martins sales letter about his product - but you’re going to love it and although I’m not sure he wants me to tell you about this - he has a one-time offer after you buy the product that is something special and I was really surprised to see him offer.

Grab Newsletter Success Formula Here

Martin always keeps the price as appropriate as possible so when I got this product myself and saw just how much he’s delivered I was surprised that he managed to keep the price down, this is a package that some marketers would be selling for well over $1000. Martin understands that although people are happy to invest in their business, times are hard right now and he packed a ton of value into this offer.

Check it out now and see for yourself.

Grab Newsletter Success Formula Here

Have fun and even if you decide not to grab this product yet, make sure you sign up for Martins ezine over Here

Andy

A multi-millionaire friend of mine layed out these rules which I wanted to share with you:

1 - Do The Right Thing.

Never take the easy way out. Character is doing the right thing even when no-one is looking.

2 - Act Quickly.

When problem solving, early action is better than analyzing the situation to death.

3 - Fail Fast.

“Fail Fast” and change your course quickly in light of new data.

4 - Customers First.

Customers, and the needs of the people who serve them, always come first.

5 - Everyone Sells.

Participate in the selling process directly or indirectly, and establish relationships with customers and those who interact with them.

6 - Make Informed Decisions.

Listen to the ‘experts’ but then don’t be afraid to make your own decisions.

7 - Be Flexible.

Be willing to dive into the deep end.

8 - Hold Yourself Accountable.

Hold yourself accountable for your actions.

9 - Know The Business.

Know the details of your business inside and out.

10 - Develop A Plan

Do not wait for someone else to tell you what to do.

11 - Ready Doesn’t Mean Done.

Follow your actions through to the end.

As you can see, these are pretty much common sense tips, but common sense is rare these days and many businesses struggle due to the lack of some simple systems or actions.

Andy

Using video to make money is something I get asked about a lot these days and I thought it was time I provided a quick reminder of just how quick and easy this can be.

You’ve probably caught the wave of people telling you that you should use video to promote your business, or that if you’re not using video you’re missing out big time - well I’m not into that, only you know whether it’s right for you or not, but here’s one way I used it to make a few bucks:

I did some niche research in one of my specialist areas - blogging and found a few common questions that people had.

These included things like:

“how do I install wordpress”
“how do I install wp plugins”
“how can I use rss to feed content to my blog”
“how can I use social bookmarking with my blog”
“how can I automate content building and social bookmarking”

So, basically there were a lot of people new to blogging, new to plugins and new to socialbookmarking.

I made a short video (20 minutes) showing how to do the things they were looking for. I used Camtasia for this but there are other ways to do it.

I ran a special offer to get some testimonials.

I broke the video into short (1-2 mins) sections for each sub topic within it and created 6 smaller videos.

I uploaded the snippets to Youtube and that was it.

The offer sold over 100 copies of the video and Youtube brought in constant traffic from day one.

I made $3000 in the first 24 hours and have made money continuously since that day.

This was a 20 minute - unedited video.

Nothing except my knowledge and camtasia was required for this, there was nothing for people to buy to follow my advice and there was no fluff or filler.
I later offered the video with ‘rights’ so that others could sell the videos and I’ve come across them being offered by several well known marketers as part of a bigger package.
now….. I want to give you an insight into how you could use this strategy to massively help any niche you’re working in.

Consider what I’ve just told you and then think about this:

If I were to want to build a LOT of links to a new website and I knew that ideally those links would be from lots of other (related) websites and would ideally keep increasing over time - how could I use this technique to do that?

……………

……………

If you were to do the same as I did, BUT aswell as the video you offered Wordpress templates themed for a particular niche (you can get these created for under $100) and package the information as a “How to create a themed recipe niche website that builds on auto-pilot and uses the power of social bookmarking to promote itself on auto-pilot”
Do you think you could sell any? Do you think you could give it away?

If you consider that your desired outcome is links - you can give this stuff away.

So your customer gets a template (or set of templates) and a video showing how to install it and set it up so that it builds and promotes itself on auto-pilot - FOR FREE!

If you haven’t worked it out - you include a link to your site in the template, so that every page they create (on auto-pilot) has a link to your site.

This way you get lots of people auto-building continuously growing themed blogs on which every page provides a keyword rich link back to your site.

I’ve done this and had over 100,000 links back to my site within a month.

And there’s nothing here that you couldn’t do yourself.

And that’s just ONE strategy for getting lots of links - and even get people to pay to for the pleasure.

I hope you find some inspiration in there.

Regards,

Andy

I gave someone some advice which I wanted to share with you:

There are some simple rules I use which you may find useful:

1 - Don’t spend money you can’t afford (sometimes it takes time to get a campaign in profit.

2 - Make sure you include negative keywords (don’t waste money on the wrong traffic)

3 - Be congruent (set an expectation in your ad and match it with the link - people don’t like having their expectations unmet, so make sure you send them somewhere that ties in with what your ad said) I know this is common sense but a lot of people write their ad without thinking of where they’re about to send that person and what they want them to do.

4 - Start big a trim down (make a big keyword list and then trim off what doesn’t convert. Sometimes it’s the keywords you don’t expect that turn into sales)

5 - Use Adsense to test (it often helps to make a simple blog/site with information and Adsense and track what people click so that they tell you what to offer.

6 - As per 5 - Track everything so you know what’s working (and not)

7 - Give it a big enough test (don’t just send 100 people and make assumptions, but watch your budget)

8 - Try and get a $50 Adwords voucher, there are a lot of them being given away by hosting companies etc, so you can get $50 of ad credit by spending $5 in many places.

9 - Learn about copywriting (writing effective ads is more complicated than you might think, so you can start right away but take the time to learn how to do it properly and you’ll ultimately make more money)

10 - Watch and learn. (there are a lot of existing successful PPC campaigns running which you can watch and learn from. There are also tools which will help you do this and also create and run your campaigns on a more effective level. check out http://www.speedyppcs.com/ )

I hope that helps.

Andy

Hi,

I’m sat in Luton airport as I type this at an Internet terminal and I paid £2 to get 20 minutes because I wanted to share a story with you.

As I sat here contemplating life, the universe and everything, I was reminded of a story I read recently and wanted to share with you.

I’m remembering from memory so this isn’t word-for-word but you’ll get the idea.

It was about a seminar speaker who wanted to get people to stop using whatever their current situation was as an excuse for why they couldn’t be successful.

The speaker held up a £20 note and asked who in the audience would like to have it - lots of hands went up.

The speaker then crumpled the note up and asked again - lots of hands went up.

The speaker then threw the note to the floor and stood on it grinding it into the ground with his foot and asked the question again - all of the same hands went up.

Now, the message here is that even though the note was not in its original perfect condition - its intrinsic value was still there and desired by the audience.

Quite often when we apply this analogy to our own sense of self-worth, as soon as we’re not happy with the external appearance - we perceive ourselves as less valuable.

In truth - most of the reasons we use to tell ourselves that we’re not valuable are actually nothing to do with our true value, and often others will still think that too - but for some reason we’re hard on ourselves and can even feel worthless when a few things in our environment come together and we use them to represent our own value.

The next time you feel less valuable because of your body, your finances, your mindset, your relationships - remind yourself that like the £20 note, these things are superficial and not related to your true value - which cannot be removed.

Everyone has special value which whether they see it or not, and whether others see it or not - is always present and waiting to be appreciated.

Andy

Hi,

I just got up and had a lovely soak in the bath and am now sat at my pc looking out at a beautiful sunny day. The grass needs to be cut and I’m in the middle of creating a new comprehensive blogging product and developing a marketing strategy for a new chat system I’m building.

Most people would look at the amount of time I spend at the computer during the weekend and say I don’t have a life (although I do ALWAYS make it to my local country park and a coffee shop or 2 every weekend).

When I think about this idea of a work-life balance it just doesn’t really make sense to me. I know that may sound crazy for such a well-accepted principle, but for it’s all MY life - whether I’m spending it on activities that are work related or not, it’s all coming out of the 24 hours I have each day.

So the idea of trying to ‘balance’ things always feels like some sort of compromise. It’s like saying - you can have your life, but you have to counter-balance it with things you don’t like in order to have the good bits.

This idea is just crazy!

You know the old saying “if you like what you’re doing you never have to work a day in your life”? That’s my philosophy too.

So, whether I’m sat at a coffee shop reading a book or writing an article - or on the computer typing a blog post - I enjoy it all. I really appreciate my ‘thinking time’, so I always give myself sitting in the sun (or a coffee shop) time on a regular basis, and I use my travelling time (I travel a LOT) as thinking time to keep track of whether I’ve slipped any polluting activities or thoughts in by mistake.

So, if you’ve been running your life trying to maintain a ‘balance’ - I say stop and just align everything towards what makes you happy and productive and stop compromising - you’ll love the results and probably make more money and enjoy yourself more in the process.

Andy

Hi,

Note: This technique basically uses Adsense and PPC as research tools.

I just read another “I’m number 1 in Google for the term xxxxx - is that good?” thread.

The usual answer to these threads is “No” because they’re meaningless terms that no one is searching for and you can get number 1 in Google just by being the only person to bother including them in your page/link.

This is actually a common strategy that con-artists use to sell SEM services, they claim a top Google placement and then choose an obscure term.

So, rather than keep getting these I thought it would be worth sharing a strategy that everyone can use to avoid this mindset in the future.

This is just what I have found to be my experience, so you can take it or leave it but I believe it to be sound advice for most people.

The obvious common mistake being made is that people are doing things and THEN looking at what they’re ranking for and then wondering whether that’s worth having.

The number one thing most people should be doing BEFORE anything else is a little research into their chosen market and the keywords in use.

Here’s a basic strategy you can follow regardless of niche:

1 - Do some keyword research to see what terms people are searching with and what LSI terms go together with them.

You can use a site like http://kwmap.com/ to get an idea, or get a tool like Martin Avis’s http://techtrader.ksyourlife.hop.clickbank.net/ for more comprehensive results.

2 - write a few articles focused on the keywords you want to focus on, but including some related LSI terms

3 - Setup a blog and post an article a day to that blog - ensure that the blog has Adsense included and that you’re tracking those Adsense clicks, and include affiliate links to the top products in the niche (and track the clicks)

4 - Once a few of your articles are published, setup a suite PPC campaigns focused on different aspects of the niche and point them to the relevant article on your blog.

5 - Find the terms that get you Adsense and affiliate clicks and make a list of the top 20 keywords which result in some sort of action (clicks, purchases etc.)

6 - Turn off the PPC (unless it’s profitable and you want to keep it going) and write a bunch more content focusing on the keywords which you just listed.

7 - Replace the Adsense ads that get clicked with affiliate ads or ads for your own products (make sure the product is similar to the one they were clicking through to before)

8 - Kick in all your other promotional techniques to ramp up the traffic.

This is the way to make sure that the traffic you get makes you money and that you don’t end up with traffic but no revenue.

Taking the time to do this properly is like install a turbo in your car - you don’t need to anything different afterwards but you get much better performance.

Andy

Hi,

I recently gave some advice of an example of how a beginner could approach the issue of starting an online business which would work and make money.

I know a lot of people struggle with this issue so I thought I’d share what I said:

It’s the default one that seems to always be able to make sense in some form for almost anyone wondering if it’s really possible to start out online and KNOW exactly what to do to grow your business.

Running a business directory.

Now, I know there will be people that have considered this but found a ton of reasons why it couldn’t work ‘for them’, so what I’ll do is give some ideas about how to think about this so that you have a flexible model that you can work with.

The basic proposition as you can probably guess is that you create an online directory and monetise it in some way.

The usual options are to choose a niche or a geographic location and grab a yellow pages or similar and put a listing for every business you can find that fits. Then you contact these businesses and offer them an ‘upgraded’ listing. This can vary depending on the niche, but could include more detail, a picture etc.. Then the usual addition to that is a ‘featured’ listing where they pay more and get preferential placement in the order of the listings.

Most people stop there or at best consider running Adsense ads on the pages and then leave it at that.

Now, in itself that could still be a workable model.

Refering back to my 2 essential components - 1) Once you’ve started, you can get an idea for how many businesses you need to contact to get a new signup, and how many of those will upgrade to featured listings.
2) it’s completely scalable. You can add as many businesses as you like and it’s very little work to handle 500 compared to 50. Once the initial info is put in, they’re paying to keep it there. The more data you get about visitors and click-through rates, the more ammunition you have to justify your prices (or to raise them)

So it’s a good model for those reasons.

Now let’s address those skeptics who are saying “the businesses in MY area won’t pay”, or “there aren’t enough of them to bother with”.

That may be true but that’s why you need to think outside the box a little at what other value you can bring to the table and that they WILL be bothered about and want.

As a newbie to IM, once you understand the basics of SEO and know how to setup a project on Elance (or any of the other outsourcing sites), you can pretty much make anything happen.

So, let’s consider one option:

Some of the businesses you contact don’t have a website.

This is an opportunity - you are in a position to help them in several ways.

a) you could create one for them and have them pay you.

Bare in mind that most companies pay several THOUSAND dollars for a half decent site. You have many ways to underprice and over deliver in this area.

i) You could buy a template and populate it with their content.
ii) You could outsource the site on Elance
ii) You could just use a cms or blog platform and get a template created and then populate it with their content

you get the idea.

b) You could forget about the website and just provide them with an email system so that they can collect their customers details and send them offers to bring them back in at times where they’re normally quiet.

(Note - this could be another layer to your offer if you did do a website)

(Note - If you did make them a normal site, you could offer a special ‘blogging’ package to give them that feature as an upsell)

c) If they’re not technical but would like to learn about it - you can offer them training (in whatever way suits you, workshops, seminars, webinars, teleseminars, you could create training or just sell them stuff you’ve bought the rights to)

You get the idea?

I’m assuming that you can take this idea and run with it and include recurring costs for hosting, sem (articles, press releases, bookmarking, link building, etc.. etc.. - these are all on-going tasks), research, monthly reports (SERPS, pages indexed, number of links etc.)

I don’t want to do all the thinking for you - but you get the idea.

There are LOTS of ways to provide value for businesses and you don’t need many to get onboard to start making a decent living.

If you want to earn more money - get more clients, charge more for your services, add more revenue streams - the options are endless so you can tailor it completely to suit you.

Once you have a few customers you could even just employ other people to rinse and repeat your model and free yourself up from it.

I’m typing this off the top of my head so I now have 1000 other ideas in my mind, but I’ll end the post here so you get to do some of the thinking for yourselves

Just think outside the box and this model can fit ANYONE.

Andy

Hi again,

I was recently asked some questions about how I got into blogging and I thought I’d share my answers with you.
Many people approach blogging from the perspective of just another list building tool, but my approach to my online business is much more personal and I only do things which will add some level of richness to my life - not just for the money.

So for me, blogging is more about sharing than making money (which is why you don’t see me pushing all the latest product releases).

My answers are pretty short, but maybe you’ll find something useful in there.

1. When  did you get started in blogging?

I started blogging in 2004 when I was running an online newsletter and looking to archive previous editions.

2. How did you get started with blogging?

Initially just archiving existing ezine editions and then adding reviews of products I was testing for my Internet Business.

3. What do you keep in mind while writing your blog posts?

Who is the audience, what is the main point of the message I am deliverying, what do I expect them to do having read it

4. Do you feel you interact with your readers?

Yes, it’s the main thing I like using blogs for. Although on some blogs I disallow comments, I still get a lot of feedback via email.

5. How do you value blog comments?

I don’t put a lot of value on commenting on other peoples blogs for the sake of links - there are much better ways to get effective links.

6. How do you think Blogging has evolved since the time you started to blog?

Blogging has grown massively since I started and the technology has come a long way to support it.
There’s almost nothing you can’t do with Wordpress and some plugins now.

7. What are your favorite blogging tools?

Wordpress is my platform of choice and the only real tools I use are plugins to automate sharing and receiving content.

8.  What blogs do you read on a regular basis?

Just my own and those of my online friends/colleagues. I do like to keep up with what others are doing, but there are no blogs I read every day.

This include, Martin Avis, John Taylor and Mark Joyner.

9.What is/are the best way(s) to make money from a blog?

I find affiliate revenue to be my best income stream from blogging.

It’s nice to get the Adsense payments and I make larger sums when I have new products of my own to offer, but the affiliate revenue is the largest consistent stream.

10. What is/are the best way(s) you have found to bring traffic to your blog?

Posting great content and letting others know using automated systems to syndicate to Twitter and social bookmarking sites.

Word of mouth from others spreading the word seems to generate the best traffic.

11. What one piece of advice you’d want to give to aspiring bloggers?

Don’t focus on trying to make money, just focus on sharing useful and specific information with real people. The money will come.
Your online friend.

Andy

===================================================

Why You Need An Autoresponder

===================================================

If you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up

with answering the mountain of emails that threatens to

bury you alive every single day, you’re ready to learn

about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their

email inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to

work continual twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough

people to constantly monitor incoming emails (while they’re

eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news

is an autoresponder is an inexpensive - or even free -

method of quickly responding to emails. What these programs

do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as

they are received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different

reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices

give you their feedback about your website - for free!

However, if you spend all your working hours answering

these emails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders

are programs that automatically respond to your emails

without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an

autoresponder besides just answering your email. For

example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to

send information about your services or products, price

lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across

large numbers of emails. Maybe you want to offer your site

visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or

relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an

autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your

business and then build stable relationships with your

customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with

your email program to a specialized script that runs on

your web hosting company’s server. This kind of script may

use a web page form or simply operate with your email

account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a

standardized message whenever an email is received. The

message is sent to a particular script or email address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out

standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited

number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval

of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to

send out a new message every day for as long a period as

you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free

of charge. Your website hosting company often provides

autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case

with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies

who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge,

providing you attach an advertisement for their company to

your emails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach

a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business

cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact

numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It’s a good idea to attach a signature to every email that

is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your

business identity every time a customer sees it. The more

they look at your signature, the more likely your company

will spring to mind when your particular service or product

is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee

in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every

staff member create their own personal signature. Of

course, like everything in life, there are some rules and

guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines

of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line.

Make sure that your email program does not cut off your

text! The content should include your name, your company

name, your email address, fax number, and any other contact

details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a

short personal message about your company. It should be a

subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly

your company’s reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create

courses that you can then offer your site visitors for

free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert

and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into

a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site

visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a

different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a

welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation

about what is to follow. Your explanation should be

enticing, getting the point across that you are offering

free, quality information that your target audience will

find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the

topic title, information about your company and its

services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs

about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue

on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable

information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more.

Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can

offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the

material carefully, employing a professional writer or

editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your

autoresponder.

There are a number of free autoresponders you can use. Try

http:/www.getresponse.com, or http://www.fastfacts.net. Or

go onto Google and you will find a long list of free

autoresponder companies. Then sign-up for your chosen

autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions

as to how to set it up and transfer your text.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and

it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing

your email address carefully. Your website should contain

different email addresses for different contact requests.

For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information

requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about

sales. It’s a good idea to set up one for the owner, such

as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in

a personal, approachable light and insures that direct

contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing

tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of

potential customers. This is an invaluable asset

considering how many potential customers you usually have

contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially,

an autoresponser allows you to automate part of your

marketing campaign.

Hi again,

I have recently been getting a lot of emails from marketers selling information and products on list building.

They tend to be founded on the long-standing foundation of “the money is in the list”.

Obviously, when I get an email from someone telling why I need something it’s usually followed by a call for me to buy their solution to this new need they’ve identified I have (I being - everyone on their list), so I tend to view them skeptically.

Recently they’ve been saying the same about Twitter with comments like “you can earn huge money with a list of Twitter followers” and such things.

Of course Twitter does have some advantages over things like email as far as deliverability issues etc are concerned, but the character limit means the communication is not quite the same, so it’s certainly no replacement.

However, since I don’t really use Twitter to sell things and don’t view it as a marketing revenue stream to be milked, I’m not feeling these people when they treat it as such.

So with the subject of list building being a bit of a focal point I thought it was the right time to remind you that you don’t NEED a list at all.

The Internet has put millions of people at your reach in thousands of different ways.

For no money, and with no list at all, you can communicate with masses of people on a vast number of topics.

With forums, facebook, twitter and a mass of other community based communication methods at your disposal, you have access to more than enough people to be able to make money.

Then when you consider Pay Per Click (PPC) systems like Googles Adwords - you can access as much of whatever market you want, immediately and effectively.

So, with just a computer and internet access (not even necessarily your own) you can happily be making more money than many people in full time employment.

With that said, of course there’s a lot of more value from a revenue perspective than just a persons first time purchase so building a list of people who are hungry to buy things in a particular niche is always a great addition and a suitable step for most businesses - it’s NOT necessary by any means.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling something.

Andy

Unleash Your Creative Instincts

People seem to have the misconception that only a select few are able to unleash a steady flow of creative genius. That is not true at all. The fact is, creativity is very much like a muscle that needs to be exercised in order to consistently give out great results. If you don’t practice harnessing creative thinking, this skill will very much atrophy into inexistence. But keep working and this skill will soon come to you in a snap.

So how do you unleash your creative thinking? Well, the first thing is to become a human leech. No, we’re not talking about just sucking the blood out of every living being available, we’re saying that you should take in as much knowledge and learning you can find. Read everything available — good and bad, and keep your mind open to the infinite possibilities of the universe. The more you know, the more you’ll want to know, and the more your faculty of wonder will be exercised. Prepare to be amazed at little facts that add a bit of color into your life.  

Focus on a creative activity everyday. Yes, it’s an effort. Even doodling is a creative activity. Don’t let anything hinder you. Mindlessness may be a creative activity, but for people who are just starting out to unleash a little bit of creative thinking in their lives, it is helpful and encouraging to have concrete evidence, that, “hey, what I’m doing is getting somewhere.” So why don’t you try it. Practice drawing for a couple of minutes each day. Bring out your old camera and start snapping photos like crazy. Keep a journal and make a point to write in it religiously. Another cool idea is to write by describing something with your five senses. Try to avoid vague adjectives like “marvelous,” “amazing,” and “delicious.” Before you know it, you’ll have built yourself a tiny portfolio, and you’ll be amazed at the growth you’ve undertaken after amassing all those works of art. Who knows, you might actually take to liking those things you do everyday. Pretty soon those things will become a part of you and you’ll be addicted to these creative exercises.

Think out of the box — or don’t. Sometimes, constraints are actually a good thing. Limitations discipline you to work within your means. It enables you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is great, but limitations enforce discipline.

Try something new everyday and let your experiences broaden your perspective. Explore a new district in your neighborhood. Spend an afternoon in a museum to which you’ve never been before. Chat up someone on the bus. Open up to the people around you. As you thrust yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure grows and so does your zest for life. Think about it. When was the last time you did something for the first time? If it’s been a while, I tell you, you’ve been missing out on a whole lot of experiences that could’ve added to your growth, emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually. Why don’t you try bungee jumping today? Not only will you learn, but you will also have plenty of stories to share, enabling you to practice your storytelling skills and making you the life of the party. 

Embrace insanity. No, not to the point of practically admitting yourself into the mental ward. As John Russell once said, “Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.” Exactly! Every creative thought was once deemed insanity by other “normal” people at one time or another. Luckily, that didn’t stop the creative geniuses from standing by them. The thing is, sanity or being normal confines people to think… well, normally. Withink limits. Creativity is essentially breaking through barriers. Yes, this includes the bizzarre and the downright strange. I’m not saying that you yourself should develop a creative personality. That might go haywire. An example of a creative personality would be George Washington, who often rode into battle naked, or James Joyce, who wrote “Dubliners” with beetle juice for an intense fear of ink, or Albert Einstein, who thought his cat was a spy sent by his rival (or in thinking creatively in this case, the term could probably be “archnemesis.”) It’s important that your creativity doesn’t get you detached from the real world completely. 

I hope this has inspired you to start thinking beyond your “limits.” If you follow these steps pretty soon you’ll be living a life full of interesting adventures. Unleashing your creative thinking  will bring about a new zest for living life.

===================================================

Steps to Publishing Success

===================================================

Even if your best friend owns a top publishing

company, giving you an immediate “in,” this does not

guarantee publishing success.

First, you have to write a quality book that has a

clear target audience. And your book must answer a

common problem or need that audience shares. Then you

have to develop a marketing plan, and stick to it for

at least two years.

Let’s begin with the process that should commence

before you write your first word. Begin by reading A

LOT. Read both books you passionately love and books

you can’t seem to make it past page five. Then figure

out what the author did in the book you loved, and

what was wrong with in the book you couldn’t finish.

Write down these points so they are crystal clear to

you. Read other people’s books for inspiration and to

discover what you should avoid as a writer.

The next step is to plan out your book. Narrow down

your subject, and then divide it into chapters. Each

chapter should address a specific aspect of the

problem your book is going to solve. In each chapter,

break the specific aspect down into several parts.

This will help your readers take in your information a

bit at a time instead of overwhelming them with every

bit of information clogging up the pages until they

feel like they’re about to go blind. It’s not quite

spoon-feeding the information to your readers, but

it’s close.

The next two steps are obvious. Write your book and

then revise it. And then revise it again. And perhaps

again. Of course, writing is extremely hard, and

writing a book can seem like an impossible task. There

are many books out there that give you guidelines to

help you become familiar - and even love - the process

of writing and revision. Find a number of books about

writing. Better yet, find a number of books about

writing the specific type of book you aspire to write.

These can serve as roadmaps on your writing journey.

Once you’ve written your ebook and revised it at least

twice, show it to someone else whose opinion you

respect. If you’re lucky enough to know a good editor,

see if you have something to barter for him or her to

go through your manuscript. Or join a writing group

and let the other members critique your work.

Then take all these ideas from other people, and

revise your manuscript one last time. And then stop!

Put down that pen! Get your hands off the keyboard!

One of the most important steps to actually producing

a book is to know when to stop writing and tinkering

with it.

You’ve finally written your ebook! Pop open the

bubbly! Give yourself a night out on the town!

Okay, now that this necessary celebration is out of

your system, what do you do next?

How to turn your ebook into Profits

Ebooks are a revolutionary way to publish your book

without incurring the costs of print production. All

you need is a relevant and targeted subject and some

inexpensive software, and you can transform your

manuscript into a book.

The problem, in terms of actually seeing any profits

from your ebook, is that the market is overwhelmed

with ebooks, and many of them are not worth the time

it takes to download them. Just because the ability

exists to easily produce an ebook, doesn’t make it

good writing.

Make sure your book does not simply rehash old

material. You will injure your credibility as an

author by claiming to offer valuable new insights and

disappointing your audience with material they’ve read

a zillion times before. So spend enough time writing

and revising your book to make sure it’s of the

highest quality and presents the most current

information. A good book will eventually sell itself;

false claims about your book will make it extremely

difficult to sell any future books you may write.

Assuming you have determined that you do indeed have a

quality product that answers some question or need of

your target audience with NEW information, how do you

know how much to charge for it? Rule number 1: Set a

price for your book equal to its value. An

under-priced book will only give the impression that

your book isn’t worth very much.

To figure out a fair price, estimate how much time you

put into creating it and how difficult it was to

transform the necessary information into

understandable and engaging writing. Figure out how

much your time and effort is worth, and then price it

accordingly. The goal is for you to be adequately

compensated for your talent, your time, and your

effort.

Once you’ve figured out a price that is high enough to

convey the value of the book, but not so high as to be

out of the reach of your target audience’s mean

budget, then it’s time to offer it for sale on your

website. To attract sales, you will need to develop a

promotional campaign, particularly if you are an

unknown author.

There are multitudes of books about self-promotion

that will guide you in your efforts. Choose a plan

that is both creative and professional. Learn how to

write a catchy yet informative press release, and send

copies of your ebook to sites that specialize in ebook

reviews.

Learn how to write powerful sales copy, or hire

someone to write it for you. This is an essential. You

absolutely need excellent sales copy to sell your

book. Make sure the copy includes all the reasons your

target audience needs your book, and the benefits they

will derive from buying it.

Use graphics in your promotional materials. Beautiful

graphics have the power to instantly convey the

quality and value of your ebook. Graphics can also

convey the amount of valuable information the book

contains, and your careful attention to detail.

Professional graphics sell professional books. They

reassure the customer that the product is what it

claims to be.

Consider excerpting chapters for articles. You can

offer these tidbits for free on your website as a sort

of demo of your book. Include an order form for your

ebook at the end of the excerpted articles.

Finally, when you set-up your download link, make sure

to simplify the process. It’s a good idea to offer a

few bonuses that make your book even more enticing to

purchase, but make sure the bonuses are valuable and

high quality. Too many bonuses that are basically a

load of useless stuff will compromise the impression

your audience has of your ebook. The goal is to convey

to your audience that they are getting a quality

product for a good deal. That means applying

restraint, especially when it comes to adding bonus

items. Too much free stuff offered diminishes your

credibility.

Make sure your book is a quality product. Make sure it

is relevant and current. Develop an effective

marketing plan that includes excellent sales copy and

excerpted articles. Then offer your book for sale, and

wait for your audience to discover you!