I Love Internet Marketing Video Podcast

Ed Dale Speaks Candidly About Internet Marketing Trends, Training Internet Marketers, Buying Web Businesses, and More

Anna Johnson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:00:00 +0000

This week’s ‘I Love Internet Marketing’ podcast features an exclusive audio interview with The Challenge founder and 30DC, Inc. CEO, Ed Dale.

Ed Dale is one of the true thought leaders of Internet marketing. Five years ago Ed began the free Internet marketing training program The Challenge (then known as the 30 Day Challenge) which has since enlisted over 150,000 participants. Back then, Ed also started buying and selling web businesses… years before it was trendy.

Now, as CEO of a public company, is forging a new path as the CEO of a public company which will take the buying of web businesses to a whole new level.

In this revealing interview, Ed speaks candidly about everything from how and why he got into Internet marketing… to his thinking behind The Challenge training program… to his exciting plans for 30DC, Inc.

Among other things, Ed reveals:

Why Internet marketing is the best business of all (having founded and invested in a variety of different businesses);
How Internet marketing has evolved over the last few years and what the implications are for Internet marketers today;
What his company, 30DC, Inc. looks for in the web businesses it buys (tip: these key factors are critical for anyone wanting to build a web business, regardless of whether or not you plan to sell it);
The 3 most important Internet marketing trends Ed sees for 2011 and beyond;
And much more.

As mentioned above, this episode of I Love Internet Marketing is audio only… enjoy!

Listen to this week’s ‘I Love Internet Marketing’ podcast for more…
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How To Deal With Failure

Anna Johnson — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:39:40 +0000

Success and failure are part and parcel of building a business. You win some, you lose some.

Since, as an entrepreneur, you’re inherently forging a new path through unknown territory, it’s inevitable that you’ll sometimes make decisions that lead you further towards your goal… and others that lead to dead-ends. So too, it’s your ability to quickly turn around, try another way, and keep persisting until you reach your goal that will determine whether or not you succeed.

In other words, the better able you are to deal with failure – to learn from your mistakes and make better decisions – the better your chances of actually succeeding.

But dealing with failure isn’t always easy… so how should you do it?

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Firstly, failure is just a label. It’s really just a label we use to describe an event or result we don’t want to happen. Similarly, success is a label we use to describe something we do want to happen. And, as you might imagine, there are plenty of examples of where one person’s success is another person’s failure and vice versa. The elite athlete who comes second in the marathon may see that as a failure, whereas the guy or girl who manages to finish the race sees that as a success.

Be that as it may, how should we deal with those events or outcomes we call failures?

Well, it’s important to recognize that there are really two aspects to a failure. There’s the practical aspect and the emotional aspect.

The practical aspect is the objective reality of the situation. It’s the FACT of launching a product that doesn’t sell… or not closing the deal… or losing money… or any other situation we don’t like.

Dealing with this part of the failure is, literally, a matter of fact. It won’t necessarily be easy, and it may take time and effort, but it is largely a straightforward process.

It’s a matter of learning what went wrong, how to deal with the situation (e.g. stop the bleeding!) and what to do next time to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

If, indeed, our mistake caused the failure. Remember: sometimes we get derailed by things that are entirely outside of our control and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it.

Which brings us to the second aspect of the failure: how we respond – on an emotional level – to the situation…

In fact, how we respond emotionally will largely impact our ability to both deal with – and learn from – the failure, so the better we can master our emotional response, the better. It may be normal to feel angry, disappointed, and negative in general, but if those feelings linger for too long, we may end up wallowing in our failure and ‘fail’ to overcome the setback, take the lessons, and keep moving forward.

One way of cutting-short the negativity is to analyze it to death. That’s right: analyze the negativity until it no longer exists. This involves asking a lot of ‘why’ questions: asking yourself ‘why’ you feel bad about the failure until you have no more answers.

For example, if you feel bad because your product launch was a failure, then you might ask yourself why you feel that way. The answer may be because you lost money.

Then you might ask yourself: why do you feel bad about losing money? The answer might be because you’re scared your business might fail. Then you might ask yourself: why do you feel scared about your business failing? Your answer might be because if your business fails you’ll look like an idiot. Then you might ask yourself: why are you worried about looking like an idiot? The answer might be because you care about what others think. Then you might ask yourself: why do you care about what others think?

At that point you might realize that you don’t care what others think – or are in the process of weaning yourself off caring – so it shouldn’t matter if others think you’re an idiot or not. Now, you might not feel so bad anymore… which means you can work yourself up into a happier place, deal with the setback, and move forward again.

This kind of self-talk may not be as quick or simple in a given situation but the overall process may be worth trying. I find it helpful. In any case, it is important to deal with the emotional aspect of a failure in order to both address the failure at hand and to develop the resilience to deal with, and overcome, failures in the future.

How To Get Breakthrough Ideas From Other Businesses and Organizations

Anna Johnson — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:52:03 +0000

As an entrepreneur and an Internet marketer you probably find yourself automatically thinking about how other businesses run and how they do their marketing.

Whether you’re visiting someone’s website or visiting the hairdresser, you’ll instinctively think about what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong and how you’d do things if you were in charge.

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In fact, that’s one way I can tell an entrepreneur from a ‘normal’ person. If I go out for dinner with someone and they talk about the menu and the food… then they’re probably a food lover. If they talk about the wine list… they’re probably a wine buff.

But if they start talking about, not just the food or wine, but the signage, the layout, the decor, the service, the marketing and how well the restaurant seems to be doing from a business standpoint… then I know I’m with an entrepreneur!

While critiquing other businesses can make for a fun conversation, it can also do wonders for your own business. Does it matter that your business – which is based online – is completely different from the business you’re evaluating?

It sure does. In fact, the greater the difference between your business and the businesses you observe, the better it is.

By seeing what other kinds of businesses do well, you can get fresh ideas for YOUR business. And the more unrelated they are from your business, the more likely you are to pick up ideas that no-one else in your industry has thought of, which you can use to make BREAKTHROUGHS in your business and industry.

So here’s what I want you to do from now on, if you don’t do it already:

1. On a day-to-day basis, open your eyes to how all sorts of businesses and organizations operate. And let me emphasize that it’s not just for-profit enterprises that can teach you things. Look at how community groups, not-for-profits, government enterprises and even political parties do things.

2. Make notes – mental or written – of what they do really well. This could relate to their product or service, their customer service, their marketing or something else.

3. Look for the big idea in what these other businesses do well. Consider the details of what they do and then see if you can extrapolate a big ‘a-ha’ from that. For example, if you’re impressed by the way a local wine shop provides its loyal customers with exclusive wine tastings, the big idea might be rewarding loyal customers with exclusive freebies or deals.

4. Following on from the third point, think about how you can apply the big idea to your business. Don’t try to force yourself to come up with an application, though. In fact, after you’ve planted the seed in your mind, I suggest NOT thinking consciously about it. Instead, let it percolate in your mind. At some point – sooner or later – a breakthrough idea may pop into your head.

So that’s your homework. Of course, this isn’t hard or boring homework. It’s heaps of fun… and, to some extent, you probably do it already. Enjoy.

Why Being The Best Is Not An Option (It’s Mandatory)

Anna Johnson — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:45:22 +0000

Think about any sport in the Olympics and it’s safe to say that no athlete gets to LAST place – whether in the 100m sprint or the marathon – without aiming to be in FIRST place.

You just won’t make it all the way to the Olympics without having the mindset and training of someone who’s aiming to be the best. And that’s just to get into the finals, let alone win a medal, let alone the gold medal.

All those aiming to be ‘okay’ at running, or swimming, or weightlifting or whatever their sport is, don’t stand a chance of ever making it to the Olympics.

Well, like it or not, the same principle applies to business.

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Online market segments and niches are becoming more and more competitive. If there’s money to be made in a given niche, you can be there are more and more people and companies trying to get some of that money. This basically means that only a few players are going to win in any given niche and, by and large, they’re going to be the businesses that serve customers the BEST.

Now, I’ll save a discussion about what separates the number one players from the rest for another time (a very interesting topic!), but for now let’s just be clear about one thing:

If you want to survive, let alone thrive, in a market or niche, then, at the very least you have to AIM to be the best. That means providing the best product, the best customer experience, the best value.

None of this means you will be the best, or that being the best means being perfect. Not at all.

It just means that the more competitive the market or niche, the more crucial it is for you to go into that market playing your best game.

You just won’t make it – i.e. build a sustainable business – by being mediocre. Not when customers can easily choose between you and a business that offers a much better product, better customer experience, greater value, and so on.

So what does this mean for you if you’re starting a business, considering niches to go into, considering developing new products or services, or making other such decisions?

Well there are three major implications of the need to be – or at least strive to be – the best. And, as you’ll see, while it may seem as though being the best just adds a whole lot of extra pressure… it’s actually quite liberating. Here’s why:

1. Being the best means choosing a business, product, service, etc that you’re passionate about.

If being the best feels like a burden, then you’re in the wrong business. You really are.

Going back to the analogy of an Olympic athlete… no Olympic athlete makes it to the world’s most elite competition unless they’re passionate about their sport and passionate about being the best at that sport. They don’t feel like being the best is a burden; they WANT to be the best.

Likewise, do you think that Apple’s Steve Jobs or Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin or Amazon’s Jeff Bezos regard being the best as a burden? No way. Their companies are leaders in their fields precisely because these guys WANT to be the best.

And, it turns out, wanting to be the best is a prerequisite to being the best. If you don’t want to be the best in your field – however small – then you better hope that you don’t end up competing against someone who DOES want to be the best. Which brings me to the next point…

2. If you’re not passionate about being the best, you’ll lose to someone who is.

Basically, you can be mediocre and the leader in your market only for as long as someone else who’s better than you doesn’t come into your market.

For example, if you’re the market leader in selling an info. product about how to play chess but you really couldn’t care less about chess then you’ll do fine… until the day comes when someone who LOVES chess and puts every ounce of their being into an info. product about chess comes into your market.

Sure, you may be really good at marketing, but good marketing can only take a mediocre product so far. Once you have competitors who are the best at selling info. products about chess – i.e. they’re the best at SELLING as well as the best at producing a top quality PRODUCT – then watch out.

3. You owe it to yourself to do things you want to be the best at.

Once again we come to the reality that life is short. Do you want to be spending your precious time and attention – your most important assets of all – on something that is meaningful to you, that makes your heart sing… or something that you ultimately couldn’t care less about?

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. The only thing you truly own is this moment, right now. If it ends up being one of your last, don’t you want it to be a moment in which you felt as if you were doing something meaningful, that gave you some sense of joy and satisfaction?

We may not be able to spend all our moments this way, but shouldn’t we aim to spend as much of them as we can? Just for the sheer enjoyment of life?

Okay, so what if it’s the choice between love or money? Well, it turns out that there is no such choice. At the end of the day, if you’re choosing to do something for the money rather than for love, then you’re unlikely to do it because you want to be the best at it. This means you’ll lose to someone who IS doing it to be the best… which means you’ll ultimately lose in the market… and NOT make the money you thought you’d make.

So if you want to make a lot of money, choose something you love. That doesn’t mean everything you love will be a money-maker; just that you have to do something you love if you want to make lots of money from it.

For all those reasons, being the best – or at least aiming to be the best – is not an option for someone going into business. It’s mandatory.

How To Avoid ‘Guru Overload’

Anna Johnson — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:12:42 +0000

When you’re starting out in Internet marketing it only makes sense to learn as much as you can from people who’ve ‘been there, done that’.

The good news is that there are lots of Internet marketing teachers around, ready to teach you what they know.

The bad news is that a lot of these self-proclaimed gurus are totally unqualified to teach! What’s more, even among the legitimate teachers, it’s all too easy to get yourself into ‘guru overload’. So here are a few tips for how to avoid both problems…

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The first step in avoiding guru overload it to sort the real gurus from the fakes. That means doing some good, old-fashioned due diligence.

Don’t assume that anyone knows what they’re talking about without doing your research first. Even some of the ‘names’ you’ll hear about are no more than talkers who make their money teaching Internet marketing, not actually doing it.

There’s nothing wrong with making a career out of speaking or teaching. There’s nothing wrong with making speaking and teaching a big part of your business. But there are some people in the Internet marketing niche who claim to be experts when they have absolutely no experience doing what they’re talking about.

How do you sort the wheat from the chaff? It’s actually not that hard. You go through the same due diligence process you’d use if you were buying any other important product or service. For one thing, you look for real, VISIBLE evidence that someone knows what they’re talking about.

I’m not talking about big income claims or so-called Clickbank sales reports. I’m talking about real, tangible evidence. Real companies. Real people. Real names. Real websites. Real search results. Evidence you can see for yourself, as opposed to what you might see on someone’s video.

Once you’ve found some gurus you can trust, the next step is to choose who to learn from.

The fact is that there is ‘no one size fits all’ when it comes to how you build and run your business. If you know what kind of business you want to build, then you choose teachers who can teach you aspects of that business.

If you’re still deciding on what kind of business to build, then it might be a matter of finding someone to help guide you in choosing the right business for you. Then, when you settle on a business, you find teachers to help you with the various aspects of that business.

In either case, I suggest you choose teachers who make sense to you, who you relate to, and who you enjoy learning from. Not everyone – even experts – will resonate with you, so be selective.

Of course, don’t assume that any teacher knows everything. Not even about their area of expertise. When it comes to building your business, you’re going to be covering a lot of ground that NO-ONE has ever covered before. At times like that, a good teacher may be able to give you advice, but it will be up to you to make the final call.

Which brings me to my final point: it’s good to learn from others, but you can’t build a business by relying on teachers or spending all or most of your time learning. Being an entrepreneur means making your own decisions and spending most of your time DOING.

And, frankly, you’ll not only learn more by doing… but you also do more by doing. So, by all means look for gurus to help you with certain things, but then get out there and, as Nike says, just do it.

I’ve Followed The Steps… Now, Where’s The Money?

Anna Johnson — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:05:33 +0000

So you’ve bought a book, invested in a home study course, or purchased some kind of a system for building an online business. It’s a good product, backed by people you can trust, and the system itself is very logical. And yet, after following all the steps… the money is NOT rolling in.

In fact, you’re not making anywhere near the kind of money you were told you could be making if you followed the system. Maybe you’re not making ANY money at all.

So did the people behind the course or system lie to you… are they dodgy after all… or is there some other reason for why the system just isn’t working?

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Again, this is not a situation where the system is dodgy. The steps are logical. Other people are making money with it. But for some reason it’s just not making money for YOU. What gives?

Well, here’s the thing. The effectiveness of any kind of system relies on three things:

The system
The person or people implementing the system
Outside forces

So if there’s nothing wrong with the system… or you… then it must be forces beyond your control that are affecting your results.

Now, there are plenty of examples where the problem really is with the system or with people not following the system. And sometimes the problem lies with all three factors.

But here’s why we can’t underestimate the impact of outside forces…

When someone teaches you a system for building an online business, they are essentially giving you instructions for finding treasure on an island that no-one has ever been to.

Think about that for a moment.

The instructions might be based on islands that are similar, or on islands that are near the one you plan to explore. After all, it’s not unreasonable to imagine that your island is similar to the other islands nearby. In fact, it makes sense that, rather than have NOTHING to go on, you would follow the directions given by people who have been to similar islands.

But no island is exactly the same as any other island. No treasure chest is going to be hidden in the same place. And the same principle applies to building a business.

No-one else has built your business – you are in the process of building it – so no-one else can possibly give you a system that is perfect for your business. Indeed, there are lots of outside forces that will heavily impact all kinds of things. How your target market responds to your product or offer… competitors… Google slaps… technology melt-downs… all kinds of things.

Which means you can never, ever treat any kind of how-to business building course or system as a sure thing. Don’t let the promoters fool you and, more importantly, don’t fool yourself.

Okay, so what should you do when you’ve followed all the steps and aren’t making any money? Here are two suggestions. First, work out what the causes of this are – is it the system, people, or outside forces, or a combination of these?

Second, take a common-sense approach and work out how to overcome the problem or problems. If it’s the system… chuck it out and find a better way. If it’s a people problem such as you’re not following the steps… start following the steps.

If it’s outside forces, the answer may not be as simple. Just as you would do if you were looking for treasure on an island, you need to assess the situation and make a judgment call on what to do next.

And, really, that’s what being an entrepreneur is all about: you are forging a new path (otherwise you wouldn’t be an entrepreneur) which means your entire job is about assessing the situation and making judgment calls WITHOUT knowing for sure where the next step will take you.

Which brings us to the whole idea of using systems in the first place. Frankly, the more prescriptive the system, the less useful it’s likely to be in the real world.

But even if a given system contains sound ideas – for example it gives you general steps for setting up a business to sell info products, or run an affiliate site, or something similar – it cannot possibly account for all kinds of forces that you are likely to encounter.

Bottom line: be realistic about systems and treat them as helpful guides but never answers in themselves.

The Missing Ingredient: What Really Drives Long-Term Traffic, Conversions and Profits

Anna Johnson — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:14:08 +0000

There’s a big irony in the how-to Internet marketing niche. You see, while so much attention is given to tactics for generating traffic, list-building and increasing conversions, very little is given to the MOST important ingredient for getting more traffic, boosting conversions and making more profits LONG TERM.

Now, if I was to speculate, I might say that the reason why so many how-to Internet marketing products focus on these – often short-term – tactics is because the people selling them don’t really understand what this ingredient is.

Frankly, a lot of these guys are fly-by-the-nighters. Sure, they may be able to make some quick cash by selling a system based on some short-term tactic… but they don’t have REAL businesses to show for their efforts. Which obviously means they either don’t know – or are ignoring – this ingredient.

So, I guess, if they don’t know about this missing ingredient, we can hardly expect them to teach it.

Yet, if YOU are aiming to build a sustainable online business for the long-term then this missing ingredient is absolutely critical.

In fact, this missing ingredient will drive traffic, build your email list, increase conversions, and grow sales and profits to such an extent that it leaves all those short-term traffic systems in the dust.

That’s NOT to say you shouldn’t ever try some of the various traffic systems to give your business an initial or extra boost. But it’s the missing ingredient, not traffic systems, that will ultimately power your business.

So what is this missing ingredient that’s so critical?

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It’s… your PRODUCT or SERVICE!

That’s right, it’s having a wonderful product or service – one that delivers real value to your customers – that will ultimately drive your business.

Why will it drive traffic, conversions and profits long-term?

Because when you have a great product or service that delivers real value, two things will happen that will truly fuel the growth and profitability of your business:

1. Customers will come back for more, more often – whether they buy more of the same product or something else you offer; and

2. Customers will tell their friends about it, which in turn will get you more satisfied customers buying more from you, more often.

Make no mistake, the most powerful marketing in the world is genuine, word-of-mouth marketing. No amount of advertising, let alone crazy traffic or list building tactics, matches the awesome power of ordinary people recommending your product to their friends and colleagues.

I have absolutely no doubt that great products and services lie behind the success of all great companies, whether you’re talking about Apple, Google or Facebook in the technology world, or Dove soap, Starbucks coffee, or Nike running shoes in the offline world.

Sure, big brands pour a lot of money into advertising – to get attention, create awareness and desire, and entice people to buy – but advertising alone could never power the ongoing success of any product or service. In fact, it’s been said that nothing kills a business faster than great advertising for a poor product.

Of course, you may have the best product in the world, but you still need to tell people about it and convince them to try or buy it. That’s why we DO put so much of our attention on ways to generate traffic, build email lists, increase conversions, and so on.

But I really think the people teaching Internet marketing give far too little attention to the importance of creating GREAT products. In fact, the opposite is true: I don’t know how many times I’ve come across product creation courses where you’re told to slap together me-too ebooks, software and the like, as if the quality and value of what you’re creating doesn’t matter.

Well, the days of being able to slap together lame ebooks that just recycle what people can already find elsewhere for free are OVER.

The reality is that, yes, you can use various methods to generate traffic, build your list, increase conversions, and so on, but if your product or service doesn’t deliver real value… you just won’t hold on to customers. If anything, you’ll DISAPPOINT customers who end up spreading BAD word of mouth about you to their friends.

The upshot of this is that you’ll find yourself forever in a vicious cycle of continually having to come with heavy-handed, hard-sell tactics to get people buying from you… then losing customers… then having to use the hard-sell tactics for another bunch of people… only to find yourself doing this over and over again.

Sadly, I already see people within the Internet marketing niche in this very predicament. And the irony is, for all the hard work it takes to create great products and services, it’s much harder and more stressful to have to continually come up with crazy schemes and hard-sell tactics to sucker people in to buy crappy products.

Please don’t fall into this trap. Create great products that your customers will love. Then use all the marketing tools at your disposal to get them to your site, signing up to your list, buying from you… then coming back for more and telling their friends about you.

Create a VIRTUOUS marketing cycle, not a vicious one, and start by creating a GREAT product or service.

Should Internet Marketers Keep Pounding Us With Offers?

Anna Johnson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:30:22 +0000

So you sign up to an Internet marketer’s email list… perhaps on the promise of a free video, report or email course… or maybe because you bought something from them… and lo-and-behold they start emailing you marketing offer after marketing offer. Emails asking you to buy this and buy that. Sent to you every few days. Maybe even once or a few times in ONE day.

So, is sending all these email offers to you perfectly okay… or have they crossed some kind of line?

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Well, let’s first recognize that we’re all marketers here. We’re in the business of promoting offers and, as such, we should EXPECT to receive offers from other Internet marketers. At the same time, if we sign up to a list expecting to get one thing (e.g. news or education)… and instead we get something else (nothing more than ads)… then we don’t have to be happy about it.

In that case, we can vote with our mouse by unsubscribing. If enough people unsubscribe then the marketer will get the message that they aren’t providing their list with the information people signed up for. If we don’t unsubscribe and keep on whinging about it, then more fool us.

But having said all that, is it right for Internet marketers to keep on pounding their email lists with offers?

The answer is: yes, of course it is.

Internet marketers are business people – they’re the quintessential business and marketing people – and they make their money by promoting and selling products and services. What’s more, smart Internet marketers will do whatever it takes to get more people to buy more, more often. If that means sending out a promotional offer once or a few times per day, then that’s what they’ll do. It just makes business sense.

Again, is anyone really surprised about marketers who market?

Now, that doesn’t mean that whatever a given Internet marketer is promoting is right for you. And as much as they frame an offer in terms of ‘you must get this’ the reality is that only YOU can decide what you need.

I mean, supermarkets will advertise various products – from dog food to bananas – but that doesn’t mean you should buy either product. After all, you may not have a dog and you may not like bananas.

So just as we don’t expect supermarkets to stop promoting products that don’t suit us, we shouldn’t expect Internet marketers to stop promoting all the various products they promote that may not be right for us.

Now, there is an exception to this. Some marketers will put CUSTOMERS on a special list and make sure not to send those customers offers for the product or service they’ve already bought. That’s a really good idea for a marketer who doesn’t want to annoy the heck out of their paying customers.

But sometimes it doesn’t make practical sense to do this or, for whatever reason, it’s technically difficult or impossible, so the Internet marketer isn’t able to do segregate their customers in this way. In that case, it’s up to you whether to unsubscribe or accept that some of the emails you get will promote the product you’ve already bought.

The bottom line is that Internet marketers can be expected to do Internet marketing. If we don’t like how someone goes about it, our best bet is to unsubscribe.

On the other hand, we might want to stay subscribed to a few lists and see what we can learn from what these Internet marketers do. Seeing how various Internet marketers engage in email marketing can be worth much more than buying a course on email marketing… and it’s free. Just one caveat: just because an Internet marketer does a certain thing doesn’t mean it actually works. Use your judgment!

Why It’s Time To Celebrate Being an Entrepreneur

Anna Johnson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:09:23 +0000

So you’ve started an Internet business and you’re working around the clock trying to make a buck. It’s hard. Progress is slow. And everyone seems to think you’re crazy for leaving (or planning to leave) that safe job in order to be an entrepreneur. (Sometimes even you think you’re crazy…) Well, for all those reasons and more… it’s time to celebrate.

That’s right: celebrate. I don’t necessarily mean you throw a party or take a vacation. Especially if money is tight. You might, instead, celebrate by treating yourself to a movie with a loved one. Or by getting a massage. Or by going out for dinner. Or just by taking an afternoon off and going for a walk.

Whatever you do, just do something for yourself – something YOU enjoy – in recognition of your entrepreneurial efforts.

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Don’t give me excuses such as you haven’t ‘earned’ the right to celebrate. If you’re the typical entrepreneur, you’ll never think you’ve earned the right to celebrate!

There will always be one more hurdle to jump, one more mountain to climb, before you feel as though you deserve any kudos or the right to celebrate what you’ve achieved so far.

Which is why I’m giving you permission – no, I’m commanding you – to celebrate all the small victories you’ve already achieved on your entrepreneurial journey. That includes your decision to become an entrepreneur, and even some of your failures (i.e. learning experiences). After all, isn’t it a victory when you learn what doesn’t work and therefore get closer to what DOES work?

So why should you celebrate?

There are four (4) good reasons to celebrate milestones along your entrepreneurial path.

1. Celebrating keeps business fun

Let’s face it, building a business can be tough. Some of the work involved can be sheer drudgery. Incorporating small celebrations – i.e. rewards for overcoming various hurdles and getting through the drudgery – can help keep you motivated.

2. Celebrating helps your business

The second reason – which is related to the first – is that by celebrating and creating a business that’s fun, you’ll likely have a more positive and open mind. When you’re positive and open-minded, you’ll tend to see more opportunities, come up with more ideas, and in general, think better. That in turn, will help your business.

3. If you don’t celebrate your entrepreneurial endeavors… who will?

As much as the world needs entrepreneurs, it sure doesn’t make it easy for anyone to become an entrepreneur. And it sure doesn’t pat anyone on the back for embarking on the entrepreneurial path. (All the pats come later, if at all… usually when people want something from you!) So if no-one else is going to celebrate your small wins, it’s up to do you to do so!

4. Celebrating is important for a good life

Finally… this is your life we’re talking about! The harsh reality is that none of us know how long we’ve got on this planet. How sad would it be to think that we spent the last few years, months, weeks or even days of our lives, working ourselves to the bone, with no time out to recognize what we’ve achieved or no time for fun.

Remember, you chose to become an entrepreneur for a reason: presumably to forge a lifestyle that you would enjoy. But you don’t have to wait until the big pay-day to enjoy that lifestyle. By making celebrations part of your business, you can enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

And let’s face it, we spend much more time on the journey than at the destination… which is pretty much why enjoying the journey is MORE important than enjoying the destination.

So, what are you waiting for? Sometime this week – if not today – schedule in a celebration of some kind. You deserve it.

What Business Are You Really In (and Does It Matter)?

Anna Johnson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:44:31 +0000

Think you know what business you’re in? Think again. According to marketing gurus such as Dan Kennedy and Australia’s Mal Emery, an accountant is not in the accounting business and a life coach is not in the coaching business. They – and, in fact, all of us – are in the marketing business. Or, at least, we should be.

This reminds me of one of my first jobs. Back in the late 90s I joined the graduate marketing program at Uncle Ben’s of Australia. Uncle Ben’s is now known as Mars Australia and is part of the Mars, Incorporated group of companies. Among other things, Mars sold – and continues to sell – the leading pet food brands in Australia, including Pedigree, Whiskas, Chum and Dine.

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I’m not sure it’s the case now, but at the time, no-one in the marketing team had ‘marketing’ in their title. I wasn’t a ‘marketing manager’; instead I was a ‘franchise manager’. The reason for this was that, according to Mars, EVERYONE in the company was in marketing.

Mars didn’t want just a few people to think they were in marketing. The company wanted everyone to view marketing as part of their jobs, whether they were secretaries, plant managers or food engineers.

If you call yourself an ‘Internet marketer’ you probably already get the distinction. Whether you make money online as an affiliate promoting other people’s products or services, or you sell your own products or services, you understand that you’re really in the business of marketing those products and services. First and foremost, you see yourself as a marketer.

Why does seeing yourself as a marketer matter? It matters because it profoundly impacts how you run your Internet business and, ultimately, how successful you are.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you have expertise as a life coach. If you mostly regard yourself as a life coach, you’re likely to spend as much time as possible coaching people and, to a lesser extent, developing your coaching skills. You may view marketing as important for getting new clients, but it’s secondary to your real business, which is being a life coach.

But what if, instead of seeing yourself as a life coach who does marketing, you saw yourself as a marketer who provides life coaching? What would you do differently and how would it change your business… and your life?

Firstly, marketing would become the priority. What’s more, if you agree with my definition of marketing as generating, converting and satisfying clients, you’d take a more holistic view of what your business is about.

No longer would it mostly be about coaching clients, it would also be about generating prospects, converting them into clients, and delivering such a high level of client satisfaction that they stay with you as clients. Either by purchasing more coaching from you, or by purchasing other products and services from you.

In fact, if you see yourself as a marketer selling coaching services, you’re likely to create a marketing system that involves ongoing activities to generate prospects, convert them into clients and deliver services that satisfy them so much that they come back for more.

You might not limit yourself to providing one-one-one coaching services. Once you see yourself as a marketer, you might take the view that you’re not really in the business of marketing life coaching services, but are in the business of marketing life empowerment services. As such, you might come up with a range of other products and services to sell.

The point is, once you view yourself as a marketer, you’re likely to take a much more holistic view of your business, rather than be confined to a specific profession.

You’ll likely see opportunities for growing your business and making more money, but doing so more efficiently so that it’s no longer about being paid for your time.

Okay, but what if you LOVE coaching and HATE marketing? What if you’d rather spend most of your time coaching, and not worry about generating leads, converting them into clients, or coming up with new products and services to sell?

Well, the answer is simple: don’t run a business. Partner with someone who wants to run the business and do all the marketing. Or join a company where you can focus on excelling as a life coach (or a professional, or whatever functional activity you enjoy) and other people can focus on marketing.

But if you’re reading, watching or listening to I Love Internet Marketing because you want to run your own business, then make marketing the number one business you’re in. It will open your eyes to your true potential.

What Should You Do About Freebie Seekers?

Anna Johnson — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:51:54 +0000

Once you’ve established your Internet business and achieved even modest success you can expect all kinds of people to start contacting you. This includes freebie seekers.

I define ‘freebie seekers’ as people who want something of value from you for free. This could be one of your products or, as often is the case, your time. Freebie seekers may email you, call you, or come up to you at conferences. In each case, they tend to want more from you than they’re willing to pay for, whether it’s payment in money or in kind.

In other words, freebie seekers want something for nothing.

Freebie seekers are NOT people who legitimately ask you questions or seek your help. They’re not people who comment on your blog or email you to offer suggestions, feedback or ask simple questions that can you can easily answer. These people are NOT freebie seekers – these are your most loyal, valuable customers or subscribers!

I should also say that freebie seekers aren’t bad people. They don’t necessarily know they’re stepping over the line when they ask you for something. And let’s face it, we’ve probably all been freebie seekers at some point, whether we’ve consciously known it or not.

But when you find yourself spending hours answering people’s questions or giving away products to so many people that you’re undermining your own time and business, you’ve got to be a bit more ruthless when it comes to dealing with freebie seekers.

Here are three (3) tips for dealing with freebie seekers…

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Three (3) tips for dealing with freebie seekers:

1. If the freebie seeker is not really a freebie seeker but someone who is simply asking a straightforward question that you can easily answer without spending inordinate amounts of time doing so, by all means answer them. That’s just common courtesy.

2. If the freebie seeker wants one of your products for free, say no. They might give you all kinds of reasons why you should give them your product for free. Some of these reasons might sound legitimate. You might even be able to verify that they’re true. But you’re running a business, not a charity. More importantly, the only way you’re going to stay in business is by selling your products and making a profit, not giving your products away.

If someone can’t afford your product (or just doesn’t want to pay for it), then they can’t afford your product, period. You do not owe them anything. Remember they have decided that OTHER products and services ARE worth paying for, while deciding that yours is not worth paying for. That’s their issue, not yours.

What’s more, if you’re like a lot of Internet marketers you can direct them to free resources that will help them. Here at Kikabink, for example, we have literally thousands of articles offering news, strategies, tactics, tips, links and more in relation to Internet marketing. All those articles are FREE.

If you also have tons of free information you can direct people to, politely decline to give them your product for free and point them to your free resources.

Sure, there may be cases where giving something to a certain person or cause is the right thing to do. If you feel that devoting your time or your products genuinely helps someone you want to help or that serves a worthy cause GO FOR IT. Just keep a tight reins on when and for whom you do this. Otherwise you’ll jeopardize your business and no longer be in a position to give anyone anything!

3. If the freebie seeker asks you questions that would essentially require hours of your time to answer, or they essentially want some free consulting or coaching from you, I recommend doing the following…

Firstly, if you have a product that would help them in the way they want, point them to that product. You might say something along the lines of ‘our such-and-such product shows you how to do that. If you want to order it just go to this link.”

Alternatively, if you don’t already have a product or service that would address the freebie seeker’s questions, say something along these lines: “we don’t currently have a product that deals with those questions but it’s something we might consider putting together. Would you prefer us to provide this kind of information in the form of a coaching program, home study course, or something else?”

In this way you’ve clearly conveyed to the freebie seeker the facts that (a) what their asking is substantial and worth a lot you, and (b) if they’re genuinely interested in having the information they want then they’ll have to pay for it. At the same time, if they’re genuinely interested in – and interested in paying for – the information, you’ve given them an opportunity to indicate how they’d like it to be delivered.

Now you’ve turned a potentially time-wasting activity (i.e. dealing with freebie seekers) into valuable market research!

These three tips should hold you in good stead when it comes to dealing with freebie seekers. The main thing is that you don’t get dragged into a situation where you’re giving time and products to people who really don’t value your time or products (otherwise they’d pay for them!).

That doesn’t mean you should never donate time or products to people; you just need to be judicious about who you give to and how many products and how much time you donate. If you’re like most small businesses, you just won’t survive unless you value your time and the products or services you sell.

You can’t give… unless you have something to give! That means ensuring you have a strong, profitable business.

Can You Make Money Selling Ebooks? 6 Questions To Answer First…

Anna Johnson — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 02:30:45 +0000

A few days ago a Kikabink News subscriber contacted me to ask what kind of money can be made selling ebooks. The short answer is: anything from zero to millions of dollars.

Ebooks are actually becoming BIG business with the advent of the iPad, Kindle, Nook and other e-readers. Meanwhile, they have been the Internet marketers’ medium of choice for providing how-to information across a range of niches online.

Of course, how much YOU can make from an ebook YOU write and market in a particular niche depends on a number of factors.

These factors range from whether there’s a sizable market for your topic, to whether you can produce a high quality ebook that people want to buy, to whether you can market that ebook effectively.

Before you invest any time, effort or money on a given ebook project, however, you want to have answers to six specific questions. These questions are set out below.

Unfortunately, it’s beyond the scope of this article to provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to producing and marketing an ebook. If you’re looking for that level of detail I recommend Paul Myers’ Simple Online Business System, which Kikabink publishes and is available here.
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Here’s what the Kikabink News subscriber wrote:

“Would love to hear some feedback about what sort of money can be made with just information ebooks. I don’t expect to make mega-bucks, but would like to eventually bring in $1,000 a month working 20 hours a week. With all of the free information on the internet I just don’t want to spend time and money creating a product that is not marketable.”

The reality is that NO-ONE can guarantee that any particular information business will generate a certain amount of income for a certain number of hours work. Answering these six (6) questions will, however, give you a good indication of whether or not you should go ahead with a certain ebook project.

1. Does the topic interest you?

In general, I recommend producing products and services – including ebooks – in areas or topics that interest you. It’s this interest that will carry you through when you encounter the inevitable challenges that crop up in research, product development, marketing and everything else involved in building an online business. To give yourself a few options, though, think of a few topics that interest you.

2. Is there a market?

Once you’ve identified some topics of interest, you’re next question is whether there’s a market for products and services in the related ‘niches’.

The quickest way to find out if there’s a market is to see how many people are using the search engines to search on keywords related to those topics or niches. If a lot of people are searching on keywords related to a specific topic, you know there is a high level of demand for that topic.

There are a number of tools – Wordtracker, Market Samurai and Google Adwords Traffic Estimator – that will indicate the volume of searches for a given keyword or keyphrase.

For example, at the time of writing I discovered there were 90,500 monthly searches using the term ‘anti-virus’ in Google, based on data from the Google Adwords Traffic Estimator.

3. Can it be monetized?

The next question is whether the highly-searched-on keywords you’ve identified reflect a market of paying customers. The best clue to this is to see whether there are a lot of advertisers paying for pay-per-click ads in the search engines. If, for instance, there are lots of ads on the right-hand-side of Google for that search phrase, you can bet businesses are making money in that market.

Continuing our example, I see that numerous Google Adwords ads appear when I type ‘anti-virus’ into Google.

4. Can you reach the market?

The fourth question is whether you can cost-effectively get a product or service in front of the market you’ve identified.

When it comes to search engine marketing, you might ask: (a) can I optimize my website for the search engines and achieve a high search engine ranking for the search phrase I’ve identified which will then translate into a decent amount of traffic to my site? and/or (b) do I have the budget to run pay-per-click ads that will get noticed by enough prospects who, in turn, come to my website?

5. What unique value can you offer that market?

Can you produce a product or service that delivers such value to your prospects that they will gladly hand over their hard-earned cash for it? Here’s where you need to consider how you can offer a solution that is unique and superior to what is already available. The more unique it is, the more it will stand out from the crowd. The better it is, the more likely people will buy it and spread word about it to other prospective customers.

6. Is the return on investment (ROI) sufficient?

If you’ve worked out that there is indeed a monetizable market or niche, that you can reach it cost-effectively, and you can develop a unique and superior product, the final question to consider is whether all this will deliver a sufficient ROI.

In other words: will pursuing this particular niche deliver you the highest returns compared with the other opportunities available to you?

This is where it pays to consider more than one topic or niche. You might find that one offers a much higher return than the others for the SAME investment of time, effort and money. Of course, it’s not just about financial returns. Also factor in your own enjoyment when considering alternative businesses.

If you’ve answered the above 6 questions in the affirmative, you have the green light for your ebook project. Get to work!

Again, if you’re not sure about how to implement one or more of these steps, check out Paul Myer’s Simple Online Business System, which Kikabink publishes. Paul’s system is especially ideal if you want to sell ebooks. Go here for more information: Simple Online Business System.

It Takes Money To Make Money and Other Dangerous Business Myths

Anna Johnson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:04:22 +0000

Heard any of these dangerous myths lately? It takes money to make money. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Ready, fire, aim… not ready, aim, fire. Entrepreneurs are born, not made. Buy into any of these and other generalizations at your peril!

I’ll admit to spouting off some of these sayings myself. And doing so is not inherently harmful… as long as you remember that generalizations are, by their very nature, descriptive NOT prescriptive.

In other words, the entire point of making a generalization is to DESCRIBE a statistical phenomenon… NOT to PRESCRIBE it to yourself or your business.

That something is a generalization – as opposed to a FACT – means that it reflects a COMMON but not a universal condition. And, again, a generalization is a description of events, not a prescription for how you should operate your business.

Yet, it’s in adopting and applying myths like ‘it takes money to make money’ that you, as an Internet marketer, risk seriously undermining your business.

Make no mistake: applying these kinds of myths to your business or life can be dangerous. Here’s why…

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Let’s look at the myth of ‘it takes money to make money’. This myth implies that you need to invest a certain amount of money in your business in order for it to exist, let alone grow and generate satisfactory financial returns.

This is a myth because it’s not inherently true. There are PLENTY of businesses you can start – including an Internet business – with NO money.

In all cases, the question is not ‘how much money will it take to start a particular business’, the questions are:

What resources do I need to start this business?
How can I get these resources?
What can I trade in order to get those resources?
Who, where, when and how can I trade what I have for what I need?

In many cases, money is the most obvious resource. But if you don’t have much or any money to trade for what you need, you just need to get creative.

No, it may not be easy to acquire or even to apply these resources. For example, you may need to trade time and mental effort in order to learn rather than buy certain skills. Or you may need to get out of your comfort zone and negotiate with investors or suppliers.

For example, you might need to knock on a lot of doors in order to raise money from investors. Or you might have to do contra or barter deals with others where you trade your time in providing certain professional advice in return for, say, a piece of software.

Money may make it easier to get what you want, but it’s not having money per se that matters. What matters is having something to trade.

That’s why ‘it takes money to make money’ is such a destructive myth when you use it as a prescription rather than a description.

Sure, statistically you might say that most businesses in your industry or niche started with a certain amount of capital. But when it comes to YOUR business, it’s not only pointless, but downright debilitating, to assume that YOU need money to start your business.

If you take this view – and you don’t happen to have much or enough money – your logical conclusion would be that you cannot start your business. End of business. End of dream. End of story.

But if you see this generalization for what it is, you’d simply take the view that money is just one type of resource that could be traded for the resources you need to start your business. If you don’t have this particular resource, you just identify what other resources you can trade instead. Now, you’re in business. Dream continues. Success awaits.

And here’s a bonus if you don’t have money to trade and have to get creative: the more creative you are, the more successful you’re likely to be as an entrepreneur. Consequently, the more practice you get in exercising your creativity – such as having to come up with something other than money to start your business – the more creative you’re likely to be.

In any case, no generalization such as ‘it takes money to make money’ has any role in determining your individual business strategies, tactics and other decisions.

Remember, they’re GENERALIZATIONS NOT UNIVERSAL TRUTHS. Based on that fact alone they should only be used to describe but NEVER to prescribe what you do in your unique situation.

So, rather than let a silly myth blind you to what you can actually achieve, open your eyes and look at the situation objectively. Rather than assume you can’t do something, think about HOW you CAN do it and, better yet, how you can turn the situation to your ADVANTAGE.

Should You Be Promoting Your Competitors?

Anna Johnson — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:53:15 +0000

If you subscribe to a lot of mailing lists in the how-to Internet marketing niche you’ve probably noticed that a lot of marketers frequently promote their competition. Why do Internet marketers promote their competitors… and should you be promoting the competitors in YOUR niche?

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So is an Internet marketer who sells a home study course on copywriting crazy to promote some other marketer’s course on copywriting? Is someone who sells an affiliate marketing system crazy for promoting someone else’s affiliate marketing system?

We see Internet marketers promote their direct competitors all the time… but they’re not crazy. In fact, the top marketers in the Internet marketing niche are some of the sharpest marketers you’ll find in any market.

And they know something about their customers that many players in other markets just don’t get. These Internet marketers know they’re customers are RABID for anything and everything to do with Internet marketing.

In fact, the Internet marketing niche is similar to many other niches where customers aren’t just interested in one or two products or services on offer – they’re positively addicted to learning more and more. If you’re a rabid customer in this niche, it’s not enough to get just one course or book on copywriting, traffic, affiliate marketing, and so on. You want to learn as much as possible from ALL the copywriting, traffic generation and affiliate marketing greats and you’re quite happy to load up on any number of books and courses to do so.

Anyone who is PASSIONATE about something – whether it’s a philosophy, religion, profession, special diet, sport, hobby or anything else – has the same kind of eagerness. Golfers, martial artists, screenwriters, painters, musicians, stock traders, personal improvement ‘junkies’ – these are people who love soaking up as much information and inspiration in their field as possible.

Whenever I’ve developed a strong interest in something I’ve certainly been one to immerse myself in it and get my hands on everything I could about the subject, whether it’s been running, screenwriting or, you guessed it, Internet marketing.

Smart Internet marketers know they are actually HELPING their customers, as well as making more money for themselves, by promoting the products and services of their competitors, and receiving referral fees or commissions on those sales.

And let’s not underestimate how your customers will VALUE you for suggesting alternatives that may suit them better instead of, or in addition to, your product.

So, if you’re in a niche with rabid customers, consider teaming up with your competitors and promoting their products. Sign up for their affiliate programs or, if they don’t have an affiliate program, see if you can work out a mutually beneficial arrangement where you promote each others products.

How should you position a competitor’s product if it closely resembles your own product or service?

Here are some ideas for how to position a competitor’s product:

As a different perspective on the same topic.
As an introductory level product that could serve as a ‘prequel’ to your product.
As a an advanced level product that could serve as a ‘sequel’ to your product.
As a service to your product.
As a product to your service.
As the ‘do-it-yourself’ option to your ‘done for you’ solution.
As the done for you option to your do-it-yourself solution.

There are probably other ways to position competitors’ products: just get creative. Brainstorm WITH your competitors. Even consider creating some joint products, or running conferences, seminars or workshops together.

There are lots of possibilities. The main thing is that you think in terms of what best serves your market and how you can make MORE money by turning competitors into allies.

If You Do What You Love, Will The Money Follow?

Anna Johnson — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:57:45 +0000

You’ve probably heard the saying ‘do what you love and the money will follow’ but is that really true? It can be, but here’s the problem: some people love lying on a beach, watching movies, playing video games, and doing all kinds of activities that don’t necessarily translate into money.

And no, these people do NOT necessarily want to turn any of these activities into professional activities. Someone who likes watching movies does NOT necessarily want to become a film critic – they just like watching movies!

Okay, so if ‘do what you love and the money will follow’ doesn’t necessarily hold true, what can we say about the relationship between pursuing a career or building a business based on a love or passion?

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While ‘do what you love and the money will follow’ may not be universally true I DO think the following statement is generally true:

“LOVE WHAT YOU DO and the money will follow.”

In other words, if you are passionate about what you do, you are likely to do it well, resulting in a good income.

Again, it’s a generalization, but the point is: not everything can be turned into a business… but if you’ve found a business you enjoy, then you’ll probably make more money from it than otherwise.

Here’s another important distinction: the distinction between loving the product or service you’re selling and loving the business of selling that product or service.

This distinction really sorts out those of us who are better off being professionals working for others, and those of us who will thrive as business owners.

In fact, unless you love running a business for its own sake, I don’t think you should go into business. At the very least you should only go into business with someone who DOES love business for its own sake and make sure your role in such a business is making or delivering the product or service.

For the most part, though, you’ll probably be happier pursuing your profession without having to deal with what you’ll probably end up regarding as the ‘headaches’ of running a business.

You might be okay being a freelancer, contractor or consultant since the administrative side of doing so may not be too arduous. However, you probably won’t enjoy being in a position where you have to do a lot of work ON the business rather than IN it, and for that reason, business probably isn’t for you.

What about if you love running a business but don’t have any particular passion for the product or service you’re selling?

Personally, I need to be passionate about both, but I’m the first to admit that there are plenty of people who don’t need to love the product or service in order to be successful in business. Somehow their love for the business renders the need to love the product or service irrelevant.

At the same time, however, running a good business generally involves valuing the customer, so the main thing may be to ‘love the customer’.

In any case, when it comes to making money from what you do day to day, it’s not necessarily about doing what you love. Instead, it’s about loving what you do.

7 Key Lessons For Internet Marketers Wanting To Create Software Products

Anna Johnson — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:01:34 +0000

If you’re interested in developing a software product, today’s I Love Internet Marketing podcast is a must-listen. In the podcast I explain 7 key lessons we at Kikabink have learned in the course of developing our just-released domain name investment platform, Domainer Income.

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A few days ago we released Domainer Income (beta) to the public. You can read about the background to Domainer Income here: Domainer Income Revolutionizes The Way People Find, Buy, Value and Monetize Domain Names

Developing Domainer Income has been a huge undertaking. Although it was based on a proprietary system we already used to find and invest in domain names, morphing the technology into a robust, commercial product required us to invest an enormous amount of time, money and energy.

And we are really just getting started. We have many more enhancements to Domainer Income – as well as further software projects – in the works!

If you are developing, or thinking about developing, a software product you’ll really benefit from these 7 key lessons. Here’s a quick summary of each, but be sure to listen to (or watch) the podcast where I explain each one in depth:

Develop software that solves a big enough problem.
Get a technical project manager.
Hire great software developers.
Expect problems and delays.
Reduce the scope of the project.
Invest in ongoing support and development.
Devote 20 percent of your resources to the software, 80 percent to marketing.

Internet Marketing: The No. 1 Factor That Affects How Much Money You Make Online That NO-ONE Talks About (Not Even The Gurus…)

Anna Johnson — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:07:14 +0000

There’s one KEY factor that will ultimately determine how successful your Internet business is and how much money you make online. Surprisingly, virtually NO-ONE talks about this.

What is it? Listen, watch or download the podcast or read the article below…

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The ‘Internet marketing gurus’ certainly don’t talk about this concept. That’s probably because of one of three reasons:

They’re too busy teaching their particular Internet marketing strategies, tactics or systems… or selling them.
It doesn’t really help their businesses if they talk about this key success factor with you.
Many of them probably don’t know what it is (otherwise they would be much more successful than they are).

Yet, this is the MOST IMPORTANT concept you can embed into your mind… and into your business.

If you fully understand and apply this concept you will MAKE MORE MONEY and BUILD THE GREATEST POSSIBLE WEALTH.

If you don’t understand this concept, or ignore it, you will LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE.

This concept can make the difference between making $100 a week… and making $10,000 or $100,000 a week (or more).

So what is it?

Well, let me explain what it is by answering some of the questions I often get from people. Questions like:

“Since you’re a lawyer why don’t you create an info product for marketers about Internet marketing laws?”

“Why don’t you create an Internet marketing product for lawyers?”

“Why don’t you add a back-end to some of your niche products?”

“Why don’t you update your websites to increase conversions?”

“Why don’t you drive more traffic to some of your websites?”

And so on.

All these questions make sense. And I can safely say that if my company did any of these things we would make more money.

So why don’t we do any of them (at least not right now)?

Simply because there is a BETTER, MORE PROFITABLE USE of our time, money and other resources.

You see, everything has an OPPORTUNITY COST. If you spend a bunch of money or time on one thing, you cannot spend the same bunch of money or time on something else.

The opportunity cost is the cost of NOT doing one thing in order to do another.

EVERYTHING has an opportunity cost.

On the flip-side, every type of investment of time, money or other resources generates a RETURN on that investment, or ROI.

So, in business, your opportunity cost is the return you GIVE UP because of the choice(s) you make.

Consequently, the ONLY way to maximize the money you make online is to invest in those businesses, products and projects that generate the HIGHEST ROI (in other words, have the LOWEST opportunity cost).

For me, that means not doing any of the things I’ve indicated above simply because our company will make MORE money by doing OTHER things that generate a MUCH higher ROI.

Whether you know it or not, the same principles applies to YOU.

You are either devoting your time, money and energy to things that make you the most money… or you are LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE by devoting your time, money and energy to things that will NOT make you as much money.

For example, you might identify a profitable niche in which you know you could dominate. You could spend time developing an info product that serves that market and makes you $1,000 a week.

But if you could spend the SAME amount of time pursuing another niche that makes you $10,000 a week, it’s obvious which niche you should choose.

Everything you do – whether its choosing a niche, choosing a product to develop, choosing a marketing approach, etc – will ALWAYS be a question of WHAT IS THE MOST PROFITABLE use of your time, money or resources.

You won’t always know what is the most profitable choice – that comes with time, trial and error – but after a while you will get a good idea of what it is for you.

And it will vary from person to person, and business to business, based on each person or business’s unique circumstances and resources (time, money, skills, etc).

The main thing is that you ALWAYS think in terms of ROI and opportunity cost in everything you do and let that guide you in making business decisions.

If you do this you’ll set yourself for making the most money possible. If you don’t… you’ll end up overlooking opportunities and leaving money on the table.

How To Deal With Copycats and Rip-Off Merchants

Anna Johnson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:17:44 +0000

As you succeed and gain greater attention online – you’ll see more people not just modeling you, but downright copying you. Your blog posts, your articles, your products, even entire websites.

So what should you do about copycats and rip-off merchants?

Listen, watch or download the podcast below.

View the video (may take a little while to load):

Listen to the audio:

Subscribe to the audio podcast, video podcast or both:

Subscribe to the I Love Internet Marketing audio podcast
Subscribe to the I Love Internet Marketing video podcast

Internet Marketing Gurus: Watch What They Do, Not Just What They Say

Anna Johnson — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:43:16 +0000

In this episode of ‘I Love Internet Marketing’ I tackle the prickly issue of why some Internet marketing ‘gurus’ say one thing, yet do another.

For example, they might tell you how great something is and why you just HAVE to follow a certain strategy or use a certain tool… yet they don’t do follow that strategy or use that tool themselves.

Is it because of the quite legitimate reason that they have different needs to their subscribers and customers? After all, you wouldn’t expect an established business to have the same requirements as someone starting out in Internet marketing.

On the other hand, some of these gurus’ recommendations seem to imply that they do, in fact, use the strategies and tools they recommend… when the reality is quite different. So what is going on here and what can you do about it?

Listen, watch or download the podcast below.

View the video (may take a little while to load):

Listen to the audio:

Subscribe to the audio podcast, video podcast or both:

Subscribe to the I Love Internet Marketing audio podcast
Subscribe to the I Love Internet Marketing video podcast

Building an Online Business: Why Does Everything Take So Long?

Anna Johnson — Sun, 30 May 2010 06:36:22 +0000

In this episode of the I Love Internet Marketing podcast we talk about why everything in an Internet business – from launching a product, to writing ads, to working with freelancers – seems to take so long.

Is it just the way it is for Internet entrepreneurs… or are there steps we can take to cut the time we spend on so many aspects of our Internet businesses?

I Love Internet Marketing Video Podcast

Ed Dale Speaks Candidly About Internet Marketing Trends, Training Internet Marketers, Buying Web Businesses, and More

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