Ï Greetings, welcome to the section where we'll be discussing why some people are successful and why some aren't, drawing from the primary factors that went into the failures and successes of all the people that I personally met on the way. That came and went, that failed and quit, that succeeded and quit their jobs and bought ridiculously large houses and expensive cars.
Ï There are many different reasons for success, and everyone is different, but what I'd like to concentrate on now are two simple questions that I ask almost everyone I meet when they reach the peak of their marketing, whether it be success or failure. Why do you think you didn't make it? And of course, why do you think you made it? You'd be surprised at the results, I sure was. Let’s look at this information now.
Ï The first thing I'd like to talk about is your choice of guide purchases. This one doesn't apply so much now seeing as you have this in your hands but it's definitely something I'd like you to watch out for in the future.
Ï All too often when people are starting out they'll tell me they've been reading this free e-book or they've visited this free site. They’ve pulled a load of info from it, and what I'm telling them to do, and what other marketers are telling them to do contradicts what they've been told by wherever they were previously. The general rule is the more you spend, the better you get.
Ï I'm not denying that small courses and cheap courses can be useful, and I'm not saying what I'm teaching you here is the be all and end all of information and the only way to be a success, but understand if you want a guide that really shows you solid marketing information, someone isn't going to reveal all of their best tactics for free.
Ï So my advice to you would be to always look for premium products if you want the full story. I doubt anyone would even consider selling a guide costing more than five hundred dollars if it was all shoddy. It would be devastating to their business, and isn't something buyers will forget in a hurry. Similarly, if you have any friends or make any contacts relying on small e-books for their marketing information, let them know that premium products are the way to go. Not necessarily this guide, I'm not trying to get you to go selling for me, but any well known marketer with a premium product is their best bet if they want to learn new things and serious techniques. Remember not to hard sell them just point them in the right direction in a friendly manner. It's in your best interests if your marketing contacts and customers succeed.
Ï Moving on to the second thing that I have personally seen and even experienced myself, which came very close to adding me to the list of those who didn't make it, and that's that you already have all the information and know how, but don't realize it, and therefore don't feel comfortable putting it into action for one reason or another.
Ï My personal experience of this was a bit of a shock. I spent just over a grand buying a big marketers product that claimed to reveal all his secrets. On reading I found myself thinking, hey, this guy knows a lot, he makes a whole bundle of cash, but I already know literally everything that he's telling me. I found myself adding more to his tips in my mind while reading through, kind of unconsciously saying 'Hey, you missed a bit'.
Ï At this point I realized it was time to start moving forward and taking action. The initial learning period was over. Watch for this because you may find you know more than you think, and your success could well just be a matter of you taking the plunge and confidently putting all you've learned into action.
Ï In addition to this the progression from the worker to the boss isn't the easiest thing to do by far, a common misunderstanding, and something else that got me for a period back in 2002. The way this one hit me was that a friend came to me and said 'next time you're working on your business, or doing a big job, record how much time you spend doing it and how much you get done, then report back to me, and he guaranteed I could triple this through a simple fifteen minutes of easy work. I did as she said, and when I returned she demonstrated how much time was being wasted, catching the news, flipping through songs to listen to while I'm working, grabbing food, speaking to some friends, making calls and so on.
Ï So here's the thing. When you work try to either keep a timetable if that's your thing, a set of goals for the day in list format, or at the very least keep a record of the amount of work you're getting done and cut out the distractions totally. It sounds minor, I know, but try it and see how much more you get done when writing your reports. Being lazy doesn't come into it. It's all about that transgression to being in total control. Don't let anyone ever tell you that it’s easy because it sure does take some getting used to.
Ï Taking a look around on my desk now, I have my headphones on with a set play list going, I have my keyboard, a watch and a glass of iced water. That's it. It's amazing how time flies and how work quality is affected by distractions. Remove them and prosper.
Ï Moving on from distractions the next thing I want to talk to you about is avoiding the dirty bits, a way of thinking that is in my experience affecting almost every marketer in their first six months of serious hard online marketing.
Ï Ever learned something new and thought to yourself, ah well I can skip this bit and do it later, or this isn't really how I pictured this to be? It happens to everyone, and when you have a pre-determined picture of how something should be in your head, it's hard to go about something that you don't enjoy totally. It's even easier to avoid things when you're in total control as with your own business.
Ï For example, when I started out in online marketing I thought it'd be all about posting paid ads, creating products and getting paid. Of course it didn't work out like that, and it turns out that pulling new Joint Ventures and making first contact with people isn't my forte, whilst the creative side and product creation totally is. What would happen if JV's were totally ignored, or I'd edited the techniques I'd learned in my mind down to only doing the things I enjoy the most? Well, personally I’d have been back selling other peoples stuff pretty quick.
Ï So the first thing I'd like you to do now is open your mind, and ask yourself, "is there anything that I've been avoiding doing because it doesn't fit into my pre-conceptions of what running a business and online marketing is about?".
Ï Dig deep and answer truthfully, because you may already have the key that you need to be a success. You just may not know it because it's been placed at the back of your mind as something you don't particularly want to do, or edited out of your personal knowledge base because it's something you're not prepared to do. If you find an answer to that question, bring it to the front of your mind, write it down if you have a journal, and remember it. In addition if you find something that you haven't been doing or avoiding, either consciously or unconsciously, after finding the answer and writing it down, keep it in mind. Your situation will not change unless you change it.
Ï On a personal note to you, take it from me, even if there are aspects you don't enjoy as much as others, if you face them head on and attack them full force you'll find, as your business develops, your job gets easier and easier and it isn't so painful to fix this anymore. My joint venture first contact for example is something I don't enjoy, but it's not necessary anymore, because people come to me. It had to be faced to get to this point though and I'd advise you to dig deep and do the same. It's quite likely you'll surprise yourself.
Ï Ok moving on again to something that I personally experienced and probably one of the biggest downfalls I’ve seen around me, in the past and no doubt in the future too, and that's getting attached to a product. Ï The best example I can think of is when I had this old site going. Not a small site by any means. Anyway, I was constantly updating, cleaning, tidying, maintaining and so on. Meanwhile someone that I'd met just a few months earlier had pulled three sites out the bag, and these were serious sites, packed full of content.
Ï He said to me one day 'Hey, you've been working on that site a long time, it must be pretty huge by now'. It took me a while to realize why there were those of us that were moving forward and those of us not making a success of ourselves, and it was simple. Now there's nothing wrong with keeping customer support going and updating a site every now and then, especially if it's a membership site, but there are two important things to keep in mind. Firstly, don't get carried away changing, prettifying, adding, and so on. Secondly, don't try to be everything to everyone. If you already have happy customers, that's great. Your product is good, it's time to stop trying to fix it up and put that valuable time into creating multiple products and developing new ideas. It's the only way to move forward and learn.
Ï The moment I discovered this it set me free. Here I am now working on a serious amount of reports, sites, scripts, with a bigger list, better resources, more knowledge and experience under my belt, more promotion power, more contacts and strangely, more free time. If you want these things too, remember, never stop developing and moving forward. Keeping customer service up is one thing, but constantly going back and altering your ideas isn't the best way to do thing. Live and learn, and move on.
Ï Just to give you an idea of how powerful this alone is, here's a real life example. When I started out I met two different people. One already had their own site and one joined as a member of that site and was yet to create their own products. The one with the site is today, six or seven years later, working on that same site, still has a full time job and even though the site is massive and packed full of everything you could think of in their field of expertise, hasn't made much progress. The guy that joined this site as a member created sites, created content, products, learned, moved on, learned moved on, constantly pushed his boundaries. He told me yesterday that he has now quit his job and is earning on average $800 per day and moving towards doubling that within the year. This one aspect could be the difference between you failing, and your total success.
Ï Moving on to the next aspect of being worried you won't succeed. Many people seem to develop this over time, and have already made their mind up whether they're going to be a success or not.
Ï Now you may not be the type of person to worry about what other people are thinking or how they'll react to your products and the things you do, which is great, because you'll burn bridges a lot faster than us out there that hate it when someone doesn't like our work. This is why you'll always get the best from anything I do personally, but for those of you who are reading and get a little uptight when approaching something new this is for you.
Ï Let’s get this all out in the open right now shall we? If you continue down this road you will on occasion experience the following. You will be shouted at, you will experience things that make you feel uncomfortable (namely change) you will be sworn at, you will be abused, called a liar, a money grabber, you will be refused, you will be denied, put down, told your work is shoddy, bad or not up to standard, and that the brand new idea you had won't ever work. No matter how good your work is this is inevitable whether it's from those that don't understand your work, a frustrated customer, someone who didn't like receiving an ad from you or someone who had their friend subscribe them to your stuff. Whatever it is, whether it was your fault or not, it will happen.
Ï Let’s get something straight for one. You run your business the way you want to run it. It is your business, you're doing the work, creating the products, buying the guides, reaping the rewards. Don't ever, under any circumstances, let an abusive customer, negative friend, family member or frustrated customers that take their life out on you, either get you down or, put you off trying something new. Build new bridges, listen to people’s advice along the way, but be confident, be determined, and physically hack and slash your way to success if you have to. This isn't desperation, this is sheer determination. Don't ignore advice, but flatten any obstacles in your way, gain new ground all day every day, and you'll find that it actually takes more effort for you not to make it than it does to make it.
Ï Finally, there's one more thing I'd like to get out in the open about being a success. That's doing everything on your own. Something that many marketers, that start their own business, like to do simply because it's such a change from their jobs, and they don't have anything else to worry about except customers. Either this or they think they'll be losing out on the profits side of things if they bring anyone else in on a deal. Totally the opposite is true.
Ï That's not to say that you need to go around partnering on every single site that you create, but it does mean that you need to think a little more about working in a team wherever possible.
Ï Partnerships are one example but you'll be splitting the profits 50/50. Lets say for example you both have the same amount of resources to get your promotion out to through different contacts and each others lists, affiliates, JV’s and customers. Mix in a little bit of your expertise and you'll end up making the same amount of cash anyway if things are dead even. What you will get though is double the visitors, double the people in your follow-up, and double your affiliates adding fifty percent to your total income from the product to start with, and on top of that you'll be pulling in double the resources to promote to in the future. Ï Don't worry if you don't have anyone on your contact list yet and you're starting from the very beginning, once you've launched your first few products you will have. Make it your business to work as a team. Make each other successful through plugging the gaps in your knowledge and ability with someone else and let them do the same in return. You will be more successful than you thought was possible with the product you work on, and due to increased resources, future products also.
Ï That's all for this section. Some of the smallest but yet the most important bits of information, all taken straight from real experiences we've had over here. Take the knowledge contained within this report, put it to good use, and I look forward to seeing many successful products come from you. Be careful though. Just because you don't have these problems right now, you may develop any of them later. Don't forget what you've just been reading and you'll do just fine.