Pressing Reset - Internet Marketing Tips by Leanne King - HTML preview

Introduction

I first got involved in internet marketing back in 2007. I use the term “got involved” loosely.

That really translates to I didn't have a clue about internet marketing, but thought that I did, because I had been reading sales pages, forum threads and blog posts late at night.

I'm probably just like a lot of you reading this now.

I was unhappy in my job. I worked as a lawyer. And I mean really “worked”. They were long hours and although I was paid well - when you divided the number of hours by the pay …..it really didn't add up (even for someone that is not very good at math/s like me!)

Don't get me wrong, I love law. I just didn't like working as a lawyer.

There were loads of things I didn't like, but the main one was not having enough time to enjoy life. Not a lot of point if you are earning money but you don't get to enjoy it, and the earning takes a lot of time that you'll never get back.

Not to mention the stress. I remember at one point going to the dentist complaining of an aching jaw. Turns out I had developed a nice little habit of grinding my teeth to soothe me to sleep.

One of the worse things was realising that I had studied so hard and so long (doing degrees in law, psychology, criminology and economics and courses in real estate and valuation) only to find that it wasn't what I wanted after all. I just wasn't happy.

Before work started each day for me (usually 7.00 a.m. but earlier if I had something “on”) I'd buy a coffee and sit out the front for a few minutes negotiating with myself and sipping my coffee. It would go something like this – “so if I'm able to finish this urgent work by lunch time ..there's a chance that I could go out and get a sandwich at lunch time. And if all goes well in the afternoon maybe, hopefully, I'll be able to get out the door by 8.30 p.m.” So, before I even started work for the day I was plotting how long it would take to get out of the place at the end of the day. It was dark outside when I left in the morning for work and it was dark when I got home. For a while there I rarely seen daylight!

I had no social life to speak of. If you weren't a colleague or a client I basically didn't have enough time in my schedule for you.

It seemed unbelievable after so much study and hard work to just walk into work and quit.

But that's what I did. I had no formal Plan B, I just knew I couldn't do it anymore.

When I handed in my notice within half an hour I was offered more money if I stayed. I turned them down. They were totally confused. I wasn't leaving to go to another firm. I wasn't leaving because I wanted more money. I was just leaving. I don't think that they had ever been turned down before in those circumstances, because they were completely dismayed that someone could walk away from the office, the view and the pay to just do

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“something else” but anything else rather than be there.

After about an hour I thought that I might have been a bit rash in quitting a nice steady job with a healthy pay and benefits. But as fate would have it, that's when I got a phone call.

As the saying goes, one door opens when another closes. The call was from a friend that wanted to know if I wanted to do some more lecturing. In between working as a lawyer during the day I had also lectured in law a couple of times a week. I was now being offered more work. This was a god send. It meant that I was still earning a regular income while I had several days a week to learn “something else”.

My decision to quit was impulsive. I hadn't discussed it with my partner other than as a

“one day” wish but I had, had enough. Staying for the two weeks notice period required were amongst the longest days ever in my career. I couldn't wait for my new life to start.

My hope was that I could lecture in law and learn how to do this “internet marketing” thing to the extent that it replaced my income, my partner's income and a bit more besides (I'm not there - yet).

I had discovered “internet marketing” when my partner bought some dvds on Ebay from an internet marketing event. I can still remember when we watched them one rainy weekend how amazed we both were at the concept of making money, from home, passively. No boss to answer to. No billable hours. No grinding the teeth. And seriously, how hard could it be?

Those dvds certainly lit the fire and sparked the imagination that there was more to life and I resolved to learn more about this mystery called “internet marketing”.

Well it turns out learning about internet marketing was both easier and harder than what I thought!

I remember day 1 of my life as a part time internet marketer.

It seems like a lifetime ago now :)

My partner had bought what I now know as an autoblog on Ebay. Back then I had no idea what an autoblog was. I just knew that when I logged into the thing it said “WordPress” on it. The autoblog was monetized with adsense, Amazon and some Commission Junction affiliate products on it. I knew that I had to change the links out but I had no idea where they were and how to get the links in.

There were times that I cried. I was so frustrated by learning how to use the website that I couldn't even think about the “marketing” stuff, I was still confused by the “internet” component. I made so many mistakes. I couldn't FTP. I could only login sometimes when I remembered the “trick” to do it and I couldn't figure it out.

Every day I would approach this website and resolve to get “in” and change the links.

Every day I'd end up either crying or angry. I just didn't get “it”. In the end (after an embarrassing amount of time) I paid the seller $50 to change the links for me.

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I guess that's when things changed for me. I was frustrated by my technical abilities. I was angry that although I knew a lot about “internet marketing” from my research that I was a total virgin when it came to doing anything practical.

But that frustration and anger had a positive effect as well. It gave me a mission in life. I felt a bit like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind - “Tomorrow is another day” became my motto because I planned to figure this thing out once and for all. My mission was to discover how this WordPress thing worked and how to use it.

Initially, I just wanted to uncover its mysteries so I could figure out what to do with my website. Then it dawned on me, when I went to the World Internet Summit in Sydney, that if I was stuck with this process, that other people might be as well.

Somewhere along the line I discovered forums. All the while I was learning “WordPress” and helping people with their problems. From their feedback I knew that people would be interested in a product on WordPress so that became my next mission.

Over the years I've created a lot of products on WordPress, retired some older ones, spoken about WordPress at events and on webinars and given many interviews.

I'm often asked in interviews “What would you do in internet marketing if you had to start again”. It seems a common question and I answer always as best as I can. But for me, the mistakes that I've made (and continue to make – I am human after all:) ) are all part of the story. So this book is about the questions that no-one ever asks me. This book is about the mistakes that I've made and what I've learnt from them (and hopefully what you can learn as well). And for the record, I learn from my mistakes, so if I had to start over again, at this point in time, this is what I would do. By the way, I'm human, so although I know a lot of the mistakes that I've made I may not have got around to fixing them all at the time of writing!

Enjoy

Leanne King

www.wpqueen.com

Twitter

Facebook

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Planning

You can probably tell from my introduction that I'm an impulsive type of gal. I failed to plan my new career in any way. So this obviously has to be the first mistake that I made.

If I had my time over again (and it's never too late, just so you know) I would plan out what I wanted to do, when I was going to do it, and how I was going to achieve that.

The first type of plan that is needed is a business plan. You can easily complete a business plan using any of the online services. The beauty of doing this is that it actually makes you think about what you are trying to achieve and how you aim to achieve it.

Unfortunately (me included) many of us start out with a plan that consists of “quit my job and make lots of money”. That's a wish rather than a plan.

The other internet marketing sin is that a lot of people don't think of internet marketing as a business. They think more of it from the point of view of extra money, a hobby or a stepping stone until they invent the next You Tube.

You need to approach your new career as a business. That's what it is. If you were buying a coffee shop on the High Street you would have (hopefully) a plan for how you would run it, what your mission/aim would be, how you would train your staff and how you would ensure customer loyalty. Same thing applies in the internet marketing world. This is a real business, you generate real income and you pay real taxes. Unlike the “real world” you are responsible for your health benefits, sick pay, holiday leave and superannuation though. You need to think about those things as well, rather than push them to the side.

Take a lesson from me. I got lucky. I got a part time job that helped me income wise while I was figuring out what I wanted to do. So,as tempting as it may be, to walk in and quit your job think of a Plan B.

Try and have at least 3 – 6 months of savings (enough to cover bills and living expenses) to get you started in internet marketing and ideally don't quit your job until your part time internet marketing activities are replacing your income completely.

Action Steps

• Think about what it is that you want your business to represent and achieve.

Here's some ideas:

Do you want to produce quality products?

Do you want to provide innovative software solutions?

Do you want to enrich the web with quality web publishing?

• How would you describe what you want to do with internet marketing in one sentence? Write this down this will help you complete your business plan.

• D

ownload a Business Plan (or create your own) and complete it.

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• Think about and consult with an insurance broker about what sort of insurances you should take out to protect your income (if you were unable to work would your business still function?) and any other insurances you may need; health etc.

• Discuss with your accountant what sort of business structure you should set up, sole trader, company and the like and the cost and benefits of implementing that structure.

• Create a budget. Think of every single bill that you have that you have to pay monthly (including internet marketing related items – i.e. domain renewals, hosting, subscriptions) and any other bills that you may pay quarterly or annually and work out the amount that you need to set aside each month (e.g. Car registration, rates, taxes). Work out what income you need to pay for all your bills each month, what income you need to replace your current income and your ideal income. This is your new initial financial goal. If it seems so big and unachievable then break it down to a daily basis or an hourly basis.

Business Model

Internet Marketing is a kaleidoscope of BSO's. Bright Shiny Objects. Every email that lands in your inbox, every tweet that you see on Twitter is enticing you to buy some new

“internet marketing” magic trick that will solve all your problems. Problem is that often we fall for the hype and buy into the program, only to realise that it's a one hit wonder, a short term spark of income and then spend months of wondering why it all went away.

Beware BSO's - they entice you with hope, they suck your time and they don't have longevity.

One of the first things that you need to do is filter out all the BSO's in your life and sort out what model you are going to follow in internet marketing. It basically boils down to this; to make money on the internet you can either create your own stuff and sell it (product creation), sell other peoples stuff for a commission/fee (affiliate marketing/adsense) or sell services (service provider).

Within this broad brush look of business models there are different income streams and monetization methods but all you need to do right now is find the one that works for you, and preferably one that is “evergreen” meaning it is not a flash in the pan trick but a real income model that you can use this year, next year and for the end of time. Sure, the techniques might change but the model should remain the same.

I'm going to be a bit different here and recommend you choose two things to focus on (at different times). Here's the reasoning:

The Hare & The Tortoise

Internet marketing is to some extent like living in a vacuum. You can slave away at your computer and you don't realise that you are doing “good”. At work you might have a boss that says “well done” every now and again, but your computer usually stays silent.

The only way that we know that we are doing okay, usually, is just like at work, when someone gives us money or a compliment.

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It can take a while though to build up sites and generate an income. You have to build the site, get the traffic and test the conversions. That can be a bit of a downer while you are waiting for the rent money to arrive.

So a good idea, and one that I wish that I had done, was to have a Hare and Tortoise Business Model. Meaning I would choose something that would get me a fast return (to keep me going, pay my rent and be my “well done”) and a slow return on my tortoise that I'm working on for my real Business Model. I would allocate a bit of time each week to my Hare and a longer period of time to my Tortoise.

Hare's are meant to bring in money each week and have me drooling like Pavlov's dog and Tortoises are my long term business model.

Here's some examples that, depending on your skills and experience, you could use.

Hare

Tortoise

Quick Flip Domains

Product Creation

Article writing

-Create a book for Kindle/Amazon

Video creating

-Create a membership site

Website Installation

-Create an ecourse/ebook

Turnkey websites

-Software Development

PLR article packs

Local Business Services

Press Releases

-Social Media Set Up

Article Spinning

-SEO

Blog Commenting/Forum Posting

-Website Design

Transcription

-Pay Per Click

Technical Help

Established Site Flipping

Graphics creation

Affiliate Marketing – Niche websites

Now you need to choose which business model you are going to follow from your Tortoise column and what is going to be your Hare.

Of course, there are many more things that you could put in the Hare and Tortoise columns, but these suggestions are just to give you an idea of quick fixes and long term models.

Action Steps

• Write down everything that you are currently working on

• Write down all your skills

• Write down services that you could on sell (and make a profit as a middle man)

• Write down one thing that you want to concentrate on that you want to make your whole focus of attention

• Now sort this list into a Hare and Tortoise. Now refine that list – remove projects,

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ideas until ideally, your Hare should be just 1 or 2 things and your Tortoise just one thing. These should be the things that have the least barrier of entry (i.e. you have skills and don't need to buy stuff or spend money) and that focus on your strengths (i.e. they can be completed quickly and easily).

• Put “everything else” on those lists aside in a drawer – one day we'll look at it again :)

• Calculate how many Hares you would need to complete in day/week/month to meet your first financial goal

Focus

This has been my absolute downfall. There are so many great ideas out there …. which one to choose to do ….perhaps all of them! Sadly, when you do that – you just do a lot of things really badly.

First of all you need to know the business model that you are going to focus on. Put 100% of your energy into that and focus on doing everything to make that a success.

This might include buying products that help you become proficient in an area but shouldn't include buying and researching every product going because “one day” you'll use it.

If you are truly focusing on succeeding with your business model you won't worry about

“one day”. From experience, “one day” rarely comes and you end up having a pile of out of date resources on your hard drive. You need to absolutely commit to your business model at this point. No second guessing, no trying something - just total commitment.

I should say one of my biggest mistakes was for a year I was totally committed to my WordPress book. It was what I worked on at every opportunity day and night. It was my sole focus. Then when I launched it – rather than building on that momentum I retired to the couch exhausted. I figured I had “been there done that” and it was time to do

“something else”.

What a mistake that was!

I just ended up chasing my tail for over 18 months before returning to what I did best.

Action Steps

• Look at your Hare and Tortoise list and think about what products/resources you already have that you can use with your Hare and Tortoise and become proficient in them. Make a note of this on your spreadsheet and assign a product/resource to each.

For example; you might decide to do article writing as a service. What you need to be an article writer is as simple as Notepad on your computer but you might also decide that you will submit articles for people to Unique Article Wizard as part of your service. This means that you need to study UAW and become proficient in its use. This is not an excuse to buy more “stuff”. To focus you should be looking at utilising the materials that you already have and looking at how well they work and resonate with your business plan.

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Article Writing &

UAW (resource)

Offline Consulting

10K In A Weekend

Submission (Hare)

(Tortoise)

(product)

Notepad

7 Minute Articles

(product)

Your resource list should just have a few items on it. Any more than a few and it just means that you are signing up for a University course on research rather than action.

Don't worry if you have a lot of products/resources that you can use – they won't go to waste, just focus on becoming proficient and excelling at a few of them for the moment.

Goals

The other type of plan you need is a goal plan. Now that you have your business model you need to work out what your goals are.

If you chose the Site Flipping Business Model for example then your goals would be to a) build the site b) generate traffic c) monetize the traffic d) build the site up to a saleable asset with a monthly income of $X e) sell the site for 10 x monthly earnings.

All at once that might seem a little bit overwhelming. So we need to chunk it down into bite size pieces that can be easily achieved. The easier these mini goals are to achieve the more motivated we become.

In order to achieve these goals you need to have a time limit. This is one of the real problems with working from home for me. As there is no boss to hover over my shoulder and no clients screaming on the phone to “get it done” I tend to expand the time that it takes to complete my goals – Parkinson's law in action.

One of the first steps is to set some realistic goals for each part of our business model. If we divide each goal point into a period of time we know what area we should be focusing all our energy on.

Using the Site Flipping Business Model example if our goal is to develop a site that generates $10,000 per month in income then this can be simply done just by ruling up a piece of paper into three columns.

One column is for your yearly goals related to your business plan, one column for each periodical goal (monthly/quarterly – whatever suits you) and the first column the tasks that you need to do in order to complete those goals.

Here's how that might look for the site flipping model:

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Task

Periodical Goal

Annual Goal

Do keyword research

30 – Build site

Create a site to sell that

Buy domain name

generates $10,000 per

Set up Blog

month

Create Free Report

Build Links & Traffic

60 - Build list of subscribers

- write 1 article per day and

submit to major article

directories

Do 5 guest blog posts on

90 - Earn $1000 per month

popular blogs within niche

from site

It's often a good idea to then reverse engineer that process even further backwards. So if I had a goal for example to create a book within a month I need to have a daily plan on how I would achieve that.

So, using the example above, I would just allocate my tasks to a 20-30 day period on each day I would achieve at least one of my tasks. When allocating your tasks you need to be realistic. Base it on your previous experience. If you have managed to locate a niche, do keyword research, set up a site and write 10 articles in one day then that is an achievable goal for you. If you haven't done that before, then you need to assess realistically what you can do in that time period.

Years ago I heard Ewen Chia speak at the World Internet Summit. I have never bought anything from him. however, he has been a big influence on me. One thing he said that he does is just focus on one thing at a time.

So if he was building an affiliate site his whole focus is on that site. Once the site is finished his whole focus is traffic, but not multiple methods of traffic.

He focuses one at a time. So he might first of all become proficient with article marketing and he focuses all his site's traffic on article marketing. When that is converting to buyers for him he moves on to another method of traffic and so on. When the site is making money then he moves to the next site.

When I follow his focus on one thing at a time it works like a charm for me ….when I don't

…. :(

Action Steps

• Create your goal plan for your Hare and Tortoise

• Create your daily action plan for your Hare and Tortoise; and

• assign different days to work on your Hare and Tortoise that align with your goals (both financial and task goals)

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Time Management

Hand in hand with focusing is our friend, time management. Knowing what you need to achieve a day in advance is one of the most important things that you can do for your business.

When I first started thinking of time management it was basically a giant “to do” list. I could never get through my “to do” list in the one day and it ended up taking a week to get through the “stuff” that I had written down.

That's when I realised I was focusing on the wrong stuff. My time needed to be managed more like when I worked to billable hours.

I was committing the worse offence of staff who work unsupervised at home and basically I was slacking off.

I could login to a forum to catch up on the latest posts at 9.00 a.m and by the time I got involved reading and answering it was probably hours later that I logged out. Then of course I was tired and needed lunch :) In short, I was managing my time the wrong way.

In order to get the most out of your time you need to think about the things that you need to get done that will get you further in your business. What are these really? Well, what it's not is whiling away time in forums, social media and surfing the net looking for

“something”. What it is, in fact, is something that will earn you money and/or build your brand/business one day at a time getting your closer to achieving your goals.

I can probably hear you thinking that you don't have enough time. You might have a full time job, children to look after or other commitments to allocate time to tasks. If that's the case I have to ask “How badly do you want to succeed in internet marketing?”. If you died tomorrow would you be happy with what you have done so far?

So, if you are still with me on this, here's some hints on time management taken from my law career and the need for billable hours.

First of all you need to prioritise the work that needs to be done each day that will move you closer to achieving your goals. You should have no more than 5 priorities (otherwise you are writing a task list). If your first priority is to build a website following the Site Flipping Business Model then after you have allocated the deadline for this in your Goal steps you need to break it down into mini tasks and assign a time period for each for example:

research, buy domain name, get hosting, install WordPress, configure WordPress, create content.

Realistically, if you have some experience already, these things don't take a lot of time for example:

Research (30 minutes), buy domain name (10 minutes), hosting (10 minutes), install and configure wordpress (15 minutes) create content (10 articles @ 30 minutes per article – 5

hours). All in all, this totals less than a day's work. The reason that it takes us longer

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usually is we become distracted, spend time tweaking themes and generally procrastinate getting the task done!

We often fall into the trap of thinking we don't have enough time in the day to achieve things. However, when I worked in law it was amazing what you could get done every 6

minutes when you had a clock ticking in front of you.

When I started internet marketing I threw the concept of billable time away and rejoiced in having no ticking clock hovering over me. I've since realised this was a mistake.

If I don't have a schedule to keep I'm likely to procrastinate or spend too much time analysing something when I should be moving closer to my goal.

I now use a time management tool and load it up with my 5 important tasks each day