I regularly checked the Twitter account of John Reese because I like to see what he’s up [...]]]>
Twitter might seem to be booming in everything from radio to TV – but for two of the most well-respected Internet / Direct Marketers (John Reese & Frank Kern), it seems to have lost all of its commercial value.

I regularly checked the Twitter account of John Reese because I like to see what he’s up to. However, one day, I got to his page to find it caused an error. So I headed to the Warriorforum to ask if he’d deleted his account and it seems that he has…

I also learnt that Frank Kern had done the same and it’s all because of how people are using this service. Twitter is a communications tool much like the “Status” updates of Facebook. It’s where you can inform followers of what your business is doing and how it can benefit them. Sounds good, right?

Well the problem that Reese & Kern stated was that there was ‘too much noise’ on the service now for it to be effective… at least in the “Make Money Online” market. I’m sure you’ve experienced the amount of spammy profiles who just send you countless pieces of rehashed junk mail to get you to click their site. It’s crazy the amount of crap people put on Twitter.

So anway, let me explain this post.

I don’t actively use Twitter as much as I should. For example – I could use it for this blog, but I don’t. I use it for some other reasons like backlinking but that’s a different story. What I’m trying to say is that what I’m about to tell you might or might not be the 100% bottom line because I have not looked at it thoroughly… this is only my opinion.

If you want to use Twitter to make sales or sell Clickbank products, then I’m going to say now that it’s probably best if you stay away from the service. Twitter is a brand-building tool in my eyes, and you will not get many good results if you try and sell directly from it.

You should really use Twitter if:

• You want to create a following or a relationship with a group of people
• You have people who actively want to hear what you / your business is doing
• You have a brand that people can associate with and want to hear updates from

The problem that Kern and Reese have stated is that Twitter has become such a popular tool that many marketers go on there solely to sell as many products as they can. And – due to the nature of the site – that will never work.

So although John Reese and Frank Kern quit Twitter, it doesn’t mean that you should leave it alone. I have several projects which will use Twitter when they get off the ground. There are many reasons why you *should* be using it but there’s also a problem if you try and sell directly from it.

This program was very enlightening for me but it didn’t teach me much more information or ideas that I read in “The Secret”…. except one vital clue as to why some people win and many people lose.

There’s a fine line between winning and losing [...]]]> I was watching a TV program last night about “How To Win“.

This program was very enlightening for me but it didn’t teach me much more information or ideas that I read in “The Secret”…. except one vital clue as to why some people win and many people lose.

There’s a fine line between winning and losing at something, and after watching this show on TV, I finally realized what makes some people great at winning and many people great at losing – it’s your perspective on things and how they relate to you.

This post is just going to be a quick ramble about how I think you can win…

Success and winning at much the same thing – they both define getting what you want no matter what happened, who got in your way or what experience you have. In business, and with online business, winning can take the form of getting the top search rank, performing a successful product launch or even closing a big deal.

The problem is that many people are not very good at winning. They don’t do the things that help them win, and this TV show yesterday showed me that was all down to how people perceive winning and their luck. You see, many people perceive the World around them in a negative view. They think everyone is out to get them and they are just a victim to processes that are out of their control. They take what’s given to them and make do with what they end up with. That’s the ‘loser’ way of thinking.

However, ‘winners’ think in a totally different way. Winners have a much more positive attitude but with a lot realism mixed in with it. Winners don’t treat a mishap or bad result as a ‘failure’ – they just see it as something to avoid the next time they do something. And winners always look on the bright side of every story.

That’s the big message for this post – that there’s always another side to the story.

It’s easy to get swept up with the media and all sorts of people around you, who just think in a negative light about everything. It’s easy to throw your hands up and say “Oh! The economy is down the toilet! Oh! I am not making $1,000,000 a year! Oh! Why Am I Such A Failure?”. This is a big problem because if you start to think like that, you’ll get swept up with all the bad results that go with those ideas.

For example, if you believed the media and thought the economy was going to really fail – would you have started a business last year? Nope. But if you used my little technique of always looking at the other side of the story, you’ll realize that there are still people buying things, even in a recession… making it a no-brainer to start a new biz.

If you want to get some winning results, it’s my opinion that you’ve first got to get a winner’s mindset. And a winner’s mindset starts with seeing the positive in everything and working solely on the positive as well. It’s amazing how much good it can do

The problem that many people have is that they are not instigating enough action to grow their business or continue to keep it running at a sustained [...]]]> Working at building your own business is something that many people like to think they are doing, but the truth is that many people are missing the point completely.

The problem that many people have is that they are not instigating enough action to grow their business or continue to keep it running at a sustained rate. This is an issue which not only affects newbies but also experienced entrepreneurs as well.

I want to give you some motivation in this article and hopefully point you in the right direction to get your business running as smoothly and profitably as possible…

Business – whether online or offline – is all about one thing – making profit. The way you make that profit will vary from business to business, but to make money, you just need to do things that make profit.

So what makes profit?

• For many businesses, it’s selling ‘widgets’. Widgets is the jargon term for products that ‘Joe Sixpack’ wants to buy from your company. These products can cost anything and be targeted at anyone, but they are commercial and wanted by a large number of people.
• Other ways of making profit include ‘renting’ space on a media outlet. If you own a website, have a TV channel or publish a magazine / newspaper, then charging people for advertising space is a way to make profit.

Making a profit all comes down to doing the things that bring in more money than you put out. Simple, isn’t it? You can do 101 things to make profit and none of them are difficult. It’s all down to SELLING SOMETHING… and that something can be either merchandise or content.

The problem many people face with business is that they are not able to comprehend how their business actually makes money. This is a big problem that I know a LOT of entrepreneurs have, and is why many people can’t seem to dig themselves out of a hole or even grow their business in the way they’d like.

If you want to make more, money, you just need to do the things that make profit.

Say you own several affiliate websites in the ‘fat loss’ market. You are getting 1-2 sales a day but want more. What do you do? You take more ‘action’ and ‘do’ the things that are going to improve those sites to bring in more sales.

Most people fumble around and think about creating a newsletter or think about starting a forum or might add a few pages to their favorite site. Those might yield some return, but the amount of money you make is all down to the amount of profit-yielding action you take. I.E the more ’stuff’ you do to make money, the more money will find you.

If you’re an affiliate, why not try my Kaizen approach (continual improvement) and focus on building your site gradually for exponential growth?

Your Action Determines How Much Money You Make

Here’s the real point of this article

Getting a big paycheck each month isn’t actually that hard if you put your mind to it.

I created this blog to give me, above anyone else, the drive and motivation to boost my net worth to $1,000,000 in a year. Can I do it? I don’t know… but what I do know is that I can directly determine the amount of money I make by the action I take.

Think about this for a second -

You’ve all seen this popular fair-ground amusement, right?

It’s known as a ’strength test’ and is designed to show you how “strong” you are by directly comparing the force of your hit with a gauge of 0-100. I’m sure you’ve seen the cartoons where the strong man can hit the bell easily at the top.

Anyway… what I’m trying to show you here is that growing your income is a lot like this game. If you hit the project with a weak amount of force, it’s going to yield a small return. Whereas if you put in your whole effort and aim high, then you’re going to win.

Thinking big (which is my main aim this year) is all down to how you think about business and what action you take. A good example is that if you set out to create a passive income of 1-2 sales a day, then that’s what you’ll eventually get… but if you set out to create an income of 200 sales a day, granted you stick at it, that’s what you’ll get as well.

So when you’re looking at your stats and are not seeing what you want, you need to think about what you really want out of your business and then aim for that straight away. Of course, you can’t dive straight in with the big boys… but having a clear goal will show you that taking the right action is one of the best ways to do it.

I’ve done the whole “here’s what I have, here’s how you do it” thing and it just came and stung me in the arse, with many different marketers just copying me.

So I’m not going to post my [...]]]> Before you ask, NO – I am not going to post the search rank that I’m number 1 for.

I’ve done the whole “here’s what I have, here’s how you do it” thing and it just came and stung me in the arse, with many different marketers just copying me.

So I’m not going to post my site…

However I am going to tell you how I got to #1 in Google and how you can to…

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a game that only a handful of people can play well. Fortunately, I seem to be one of them because I have just got a #1 rank, but it doesn’t mean to say that I’m one of the “lucky few”. It just means that I’ve worked out how to play the game and get some good ranks.

The reason why so many people don’t get the top search spots is because of one simple reason – persistence.

The single most important factor in getting to the top of Google, Yahoo & Bing is to stick to a game plan through the thick and thin. The secret to SEO success is to continually build your site up in the search ranks by doing a few simple things each week (you can learn about this mindset by reading my Kaizen post).

What You Need To Rank Highly In Google

1) Targeted Content

This is something that a lot of people don’t understand, and its beacuse most of the “IM Gurus” will tell you to put up “good content”. Well what’s good content? It could be a treasure map to find missing Nazi Gold or even a book with all the lottery numbers in for next year. The point I am trying to make is that “good content” is not the way to get to the top of the search engines – targeted content is.

Targeted content is where you create specific pages to suit the key terms that you want to rank for. Blogs are great for this, because each new post is a new page. And if you write about a certain topic, that page will get ranked for it You need to create & write content that is specifically targeted at a certain key term or key phrase. And the more targeted you are, the better.

Google relies on relevance to rank sites. So providing good irrelevant content isn’t going to get you anywhere. You need targeted content in order to rank well.

2) Lots of Quality Links

Content counts for about 20% of your SEO efforts. Linking counts for 80% of your efforts.

Getting quality links is an essential part of getting to the top of the search engines. Google sees links as a sign of authority and trust, meaning that it’s more likely to place your site nearer the top of its results. Although there are many factors governing how effective different links are, the fact remains that lots of quality links is the best way to get to the top of the searches.

What You Need To Do To Rank Highly In Google

In order to rank highly in Google, you should follow this simple 3 step system:

Step 1 – Choose Your Key Words

If you have a site that sells vacuum cleaners, then choose the key words which are best going to protray what your perfect visitor will search for. This is an entire science in itself and I’m not going to post much about this step right now. A good tip is to head to the Google Keyword Tool and then look for your site’s topic – you’ll get plenty of keyword ideas from that.

Step2 – Create Targeted Content For Those Keywords

If you find 20 key words that you’d like to rank for, then you’re going to need to make 20 targeted pages on your site to link to them. This is important because the more targeted you can make your pages, the higher you’ll rank.

Step 3 – Concentrate on getting 10 links every week

Links are the essence of SEO and if you can get them continuously, it will boost your site up the rankings like a jack-in-the-box. There are many ways to get links and I’ll show you some of the easiest ways to get them in another post.

I have been [...]]]> Do You Take Your Business Seriously Enough?

Business is business whether you do it at home, in an office or on a beach. Business has the same rewards, risks and benefits no matter if you’re doing it in your PJ’s or in a full suit… so do you actually take your business seriously enough?

I have been working from my home PCs for about 1.5 years now and although I like doing this, I had a major meltdown with how seriously I took my business just the other week.

I really want to show you how to grow your business by taking it a lot more seriously.

I know a lot of affiliate marketers out there call their business a ‘hobby’. This is a big problem if you want to grow your business like I do and is one which needs to be overcome if you are to hit the “big time”.

I used to not think of my affiliate sites / business as an actual business at all. I just saw it as a full time income. I worked on the sites, they made me money. But it wasn’t until some of those sites had some down days that I actually realized that I am already running a global company which has customers from all over the World.

I used to attend some networking events and used to shy away from any questions about how I made cash. Why? Because I didn’t believe that the business I had was an actual business that was going to pay my bills for me. And, as with all the ways you think, this can be a very destructive idea.

The problem with not taking your business seriously is that your thoughts become reality, meaning that you’ll likely NEVER grow your earnings because you’ll never think of what your doing as being legit. Instead, you’ll just bounce along the bottom of the earnings ladder with your “hobby” that’s just affording a few long weekends.

I have been readng a book by a man called T.Harv Eker and in it he said a profound comment:

If you set out to earn enough to pay the bills, that’s what you’ll get. But if you set out to get rich, that’s what you’ll get

That stuck with me and is why I now class myself as an international salesman. My mindset has also grown to allow me to invest into a new project that I will be releasing very soon as well as some other projects which have been ongoing for a few months now.

Whether you’re an affiliate or a vendor or whatever…. I urge you to take your business more seriously if you’re to start building on it and making more money. That’s the basis of what I’m doing to try and become a millionaire

The problem many people have is that they dive into projects [...]]]> “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.

This is a big mantra that I was taught in school. It’s actually one of the only things that I learnt from school and use regularly… because I’ve found it to be an extremely effective saying for business.

The problem many people have is that they dive into projects (especially big ones) and wind up failing because they did not plan out exactly what they need to do and what they need to set up in order to get the business working.

I am working on building a new service which will launch soon, but it’s going to be one of the biggest things I’ve done in my career so far. And in order to ensure its success, I’m planning out exactly how its going to work and what it’s going to have to do to work.

My advice to you is that if you want to do anything in life or business, make sure that you take the time to prepare for it. This means you need to plan out exactly what you need to do to get it operational, and the marketing steps you will have to take to get your new project running.

Here’s some timeless advice if you want to get somewhere but don’t know how:

1) Start from your results & work backwards -  If you want to make a new game copy product, then picture the project in your mind. Make sure you note down exactly what you need in order to get it selling and then work through making each one of those things. This will give you a more definite path of what you want to achieve

2) Don’t let anyone influence you – This is your creation and in order to get the best results, you should concentrate on making as “you” as possible. I’ve been stuck in the ways of just copying other people before today, and it’s painful because you end up causing so much friction between your other webmasters that it’s just not worth doing it. Try and make what ever you do as personalized to you as possible

3) Be creative and don’t be afraid to keep trying – So you spend 2 weeks making a site. So you spend $300 getting it ready to sell, you designate a day to open it up and no one buys. Bummer – many people will call this a ‘dead horse’. I call it under-preparation and lack of persistence. You can sell anything you want, but for how much and in how many quantities is all down to several factors. In order to make something a success, you need to be sure that you have the partnerships in place and the systems in place to generate the traffic and the demand for your product. Just do what you can to continually get it out there.

Just a post to show you that preparation is 80% of making money. The other 20% is down to action. But without preparation, you’ll have no sort of action… so preparing what you are going to do is essential.

I know a lot of people are going to be reading this post with a lot of wonder on their mind. I mean – the big mantra online is that “content is king”, right?

Well I’ve been thinking, and I want to put a new twist on that saying….

“Content Is King” has been [...]]]>

Creativity Is King?

I know a lot of people are going to be reading this post with a lot of wonder on their mind. I mean – the big mantra online is that “content is king”, right?

Well I’ve been thinking, and I want to put a new twist on that saying….

“Content Is King” has been a saying that countless Internet marketing professionals have alluded to over the years. This saying is a term used to describe how you need to provide “good content” in order to make money online. Good content comes in the form of informative articles, beneficial sites and good solid information.

That mantra is basically trying to say that making it big online will happen if you just go about what your daily tasks and try and write as much content as possible…..

I think it’s wrong.

The problem many online entrepreneurs have is that they have forgotten about being creative. I am one of these and is a disease that can infect anyone and everyone.

The whole “content is king” mantra is the perfect way for Internet professionals to just copy the same run-of-the mill business models that other people have used, and then just try and cut above the rest of the millions of marketers with “good content”.

Well here’s the deal – good content is only good if people can see it. Good content can be copied, duplicated and rewritten 1,000’s of times, but good marketing cannot. And this is where many newbie and experienced marketers fall down.

Being creative with your business is a necessity that is essential in everything from writing articles to building an email list. If you’ve been trying to sell Clickbank products for long, you’ll know how easy it is to fall into the trap of simply copying someone who’s been successful. This is bad because it means that you’ll not only invade their market space, but you’ll also have no sort of competative advantage or USP, dissolving your profit potential.

I’ve found the best way to grow any business is to be creative. A good example of this is with the Virgin brand. These sets of companies are extremely popular because they’ve gone against the grain in some of the most competitve markets in the World; and have become very big in doing so.

Here in the UK, Virign is one of the largest privately owned set of companies, and its all because they try and rekindle a spark of enthusiasm in somewhat dull and jaded markets. They have been creative in the way that they get people to rave about their brand, and how they promote their products & services.

Most online marketers copy a set of ‘rules’ that many people believe are the right way to do things. And although there are certain things that will earn you money and will not, the fact remains that you need to be creative in order to see the biggest benefits. Being creative is an essential way of getting more exposure, more sales and more brand recognition.

I used to blindly copy marketing models and businesses. Yes, I know the Karma is bad, but it was a way to make a living.  However, now I am focusing on creation and trying to be as creative as possible with the services & products I offer. You’ll see in the next few weeks about what I mean – and hopefully, you’ll learn something from it as well

I’ve recently been trying to think of new products to create for my new businesses and suddenly realized that there’s a service I pay out $100’s for each month that is not meeting my requirements!

In my recent post “Sell What You Want To [...]]]> I love it when you suddenly realize something so important in your mind.

I’ve recently been trying to think of new products to create for my new businesses and suddenly realized that there’s a service I pay out $100’s for each month that is not meeting my requirements!

In my recent post “Sell What You Want To Buy” I detailed a little technique that I use every day, which is where I will sell what I want to buy. It’s a simple and powerful way to get new ideas for your business.

For example…

• If you’re paying out $50 a month for an article writer… then why not create an article writing agency?
• If you’re buying review site templates for your latest CB site, then why not set up your own templates club?
• If you spend out on monthly porno flicks, then why not make your own porno affiliate site?

The possibilities are endless, and I recently used this idea to come up with a BIG IDEA!

This idea is so powerful that it could change you think about marketing on the Internet forever. And yes although that was a bunch of hyped up hyperbole, it’s actually got a grain of truth to it.

The idea I’ve had – although I don’t want to disclose any sort of detail about it – will automate the way many affiliates work and has already been proven with a series of other businesses. I’m highly excited about it and it’s going to be one of the biggest projects that I’ve ever attempted. However, in order to achieve big, you’ve got to think big.

Watch out for it in the next few months. I’ve got some really exciting plans which I will share with you nearer to the time.

This style of management is often disregarded in smaller companies, but is a principle which I am learning a LOT from and am [...]]]> Kaizen – “Continual Improvement”

“Kaizen” is the Japanese word for “improvement” and is a management style that’s practiced throughout the whole of Japan and many new-age companies looking to further their profits and efficiency.

This style of management is often disregarded in smaller companies, but is a principle which I am learning a LOT from and am using in my businesses to grow my new worth and achieve my goal of becoming a paper millionaire.

I want to give you an insight into this term and how you can use it today to grow your own business to the levels of profits that only the “big guns” seem to be able to achieve.

There’s a big culture with small businesses that “survival” is the key and that you need to do bold things every day in order to survive. Especially with the perceived slowdown in the economy, many companies – online & offline – are trying their hardest to do whatever it takes to just keep the cash flow coming.

I used to be in the mindset of survival – where I would try and sell off my profitable ventures in order to get a cash cushion to aid me if anything went wrong. I used to constantly ignore the fact that improving my business was much more beneficial than starting again, and is what I want to show you how to do today.

Let me start by asking you a question…

“What makes more money? A “Stab-in-the-dark” new venture that you hope will succeed… or an improved and relaunched version of an already successful venture?”

The answer to this is almost always the improved version of the existing business. And this is where the idea of “Kaizen” comes from. It’s far easier and more effective to improve on what you already have instead of building something from scratch. It’s easier, quicker and a lot more effective as well.

So when you are looking at your projects, businesses or whatever… look at them all from ‘ground level’ (the customer’s perspective) and try and imagine how you could improve it. Remember, nothing’s perfect, which means that there are ALWAYS ways and methods for you to improve any enterprise that you have.

I used to be “thankful” that a project earned money. But now I’ve been able to adapt my mindset to turn that thankful feeling into the desire to grow and improve my company even more. And that’s the difference that’s going to make or break you in this game.

Just this week, I launched an email list-building project in a popular market. It’s the fitness market and I’ve already got about 13 double-opted in subscribers. Last year, I would have been thankful for this… but now I see it as a joke, because compare those 13 people with the 35+ who signed up to my email list and did not subscribe, it looks pretty lame.

You can see above that I’ve got a huge portion of the list who are unverified. They have wasted their time and my time by signing up, so instead of throwing in the towel and saying that “the market is rubbish”, I will use the Kaizen principle to turn the figure around and make it so that 65% of my list verifies their subscription.

How Am I Going To Improve This?

1. Change the setup of the list by introducing a bonus book for when they confirm their subscription
2. Add more content on the front-end. Instead of giving them a simple squeeze page, I will build a blog around the page to encourage more of a loyal reader base
3. Make sure I continue to funnel traffic into the business with articles, answer marketing and SEO of the blog

This should take me next week to complete, but this next step should be the step-up I need to take to plant the seed of this business to help it grow into a profitable tree. I know that many of you will be reading this with hardly any previous Clickbank success, but let me assure you that if you hold back for 2 minutes and develop a “Kaizen Mindset”, you’ll be able to grow and improve even the weakest of results!!