Affiliated Joe

Accelerating Your Retirement: Start Your Own Business

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:47:00 +0000

By Michael Masterson

While many people fail in business, many more succeed. If you subtract the foolish failures - restaurants being the most foolish, followed by any sort of glamour business (think travel, bed & breakfast, sports, celebrity) or retail business - the number of successes far outweigh the failures.

When starting a business, you can drastically reduce your risk of failure by becoming an expert in two areas:

You must understand everything you can about the products and/or services you will be selling.
You must become competent (and eventually masterful) at the specific marketing skills you need to sell them.

How do you become an expert in two things simultaneously?
The best way I know is to get a job working for the type of business you want to start.

Think of your employment as a paid training program. Work fifty or sixty hours a week (even if they don't pay you a nickel extra) absorbing everything you can. Pay particular attention to people and situations that help you understand how the business works.

By learning "on the job," you'll develop skills and accumulate ideas that will make starting your own business a hundred times easier. Some of these skills will be of a more general kind, like writing effective memos, pitching ideas at meetings, handling troublesome people, etc. Some of them will be more targeted: such as how to write persuasive copy or how to select lists of names to send promotions to.

The same will be true of the ideas you get. Some will be small - a clever way to run a meeting, a useful technique for following up on delegations, etc. And some will be big, powerful and very exciting.

The more you learn, the easier it will be to add to your knowledge and the more eager you'll become to start your own business. Try to resist that temptation until you've invested at least 600 hours in learning the product/service side of the industry and another 600 learning the marketing.

Remember, any complex skill takes about 1000 hours to learn and even if you have good teaching, you still need at least 600 hours before you know enough to avoid the obvious mistakes.

When it comes to launching your business, don't reinvent the wheel. Come up with a product and a marketing position that is 80% to 90% the same as what your most successful competitors are doing. Remember, there is a good reason that they are successful. By investing 600+ hours into learning the product/service part of the business and another 600+ hours on the marketing, you should already have a good idea about why things work. But you aren't yet an expert. It takes much more time (about 5000 hours) to do that.

And that's why you have to proceed with caution - one small step at a time. Yes, you should try new things, but as I said they should be only 10% to 20% new. Taking this sort of conservative approach will not limit your growth because you will be able to "catch up" later. If you aren't careful and try something entirely new and different, chances are it will fail - however good you think the idea is. Remember: the key idea is this: until you've had 5000 hours of experience, you are not an expert. Don't act like one.

How to Make Your Start-Up Business Profitable in Year One
You can invest a small amount of money (and a lot of hard work and well-spent time) in a small business and see it grow into a business that is worth a million in seven years. And you'll greatly increase your chances for success by having a plan - by knowing exactly what you need to do.

A typical start-up business that's close to what you already know should break even or lose a little money in year one, make a decent "salary" for you in year two, and provide a substantial bonus for you - in additional to a good, arm's-length management salary - in year three.

To make your business profitable in year one, figure out what you need, in terms of new customer revenue, to bring a profit to the bottom line. Then devote at least 80% of your resources - your time and money - to achieving that new customer revenue goal.

The key is to follow a program that breaks long-term goals down into shorter-term objectives and finally specific tasks. Each individual task should be something that can be accomplished fairly quickly. In terms of your marketing objectives, for example, individual tasks might look something like this: (1) Stop by three offices and leave brochures. (2) Call up such-and-such group and see if they would like to have you give a talk. (3) Buy a quarter-page ad in the local newspaper.

Put all of these small achievements together and you can achieve remarkable success in a very short period of time.

8 Important Things to Know About Business
Apart from starting (and sticking to) a what is already working (and not getting too fancy), I have discovered eight secrets to making a start-up business work.

1. Business does not happen until you make the first sale.
Buying office furniture and printing cards doesn't make the business go. Selling product does. Yes, there are some initial preparations you need to make - but until you have that first check in hand, all you're really doing is spending money.

2. The single most effective way of entering a new market is to offer a popular product at a significantly reduced price.
In every industry, there is a good market for specialty and high-quality product producers - but capturing a reasonable share of those niche market segments takes money, time, and experience. When starting a new business, you are usually short in these three essentials. That's why it's better to resist the allure of high-priced, prestige products in favor of selling the most desired products and services at ludicrously cheap prices. If you can figure out how to undersell the giants, you will be in a very happy starting place.

3. It's ultimately about selling.
Conventional business wisdom says you make money when you buy, not when you sell. I disagree. Great businesspeople make their fortunes by increasing the perceived value of their products, thus inflating prices and measurably increasing profit margins. (Think Chanel, Rolex, Range Rover.)

4. When choosing a business, select one that can be grown without your personal involvement.
Many businesses - especially those built around the personality or drive of a single person - depend for their growth on the commitment of the founder. Avoid this type of business. It severely limits your growth potential. Make sure your business can expand with the addition of more money, property, or people - but not more of you.

5. Have an exit plan.
Before you invest your time or money in any business (or anything else, for that matter), know exactly how much you are willing to lose - and get out if you hit that stop-loss point.

6. Focused effort is more effective than a diversified approach to business building.
Ambitious people tend to fall into two groups: those who focus on one project at a time and those who spread themselves out on many projects. The focused approach allows you to acquire mastery faster. The diversified approach gives you more balance. I've done both. And although I'm naturally inclined toward diversification, I've had the most success and made the most money from the focused work.

7. Let your winners run and cut your losses short.
Most business ideas or ventures that begin poorly, fail. This is a very important to learn. It's easy to get emotionally attached to projects/investments we believe in. But, when the marketplace tells you that your great idea is a loser, you shouldn't keep pushing. Close the project and minimize your losses. If you really have a good idea, it will come back to you in the future in another, perhaps better, set of clothing.

8. Pareto's Principle (the 80-20 Rule): 80% of your success comes from 20% of your resources.
Most of the success/income/satisfaction you will get in your career will come from a small portion of your skills/projects/efforts. Make it a habit to ask yourself, "Where am I getting most of the benefit here?" and compare that to where you are putting in the most work.

Having your own business is the fastest (and most satisfying) way to a happy, wealthy retirement. So if you don't already have a good idea for starting a side business spend some time thinking about it.

To give yourself the best odds of being successful, either start a business that is already very close to the work you do now, or get a job working for a business in the industry you want to enter.

5 Ways to Get (Very) Rich during Economy Downturns

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:39:00 +0000

Let's say you own a business and you are trying to decide what kinds of products you should be developing, or you are a copywriter trying to select the clients and projects most likely to make you a bundle over the next year or so.

Right off the bat, you know it is not going to be easy. Just take a look around...

The U.S. economy has ground to a standstill and the stock market is stuck in quicksand.
The credit markets have dried up, and even our largest banks are teetering on the brink of disaster.
The equity in your home - most people's #1 source of savings and wealth - is dwindling by the day. And despite the steady stream of pro-dollar B.S. flowing from the Fed, the value of your money is tanking too.
The number of unemployed Americans is heading toward Depression-era levels, and personal and corporate bankruptcies are setting all-time record highs with each passing month.
Gasoline, natural gas, and electricity prices are sky-high and roaring higher. And every trip to the grocery store costs you more than the last one did.
Consumer confidence is cratering... prospects and customers are curtailing discretionary purchases and beginning to watch every penny as if it were their last... and retail sales at all but discount stores are plunging.
Two major financial institutions - Merrill Lynch and the Royal Bank of Scotland - just issued frank, blatant, in-your-face warnings that the global economy and world stock markets WILL suffer a major meltdown in the next 90 days.
And if all that isn't enough cause for concern, we have not one but two economic ignoramuses running for president, pitching spending schemes that historically have proven to be recipes for financial catastrophe.

What's that? Did I hear someone say "This article isn't for me... I'm not in the U.S."?

Uh - sorry to break it to you, my foreign friend, but with America on the ropes... with Eurozone economies slowing, stock markets softening, and inflation rising... and with Asian nations fighting their own inflation demons and Pacific Rim stocks swooning as much as 60 percent so far this year... these ain't exactly salad days for you either.

So - given the fact that we are all marketers here - what do you do to make max money in miserable times? What kinds of products should businesses be launching and which kinds of assignments should copywriters pursue?

Right now, I see five big areas of opportunity for entrepreneurs, business owners, marketing folks, and copywriters...

Opportunity #1: Anything that helps consumers or businesses function better for less - products and services that...

Improve gas mileage, reduce the number of miles we need to drive each week, shrink utility bills, ease the pain we're feeling at the grocery store check-out counter, and, of course, minimize our taxes and insurance premiums.
Reduce what we pay for education or to care for aging parents... minimize medical or legal bills... allow us to buy the best for the same or less than we're paying now for second- or third-best.
Help older people live better on a fixed income... guide them to higher-yielding investments... and help them get more out of Social Security and Medicare and make every dollar go farther.
Help businesses reduce costs and also find new operating efficiencies that improve productivity and shore up their bottom lines.

Opportunity #2: Things that help consumers or businesses make more money - products and services that …

Help people get a raise, augment income, or replace a lost job. That means work-at-home opportunities... entrepreneurial and home-based businesses... online business opportunities... investment courses, software, and other products designed to do well in a stagflationary environment.
Provide the tools to survive and thrive in a troubled real estate market by knowing how to sell a home or limit the financial damage that comes with foreclosure... or by knowing how to profit as home foreclosures mount and home prices continue to plunge.
Harness the profit potential of excess debt. Debt collection services, products to help consumers fend off debt collectors, credit counseling/debt reduction services, and bankruptcy help spring to mind.
Help businesses sell more products for less - including anything that helps them increase sales revenues and reduce costs, thus increasing ROI, profits, and market share.

Opportunity #3: Little luxuries and guilty pleasures
Did you know that the entire global makeup industry was founded during The Great Depression?

It's true! When money's tight and jobs are hanging by a thread, inexpensive products that give us a sense of normalcy... help us connect emotionally with "the good old days"... boost our self-esteem or hope... give us pleasure or a few moments of respite from worry and want... tend to sell like hotcakes.

Opportunity #4: Products and services for the richest one-quarter of one percent
You won't see Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, or Al Gore in a breadline anytime soon. High-net-worth folks have money to burn.

Even in tough times, being in the business of selling luxury products or services to the super-rich can be very, very profitable. They will still be spending good money on fashion, jewelry, antiques, art, travel, high-end estates, exotic cars, yachts, private jets, and more.

Opportunity #5: Products we all need, no matter what
No matter how bad the economy gets, we still fall in love, have sex, have babies. We still have to eat and drink... still have medical needs... and, of course, we all, eventually, croak. Products and services that help us do these things well and cheaply tend to be stagflation-proof.

Train Your Brain to Become an Idea Machine

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:32:00 +0000

by Jay Abraham

I've often been asked the question, “Jay, how do you come up with so many good moneymaking ideas? I can't come up with one.”

That's not true. You can come up with all you'll ever want or need.

It only requires understanding two simple things:

All ideas are new combination of old ideas.
The only way to get ideas is to study the principles behind what makes things happen.

Every time anything occurs in life – a process, an event, an achievement, a catastrophe, a windfall – there is almost always a driving force, a key event that spawned it, that created it, that is its foundational element.

If you develop an awareness for identifying, culling out, or homing in on these principles, you will find yourself looking deep down to the root of everything that you see going on around you.

You say to yourself, “What's the core reason that occurred? What's the basis? What's the fundamental factor that made it possible?”

Your mind starts questioning, dissecting, and tightly focusing on the nucleus of the principles that drive every occurrence, result, and accomplishment in your life – and I mean everything.

You meet a successful person and ask him, “If you had to reduce it down to the simplest principle that accounts for your success, what would it be?”

If he lets you, you ask another question: “What made that happen? What influenced you?”

You keep questioning and looking at what makes everything happen, and boiling it down to its simplest principle. And your mind begins to think differently.

You start storing the essence of achievement, attainment, and pure creative accomplishment in your brain.

Then all you have to do – whenever you're looking for a breakthrough, a fresh approach or perspective, or a new idea – is combine that fundamental information stored in your brain in different ways.

The way to do that is to not limit the scope or the area you focus on. Make your life one constant adventure in discovering, identifying, and ferreting out the driving principles behind every activity, experience, event, encounter, and observation.

If you see an ad and it excites you, ask yourself, “What's the driving principle that's making this ad work? What is the basis, the question, the illustration, the point?”

If somebody persuades you to buy something that you weren't going to buy, ask yourself, “What's the principle that made me do that?”

If something happens, good or bad, in your personal relationships, instead of simply reacting emotionally to it (as you normally would), you'll now have another reaction – a principle-pursuing reaction where you zero right in on the driving force behind it.

When you identify one of these principles, articulate it.

If you can, write it down. The process of writing it down on a pad of paper or in a notebook will indelibly embed it in the recesses of your mind. It will be there, at your beck and call, ready to be accessed whenever you need to find a new combination of identified principles connected in a fresh, new way. Because that's the simplest explanation of how new, fresh ideas get created each and every day by people no brighter than you or me.

I always try to have a disciplined mind and ask questions. “What is it about the essence of that action? What is that article saying and what can that mean to me?”

Then I go to my industry, looking for a void that other people don't see. And to my business, because maybe I'm losing leverage. And to my life, because maybe I'm screwing up my relationship with my wife, with my children, with my neighbors, with my friends.

I've disciplined myself to do this all the time. It's a powerful process.

You won't believe what it will do for you.

Offline Promotion 101

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:44:00 +0000

No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent advertising. As a result, most business owners will eventually consider using advertising to promote their business.

The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining where and how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it wrong, you could plunk down your entire advertising budget, and receive absolutely no return on your investment. However, if you do it right, your advertising could continue to bring a nice return for years to come.

How Do I Make The Right Advertising Decisions?
In order to make good decisions concerning how to spend your advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of the different types of advertising and promotion available, and what can be expected to be achieved by each.

You must understand which markets the different media's can reach.
You must understand the demographics of the media's consumers.
You must understand the buying habits of the consumers reached through the media.

What Offline Advertising & Promotion Media Should Be Considered?
The media that people think of most often are television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are the big boys that big businesses use regularly.

Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases, direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and billboard advertising.

Considering the Big Media Outlets
The big boys of advertising media's generally cost big bucks. Given certain circumstances, the big media's can be bought for very little money.

Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big bucks during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on the dollar during non-primetime hours.

Television primetime is between 7 pm and 10 pm. Radio primetime is between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is Wednesdays and Sundays.

If you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to drop some bucks. Primetime means that you will be able to hit more consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a primetime buy will enable you to reach more people with your advertising.

Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to your message, and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a bargain basement price.

Getting Mileage From Events
Trade shows and press releases are more event-driven. The trade show is the event, while the press release generally exploits an event.

Trade shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues for sales as well.

The press release is aimed towards gaining attention for a business by distributing newsworthy information about the business.

Sometimes the appearance of a business at a trade show or other show can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But most often, a successful press release will actually require more noteworthy information than the appearance of a business at a show.

Yet, even the most mundane of information could be spiced up to give the real air of importance necessary to get your press release read and printed.

The great thing about a press release is that might permit you to get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio, newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost you to buy advertising in those same outlets.

Utilising a Sales Team
Depending on what type of business you run and the consumers you are trying to reach, you might find direct sales and telemarketing to be very lucrative ways to drive sales to your business.

Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very expensive, as it requires a great investment of time to accommodate. Telemarketing seeks to minimise the time expenditure, but it often leads to a smaller degree of respect and attention.

Depending on your product or service - and always depending upon the people you employ to the task - each method will be more suited to each business on an individual basis.

Branding Your Business
Branding is the process of establishing your business as the supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasising a certain USP (Unique Selling Proposition) as it pertains to your business.

If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about Wal-Mart and their tag line: "Always Low Prices, Always."

Think about Ford Motors, "Quality is Job One."

Think about the Visa Card, "It's Everywhere You Want To Be."

You see, these top corporations have managed to make their USP part of their branding.

Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP can and should fit snugly into your branding strategy.

No Matter The Media or Method
Whichever method or media you should choose to employ in your advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgeable about your market, and the consumers reached by each media. It is important to understand which consumers can be reached by a certain media, and in what quantities.

However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should always track the results of your promotional efforts. Failing to track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure of a business.

When you know whom you are trying to reach and how you think you might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn how to use advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That is a good thing - after all, that is why you got into the business in the first place, isn’t it?

DotCom Secrets (revisited)

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:33:00 +0000

You know, I have been learning about internet marketing for awhile. I try to buy the best internet marketing products I know will catapult my bottom line.

Thing is, most of the course only deal with ONE aspect of internet marketing. For example, you can spend $995 on a traffic generation course.

But if you don't know how to generate product ideas, then all that traffic will mean a thing. You can have the perfect product AND the right amount of traffic, but if you don't have hard-hitting, cash-sucking copy, your website visitors will not yank out their credit card and buy from you.

The point I am trying to make is that you have to buy a boatload of courses to get a good idea of how to get a good snapshot of what it takes to succeed online.

You've got to get the copywriting course. You've got to get the traffic generation course, And you've got to get the product creation course.

Before you know it, you'll spend literally THOUSANDS on courses that will only teach you a small segment of running a profitable internet marketing business.

Recently, Russell Brunson created a home study course that teaches you everything you need to know to run a cash-sucking internet marketing empire.

He goes through each step in great detail...from copywriting, to list-building and search engine optimization.

What to learn more? Check out this link:

http://wealthyjoes.thesecondtier.com/january1st2007

The sales letter is pretty long, but it goes into a LOT of detail of what you'll learn when you invest in his course.

The best part is that you won't have to buy the traffic generation course or the copywriting course because he teaches everything you need to know in the simplest way possible.

So head on over to:

http://wealthyjoes.thesecondtier.com/january1st2007

and check out Russell's course.

It is an excellent course, and I'll refer to it endlessly throughout my internet marketing career.

Take care.

Make As Much Money As You Want by Mastering This Skill

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:50:00 +0000

by Michael Masterson

I have said many times that to become wealthy you need to learn and practice a financially valuable skill – and most such skills have something to do with helping a business make money. There is virtually no limit to the amount of money you can make if you become skillful at one of these trades:

CEO
Consultant
Salesperson
Profit-center manager
Marketer
Copywriter

Another category of financially valuable skills has to do with professions that are focused on certain specific areas of law.

Notice that I said “specific areas” of law. Why? Because, in general, law doesn't pay as much as you might think. Most people are shocked to discover that the average attorney makes less than $60,000 per year; but certain fields of law pay very well: Estate-planning lawyers, for example, make a half-million or more.

The point is: If you want to make lots and lots of money (I'm talking about $200,000, $500,000, or $1 million plus), you’d best know how to produce profits.

That begs the question, “But what if I can't stand that kind of work? How much can I expect to make practicing other skills?”

The short answer: a good deal less. Most architects, engineers, plumbers, technicians, and other highly trained professionals make about $70,000 or $80,000 a year. Some of them make more than that – often twice as much. But then some make less – sometimes half as much.

Teachers make less than that. As do pastors. And rabbis. And artists. And philosophers.

There is, ironically, an inverse relationship between the value of the work you do and what people are willing to pay you for doing it. It may not be fair, but it is true. So if you want a realistic chance of getting rich, you need to be realistic about what lines of work will get you there.

I bring this up because one of the most common problems I encounter when counseling people on their wealth-building goals is a completely whacky idea about what they can make for doing what. GT, a friend I've been working with recently, has given me the following ideas about how he'd like to get rich:

Run a bar
Captain a fishing boat
Be my personal assistant
Manage an oceanfront resort

All of these jobs have their benefits. But if you had to place them on a list of professions arranged according to compensation, they would fall pretty far down the line. None of them would break into the six figures.

That doesn't mean you can't get rich doing something you like. FD, another protégé, wants to make a living working with animals. I've given her several suggestions as to how she can make six figures or more offering products or services related to pets. But I warned her that to make the big money, she wouldn't be able to spend most of her time cuddling with furry creatures.

Most of her hours would be devoted to selling her business. That was OK with FD, because she was happy making less. But GT still dreams of sailing around the Caribbean, piloting someone's million-dollar yacht, and getting paid a king's ransom for doing so.

Dream on, GT.

If You Had to Master One Skill…
If you asked me what one financially valuable skill you should master, my answer would be simple: The ability to sell. Not just products and services - but ideas, concepts, and beliefs.

You know it as well as I do, in any organization, power moves inexorably to those who are persuasive. This is true for every business in every country in the world.

What matters is that you have a way to convince people (your boss, colleagues, customers, investors, etc.) that your ideas (and your work) are worthwhile.

I’ve identified a few fundamental secrets of selling over the years - a few tricks of the trade. And that's exactly what I'm going to share with you right now.

I can't give you all my secrets in this one message, but I can give you the basics behind every great piece of salesmanship.

I call them THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF SELLING and they are:

# People don't like the idea of being sold.
# People buy things for emotional, not rational, reasons.
# Once sold, people need to satisfy their emotional decisions with logic.

Rule #1:
People don't like to be sold.
On the face of it, this doesn't make sense. Every year, trillions of dollars worth of goods and services are bought and sold ... billions through the mail alone. Think about your friends. Many of them, no doubt, love to shop.

People like to buy things. But they don't like to be sold. Remember this. Whether you're writing a sales letter or trying to convince your friend to go to a concert, don't apply pressure. Offer to give something. Don't force. Tempt.

Let's say you want to get your friend to buy a piece of chocolate cake. You wouldn't start off by listing 10 reasons why cake is good for him, would you? Of course not. In real life, if you really wanted to get a friend to buy a piece of cake, you'd probably start by describing how great the cake smells, how gooey it is, how thick the icing is, and how it will just melt in his mouth ...

In other words, you'd create a verbal picture that teases his desires – his hunger, his craving for chocolate. You'd tempt him by appealing to his emotions. You would not bore him with reasons or bully him with force.

Understand this first principle and you'll have people eating out of your hands.

Rule #2:
Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: People buy things for emotional, not rational, reasons.
If people acted rationally, you couldn't sell chocolate cake. There's no logical reason to eat it. It's not nutritious. It makes you fat. It screws up your metabolism. And it's expensive.

So why is chocolate cake a multimillion-dollar industry? Because it makes you feel good!

To be persuasive, you have to appeal to your prospect's feelings and desires.
Here are seven very important ones: Fear, Greed, Vanity, Lust, Pride, Envy, and Laziness.

Rule #3:
Once the prospect is emotionally sold, he needs to justify his irrational decision with rational reasons.
Think about TV commercials for cars. How do they work? First, you see a stirring image of the car itself – beautiful, stylish, new. The background says something too: There's a mountainous landscape for the prospect who wants to see himself as rugged. A five-star hotel for the prospect who wants the car to enhance his status. A beautiful woman for – well, you get the idea.

Next, you see an interior shot to show how luxurious your life will be with this car. You get to listen to the state-of-the-art sound system. (The type of music depends on the feeling required.) Then, there's a shot of the car driving by the ocean. Put it all together and you have an effective 20-second movie that's designed entirely to appeal to emotion.

But car commercials don't stop there. They usually give you numerous bits and pieces of information – the size of the engine, statistics on fuel economy, speed, weight, interior space, rankings in national surveys and customer satisfaction reports, and so on.

All this data isn't meant to sell the car. It's to make the prospect feel good about the decision he's already made. And in the final analysis, this is almost as important as the emotional appeal. Though the information doesn't sell the car, it does justify the sale.

These secrets are, of course, only the beginning.

But the great thing about the secrets of selling is that once you understand how they work, you can use them in every aspect of your life: to land a better job - to get a promotion - to sell more of your company’s products - even to convince your friends to follow your advice for your next vacation.

Over the years, I’ve taught many of my students the little-known psychology of selling. Two of my top protégés took these secrets and, with my help, developed an organization called the American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI). It’s a group that helps regular folks become topnotch, high-paid sales writers (or ‘copywriters,’ as they’re called in the advertising industry).

Make no mistake about it, sales writing is one of the highest paid professional skills in the world. (I’ve personally seen ads that make writers tens of thousands of dollars each year – year after year.) But because so few people understand what copywriting is, much less how to do it effectively, there’s a great shortage of good copywriters.

Whether you want to become a professional writer, or simply want to learn how to communicate much more persuasively, mastering the basics of selling can really give you an edge.

Bulk Landmines

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Do you know the best way to build you passive residual income online? I'll give you a hint...

It has to do with having your own membership website. I know what your thinking - that would be great - but it's too much work. That's what I thought until today...

If you've ever wanted to start a membership site, but wanted someone else to do all the work, then this is for you!

Recently one of my friends who runs a few successful membership sites showed me some stats - and he was making over $50,000 per month from just 1 membership site!!!

Well that same friend just launched a new membership site, but instead of selling memberships one at a time by himself, he's selling blocks of memberships for YOU (and me) to resell!

So if you'd like one of his membership sites AND have him do all of the work to keep the site running then and you get to cash the checks, then follow this link:

http://wealthyjoes.thesecondtier.com/bulklandmine

Just think - in 5 minutes from now you could have your own full blown membership site and keep 100% of the profits for yourself!

He's only selling these licenses to a few select people, so lease hurry.

http://wealthyjoes.thesecondtier.com/bulklandmine

P.S. Check out the screenshot that shows 50k from ONE membership website in just 30 days.

Affiliate Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:11:00 +0000

I have a quick question for you:

Are you tired of getting piddly little affiliate checks in the mail. Sick of promoting products for a measly 30 to 50% cut of the profits?

You see, I’m about to let you in on a powerful secret one of my good buddies is using to multiply his affiliate Commissions—to the point he’s making a sweet 200% to 300% commission for every product he promotes!

You read that right…that’s more than the actual product is worth!

His name is Russell Brunson and he’s make a lot of people extremely rich with his affiliate marketing skills. Now he’s finally spilling the beans on the “Commission Bump”…an unique strategy that allows anyone to “bump” their commissions with ease!

Check it out here:

http://wealthyjoes.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

You see, Russell started revealing the “Commission Bump” on Tuesday through his new product: Affiliate Evolution. He sold 1000 copies in mere hours…and it’s not slowing down.

The only thing is Russell said he’s going to raise the price any time. This is such a powerful secret he’s crazy for letting it go for such a cheap price.

Click this banner:

…and evolve your affiliate marketing skills today!

Have a great day!

P.S. If you’ve never sold a thing as an affiliate, Russell’s got you covered. He’s revealing a couple bonuses that will enable you to make your first affiliate sale in a mere 24-hours. But you’ll only get them when you take action and get Affiliate Evolution today!

Online Promotion Techniques 101

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Did you realize there are only three types of online promotion?

This statement may seem odd and even untrue in your mind, but I am speaking in more general terms than you might be thinking.

The three types of promotion are Junk, Active and Passive promotions.

Junk Promotions are Money Pits
Junk promotions are those that seem to produce results, but by their very nature are really only illusionary promotions.

For example, let me begin with FFA (Free for All) pages. You might find yourself subscribing to a submission program that tricks you into believing you are submitting your links to tens of thousands search engines.

According to the Open Directory website, they have only approved 1,535 search engines and directories for inclusion in their database (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/).

I like using the DMOZ directory as an example because submitted links are tested by human beings with integrity, for the honesty used in site description. Search Engine Watch and other search watchers tend to show fewer than these 1,535 engines, primarily because a lot of the engines provide very little value.

Yes, you can submit your website URL to a FFA page, but FFA's usually only permit 100 or 1,000 links on their page at any one time. So, if ten thousand people are submitting a link to an FFA page on a daily basis, then the average life of your link is between seven minutes and 144 minutes. I suspect the actual number of submitters is much higher and the results are much worse. Given that few people surf FFA pages, the chances of your submission being of any real value is practically NIL!

Most of the people telling you that you can submit your site to tens of thousands of search engines are truly only submitting your site to FFA pages! Beware of the false promises.

Another junk promotion method is Safe Lists. A safe list is a mailing group that is signed up to be received by people who want to submit their own ads. Now, most safe lists have thousands of subscribers who are able to submit their ads daily or weekly. The person signed up to receive the list will receive anywhere from twenty to 140+ messages a day from the list. These messages will be received by people only interested in promoting their own thing who do not have the right motivation to open, let alone read Your Advertising. As a result, thousands of messages go out daily or weekly that will never be seen by anyone but the sender of the ad. Where is the value in that? There is none.

Active Promotions
Active promotions are the types that require you to go out on a daily basis or a weekly basis and put out your advertisements. With active promotions, you will either place your advertising or you will not sell your products or services. Your choice is simple - work or starve.

Examples of active promotions include Pay Per Click Search Engines (PPCSE's), Direct Email, Ezine Advertising, Solo Ezine Ads, Newsletter Publishing, Ezine Ad Swaps, Classified Ads, Auctions, Site Sponsorship and Banner Ads.

Some people are able to utilize these methods very productively, while others are destined to drop their money into the bottomless pit of failed Internet promotions.

Passive Promotions
Passive promotions are those promotions that can continue to provide results for you long after you have invested the work to make them available to the Internet community. Examples of passive promotions include:

Link Exchanges,
Articles,
eBooks,
Content Exchanges, and
Writing Testimonials for others.

Let's look at articles as a solid example of my point.

You are reading an article that I have written to promote my own business. This article is timeless and therefore could have been written five years ago and still has been as valuable as it is today. Due to the fact that the article is timeless, it can and will be placed in newsletters/ezines and their accompanying online archives, on websites and in eBooks for many more years to come.

As a result, this article will continue to serve me well beyond the time in which I wrote it and submitted it to publishers and webmasters for public consumption and publication.

This is the best example I can give you of an excellent passive promotional method.

Avoid the Money Pits
Many try and even fewer succeed to conquer the Internet and to produce their dreams of online wealth. My hope is that you will be one of the people who conquer the challenges before you and to make a nice living while working online. It will take drive, determination, study plus trial and error, but you can make it work for you.

Please continue to educate yourself so that you can avoid the money pits - instead, strive to find the money barrels. It can be done.

DotCom Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:02:00 +0000

I hope you are having a profitable day today.

Just wanted to drop you a note telling you about a one time opportunity to discover the secrets of one of the internet marketing elite.

His name is Russell Brunson. He's been making money online ever since he was in college.

In fact, one of his first successes was being able to turn a $20 and a simple idea into a million dollar business.

But here's the best part: He did it while going to school full time, participating on the wrestling team, and without ANY prior business experience at all.

In other words, he experienced everything that holds internet marketing newbies back: no time,
no money, and no experience.

You can discover his moneymaking secrets that will enable you to earn cash like clockwork by heading over to:

http://www.dotcomsecrets.com/freevideo/?vip=7297

You'll get instant access to a 118 minute video where he outlines how he built a million dollar
online business out of a measly 20 bucks.

So get a jumpstart on your internet marketing career by checking out:

http://www.dotcomsecrets.com/freevideo/?vip=7297

P.S. Believe me, Russell is the real deal. Some of the strategies he reveals I haven't seen in ANY ebook or marketing course. This guy knows how to make money online, and you'll be blown away at some of the secrets he reveals in this video.

Here's the introduction video:

http://www.dotcomsecrets.com/freevideo/?vip=7297

Choosing the Best Affiliate Program

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Internet Marketing is unquestionably easier and more rewarding compared to traditional marketing methods. With billions of people worldwide getting online each day, there is a high possibility for a merchant to sell his products and generate huge income online.

In affiliate marketing, an affiliate marketer does not really need to own a product and service to sell. All he needs to do is to refer people to the merchant's business site for them to purchase
the products and thereby, earn a commission.

For the affiliate marketer who wants to be successful~
First, you need to choose a good affiliate program and to employ excellent marketing techniques and strategies in promoting or selling the products to consumers. Why choose the best affiliate
program? Because the best affiliate program can make sure you can earn not only one time but also every moment when your downlines get people enrolled. The best affiliate marketing program can make one affiliate marketer to become a millionaire. Choose a good affiliate marketing program to start with. How to make and work it fast would now depend on you.

But before you think how you are going to make it best and financially rewarding, you must think about how you are going to make a good affiliate program with thousands of affiliate marketing opportunities abounding in the Internet today. Below are the tips and suggestions on how to best select the affiliate program that's right for you.

The Information you need to know~
Take the affiliate product, which will be the right choice for you. You will learn how to direct yourself towards all the self-development materials and online marketing program that really matches your needs, wants and resources. You can join some forums and learn some tips and get suggestions from expert affiliate marketers.

You will learn a lot of useful online marketing tips for you to promote whatever products you want. Next, you will understand many merchants and affiliate marketers like you meet. The merchants advertise their affiliate programs to interested affiliates who sign up in the network for free. Third party affiliate program networks are helpful since they provide you with access to a large number of advertisers (merchandisers) simultaneously. You can track and compare their sales records, performances, benefits, products and services easily.

It's Quality, not Quantity~
Choose a good quality of the products and services. As an affiliate marketer your goal is not only to make visitors to click the link to your business site; but more importantly, to promote your product so they would buy it. Make sure you write down your goals, so that you will be able to achieve it faster than you can imagine. Ask yourself: if you were the customer, would you buy it? Would you recommend it to your family or good friend? If you can convince yourself or your family and friends to buy it, you are the one who is successful because you make things happen. Success of the program really depends on you, this is very important. The sales records does not only show how good an affiliate is, but he/she speaks about the products' reliability, market availability and the company or the merchandisers' reputation as well. Moreover, look into and carefully study the company's compensation plan. Your purpose for joining the program is to earn, so make sure you'll be paid for all your efforts fairly.

If you do not have much time to promote the affiliate products or service by creating articles, websites, banners and etc, choose a useful affiliate program that helps you create all these. It
provides training on how to effectively market products online and lots of self-improvement material. Keep in mind that affiliate marketing is a partnership, the best affiliate program is able to support you as you only need to promote the package and services.

You may take down what are the advantages and disadvantages of each program you are considering so you can clearly see the difference among your options; after that, compare the advantages of the programs with your own checklist. Take time to gather all the information you need to choose the right and best program. Remember an informed choice is the best choice.

Blogging for Dollars

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:44:00 +0000

By Marc Charles

No one has been more skeptical of blogging as an income opportunity than yours truly.

I listened to the hype, and I shook my head in disbelief as I watched so-called Internet Futurists stumble over themselves explaining its wonders. But then I experienced Blogger.

I went to the Blogger website, set up a blog, enabled Google’s AdSense, and soon received my first (tiny) check.

Hey! It works!

Even if you never make a dime with it … I think you’ll like Blogger.

In fact, you’ll probably get hooked!

And if you follow my strategy for generating traffic and getting your blog noticed in the “blogosphere” (I’m not kidding – that’s what it’s called), you’ll probably like it even more.

It only takes a few minutes to set up and post a blog on the Blogger website. And if you think that’s great … you’ll love this. It also only takes a few minutes to set up Google’s AdSense on your blog, so you can start making money immediately.

What the Heck is a Blog?
A blog is an online log or journal. It’s like a website, but you can update it instantly and dynamically. What’s more, other people can post comments on your blog – if you want them to.You can post images, music, and videos, too.

According to its latest quarterly survey, blog-tracking firm Technorati says there are more than 100,000 new blogs created every day. The reason blogs are spreading like wildfire is because they require almost no technical knowledge or programming skills to set up and manage.

Another reason blogs have become a mini-revolution is because they can be hosted free of charge … and there is practically no maintenance required.

I’ve discovered the secret to making money with blogs, though you might not like my approach. My blog strategy may even be contrary to everything you’ve heard. But if you want to make money with your blog, you at least need to listen to my spin on it.

The Secret to Making Money with a Blog
My advice is based upon a clear principle of direct marketing – one Michael Masterson has explained to you before. But it’s so important, it bears repeating.

It’s this: If you’re trying to sell something, it’s a lot easier to sell it to people who have already purchased something similar. It’s even easier to sell to repeat buyers. And if you aim your marketing efforts at repeat buyers who paid about the same price as what you’re selling your item for … that’s better yet.

Let me explain.

If you were going to sell vitamins directly to consumers via direct mail, you’d need a list of qualified prospects to mail your sales letter or catalog to. Selecting random names from a phone book or from a list of people who purchased a bottle of vitamins five years ago is not going to work.

The BEST list would be people who recently purchased vitamins via direct mail … preferably multiple times. What’s more, your ideal prospects would be those who bought vitamins that cost approximately the same as the vitamins you are selling.

In direct-mail marketing, selling products to people who have purchased the same or similar products in the past almost assures you of success. And the same principle holds true for blogs that run Google’s AdSense.

Some blogs are more popular than others, and receive a lot more traffic. And in order to make money with a blog, you’ll need lots of traffic – targeted traffic. So why not start one that already has a built-in demand and ‘naturally’ attracts people who have specific interests?

Technorati features the Top 100 Blogs in the “blogosphere” on its website. When you review these popular blogs, you’ll notice that the three most popular sectors are: social topics (politics, gripes, news, and dating), technology (programming, anything Web-related, and software development), and personalities.

If you want to launch a blog that attracts a targeted audience quickly, stick closely to those three areas.

That doesn’t mean you can’t launch a blog about your life, business, interests, etc. You can launch hundreds of blogs if you want to – and Blogger will host them for FREE. But if you want to launch a blog that’s going to make a profit, base it on one of those three popular subjects: social topics, technology, or personalities.

A Blog Traffic Secret
You can attract more traffic by submitting your blog’s URL into Google and hundreds of other engines and directories. And here’s a little secret that will increase your traffic even more: When naming your blog, try to match popular search terms in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Recently, for example, the five most popular search terms in Google’s “Health and Family” category were:

weight loss
nutrition
parenting
medicine
babies

These terms have been searched tens of millions of times on Google.

All you need to do is tie one of these search terms (together with one of the aforementioned popular sectors) to your blog. You might, for instance, name it something like Weight-Loss News.

When people are searching Google or the other top engines for “blog spots” or blogs that match specific interests, your blog could appear prominently in their search results. And when your blog appears prominently in the search results of the major engines – and you start receiving targeted search traffic – you, too, will be Blogging for Dollars!

Obviously, you’ll need to have Google’s AdSense running on your blog – or a similar program that pays you every time an ad is clicked.

How to Get Started
Go to the Blogger website and set up your blog.

Be sure to select the “Google AdSense” option.

You’ll be blogging in 10 minutes or less!

Once you have a blogging domain, you can submit it to all the top engines.

There are also hundreds of blog directories that you can submit your domain name to. Here are three of the most popular:

Blog Catalog
Blog Search Engine
Blog Hub

When your blog starts receiving traffic and people click on your AdSense ads, Google will cut you your first ‘tiny’ check.

What is Your Home Business Niche?

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:24:00 +0000

When some folks begin to think about a business of their own, they know in that very moment what kind they are going to start. Then, there are the rest of us...

Knowing that we want to have a business of our own is insufficient. Many of us have struggled with the important question of what type of enterprise we would like to start. Franchises offer a simple pre-packaged money making idea, but the cost of a franchise often makes it a prohibitive option to most folks who contemplate going out on their own. For those who do not have a million dollars to buy a McDonalds franchise, we must look to other ideas to opening our own business.

There are literally hundreds of lucrative home business ideas for you to choose from, which will suit every type of personality and all levels of financing. From selling information on the Internet as a infopreneur, to growing delicious gourmet mushrooms for sale to restaurants and catering companies; there is a pile of money to be made by filling a need, for these and a host of other necessary services.

Of course, actually liking what you do (your passion) will have a lot to do with the success of your new venture, so be sure to pick a home business that you will enjoy running and that will keep you motivated.

For example, if you are a math whiz, an accounting or income tax service might be the ideal home business for you to start. Perhaps writing is your forte and you would like to start your own home based copywriting service or advertising agency. Each of these businesses can be run successfully - and profitably from the comfort of your own home.

Academia might not be your cup of tea, but maybe you are good with your hands - having a creative genius where crafts are concerned. Craft items are red-hot sellers at swap meets, country fairs and world wide over the Internet, and they can provide you with solid profits. If crafts do not interest you, then why not start a laundry service with pick-up and delivery, or a shopping service for shut-in’s - even a companion service or granny sitter or a doctor shuttle service; any of which, could be much in demand, in and around your neighborhood or community.

When brainstorming new ideas for your future home business, keep in mind the soul of any successful endeavor is providing a product or service that others will actually purchase in quantities. Satisfy the needs of your target market, and your target market will keep you and your home based business healthy, happy and profitable.

Below are some suggestions for home business ideas that might help you decide on a suitable venture in which to invest:

Multi-level-marketing (MLM), floral/plant service for offices and hospitals, pooper-scooper service, dog walking service, answering service, vending machine service, gift basket service, homemade soap maker, mobile windshield repair service, mobile tire repair service, income tax specialist, researcher, freelance writer, business card and letterhead designer, courier, shut-in/shuttle service, landscaping service, tree trimming service, wood crafter, carpenter, crafts and crafting supplies, pool cleaning service, plants/nursery starts, growing herbs, growing mushrooms, garage sale and swap meet vendor, proofreader, private investigator, typing service, interior decorator/designer, website design, wedding consultant, hot lunch/snack vendor at local courthouses, pet sitting service, pet grooming service, Internet entrepreneur, paralegal, gourmet catering service, new media production, mobile cosmetic technician, mobile nail technician, mobile hair stylist, aerobics instructor, personal fitness trainer, advertising consultant, companion service, small printing service.

Ideas, ideas; hopefully the above ideas will give you some fresh ideas of your own to mull over. A spring board if you will, on which to dive into your own chosen home business.

When you work from home, any business you start has the potential to explode into a perpetual gold mine! It just depends on how much your home business is in demand around your community or on the Internet. Your home business might start slow and steady, regularly picking up clients as you become more established. On the other hand, your chosen home business may take off like wildfire, quickly becoming too hot for you to handle by yourself (well done!). This is the time to enlist the help of willing family members to help you out in your time of need, which will make your business into a friendly, family concern. This will also help family members better understand your business and get a grasp on the mechanics of profit.

Good luck in all your decisions and have fun with your home business, which ever one you choose, and do not forget to enjoy your new found freedom!

10 Tips for Home-Based Businesses

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:36:00 +0000

Initiating a home-based business is never easy. From marketing to zoning, there is always something that will require your attention. Here are ten tips to keep you focused on your quest to make your home-based business a success.

1. Set a goal schedule and stick to it.
The allure of working from home is powerful - but so is the appeal of spending more time with your family or of taking more breaks in the middle of your work. Fixing and maintaining a schedule for your workday is critical.

Your goal should be S.M.A.R.T :

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Framed

Read this post for further details - "The Importance of Setting SMART Goals".

2. Set up a dedicated office area.
You cannot run a business from your kitchen table. A fully equipped home office is what determines the success of your business. If you have an extra bedroom, consider converting it into your office space. If you do not have an extra room in your home, try setting up a partition to create an office area.

3. Be professional.
One of the perks of running a business from home is deciding your own attire – be it pajamas or bathrobe, but your customers should not be able to tell that. Maintain normal office hours and a professional manner when answering your phone or dealing with customers.

4. Advertise.
Customers do not magically flock to reap profits for you once the business is built. To succeed, you will need to advertise your new business. Advertising and marketing need not be expensive, but they have to be done.

5. Accustom yourself with the applicable tax laws.
Business taxation is different to individual taxation. Take the time now to discuss your options with your accountant or with another qualified professional who can advise you about your tax situation.

6. Check with your zoning commission.
Make sure there are no zoning laws that will prevent you from running your business from your home.

7. Formulate a business plan.
How do you see your business in six months? How about in five years? Many small business owners mistakenly think that a business plan is only necessary if they are going to have investors. However, businesses of all sizes can use a business plan as a roadmap to success.

How to write a business plan? Download your Free Template here.

8. Get on the Web.
The Internet is the single best way for home-based businesses to reach out to prospective customers. Even if your business is not "e-" anything, you need a Web site that can function as an online brochure for your company.

9. Do your research.
You may think that your idea for your home-based business is unique. But unless you do some market research, you would not know whether or not your market is already saturated. Market research can help you find the niche for your product or service, giving you an edge over your competitors.

10. Do not get discouraged.
Many businesses fail simply because owners became discouraged and demoralised after a disappointing trial period. You will have to show grit and determination to make your business succeed. Hang in there and do all that you can to make your business the success you know it can be.

Here are some popular affiliate programs to initiate your very own home business:

1. Convert Your Car To Burn Water + Gasoline = Double Your Mileage!

2. Earn $45.00 Per Sale! - Six Figure Yearly

3. Secret Affiliate Code

Good Luck! =)

The Importance of Setting SMART Goals

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0000

What is a S.M.A.R.T. goal?
Let's break it down...

S - Specific
We need to look at our goals and make them specific. Saying that I want to be the number one salesperson for example is not clear enough. A lot of people want to be number one at what they do. However, it is how they specify what they will do to achieve this that will make them become number one.

M- Measurable
In order for us to decide whether we have achieved our goals, we need to make them measurable. We could say, I want to be successful, but what is your measure of success? It needs to be more clearly defined so we can measure it. I want to earn $20,000 per month by January 20xx is measurable. I will either do it or I would not.

A - Attainable
A major error many people make is to set their goals unrealistically and then quit and blame everybody else because they did not achieve their overstated goals. If I say I want to earn $1,000,000 per year by the end of this year, I know it is totally unachievable. If I am realistic, I will set my goals and say I will be earning an extra $4,000 per month by the end of this year. That is realistic. I know this because I am already on my way there.

R - Relevant
Your goals need to be relevant to what you want out of life. There is no point setting a goal to something that does not interest you or is not relevant in your life. For instance, you recently set a goal of learning how to swim. Two reasons,
1. You live near the beach and your kids love it, and
2. You wanted to get certified as a SCUBA diver.

I can tell you it felt great achieving all your smart goals along the way.

T - Time framed
One of the most important aspects of setting goals - they must be time-framed. In other words, you must have a deadline to achieve your goals. Without setting that time frame to your goal, you will have no sense of urgency to complete the goal. Setting that deadline date or time makes you commit to yourself subconsciously that you have to achieve your goals by that date, and kicks you into positive action.

For an alternative goal-setting method, Click Here!

Is a Home Business Right For You?

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:45:00 +0000

Every morning as people wake up and make the commute to work, many dream of the day when they will finally work for themselves. Every time the boss lets someone know that they must give up their weekend plans for the good of the company, people contemplate the benefits of being the owner of their own business.

Are you one of these people?
If you are, it is important to ask yourself some very important questions before you make the uncertain leap into self-employment.

Many dream of the benefits of home business ownership, but few take into account the sacrifices that must be made to bring the dream to fruition. Please do not make this mistake yourself.

You must approach home business ownership with your eyes wide open. Ask yourself the important questions, and more importantly, answer your own questions openly and honestly.

An Important Consideration
Are you the type of person who relishes every chance to gather around the water cooler for social interaction?

If so, then home business ownership may not be the right decision for you.

Instead, if you feel that you can be quite content sitting alone at your desk; speaking only to clients and really minding your own home business, then you might have what it takes to succeed as a home business entrepreneur.

If you feel at ease with your own company and don`t need a dozen coworkers milling around your desk, then you, too, could savor the freedoms that will allow you and your family, to live the lifestyle you know you want and deserve.

The Key to Home Business Success
Self-motivation is the key to success when you start a home-based business. You need to possess the ability to push yourself ahead. Your drive and determination will be reinforced with every new sale.

The level of success that you will achieve greatly depends on the time and effort you are willing to plow into your new home business. Your organization, planning and marketing skills, will all be put into practice when you embark on your liberating journey from employee, to being your own boss. In fact, you will be the wearer of many hats and gain a wealth of business experience along the way, when you finally make that commitment to work at home.

Your Success Rests Entirely Upon Your Own Shoulders

You will now be the boss. Are you truly able to work independently? Do you have the drive; the tenacity, to persevere with your home based business? Will you be able to invest the necessary time to nurture it, to watch it grow and see it through, from germination to full, glorious bloom? When you are the boss, you are responsible for the success of your home business, from A to Z, from disappointments to victory.

When you work at home, it will empower you to achieve many things you were unable to do when you were stuck working for that tyrant boss. Remember him? He is the guy that would not let you take time off when your baby was sick; the same guy that called you in to work on Thanksgiving Day.

A home business means that you can take good care of your family and make money from home, simultaneously. You will have the best of both worlds! Just think - no more dirty laundry piling up - you can do it while you work. No more scurrying around at the last minute searching for a babysitter either, and no more worrying about getting fired; you will be the boss!

Conclusion
Stay positive and focused on your home based business, even if, when sales are not up to par, you get occasional negative remarks or derogatory comments from people with stuffy, dead-end jobs. Ignore their cutting words and bear in mind that success is the best revenge! Keep your admirable, positive attitude at the forefront and show them what you are made of!

Start a Home-Based Business

noreply@blogger.com (wealthyjoes) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0000

By Michael Masterson

Jim Fleck and Jeff Paul, cofounders of Instant Profits Marketing Inc., met at a marketing conference. “We hit it off right away,” Jim told me. “We had many similar skills and experiences, but we were also very complementary. I liked what Jeff had to offer me in terms of building the kind of business I was looking for, and he saw in me someone who could add depth and substance to his business.”

Their company is one of the most successful online businesses of its kind. “We have developed a business model that includes both online and offline sales, direct marketing, telemarketing, and infomercials,” Jeff explained. “We've learned so much about how to integrate all these different marketing forms. As far as I know, nobody else in the online information industry has a business quite like ours. It's been a challenge to find business models to emulate.”

The two men got to Instant Profits Marketing in different ways – and both have interesting success stories to tell. Here's Jim's ...

By the time he got to college, Jim had already started several businesses, including a painting company with 12 employees (all older than him) when he was just 19 to help fund his education. That gave him a taste for entrepreneurship. Before finishing college, he dropped out and headed for the corporate world to give it a try. He was immediately successful, inching his way up the corporate ladder for seven years, and eventually focusing on corporate intranets.

“It was an area I was particularly well suited for,” Jim told me. “I was able to figure out new ways to automate a lot of the menial tasks performed by people in the companies I worked for, reducing costs and ensuring quality.”

He developed so much expertise in this area that he was offered consulting jobs on the side with other companies, including the software vendors he had been buying from. He quit his job and went solo, earning $150,000 more per year than he had as a salaried employee.

But the travel involved in the consulting business eventually did Jim in. Being on the road months at a time “became a drag,” he lamented.

“I was working more, but enjoying it less,” he said about that phase of his career. “The one good thing that came out of it, though, was that in my efforts to sell my own consulting services, I learned a lot about direct marketing.”

As Jim's enthusiasm for technical consulting waned, his interest in becoming an entrepreneur and having his own home-based business soared. One day he saw an ad for a work-from-home seminar. It turned out the ad had been written by none other than Jeff Paul, his future partner.

The seminar inspired Jim to get started on his home-based business. So he looked through the Yellow Pages to see which industries were taking out most of the ads.

Based on his Yellow Pages survey, he composed a list of the 10 most popular businesses. Then he went to the library and began researching them, one at a time. “I would read books about them and then I'd read their trade journals, trying to discover what made them tick.”

If an industry was buying lots of ads and was represented by several trade journals, it must be viable, he figured.

He put together a marketing program that could be adapted to several of the popular businesses he had identified. His program included a lot of general techniques (such as how to write a USP), but it also included samples (both good and bad) of Yellow Pages ads, direct-response ads, and sales letters, as well as a section where he revised the bad ads to turn them into effective sellers.

“People loved that section,” he said.

Jim created two versions of his product: a basic marketing program that he sold for $797, and a deluxe version that went for $997.

One of the industries that met Jim's two criteria (by carrying lots of Yellow Pages ads and being represented by many trade journals) was the heating/ventilating/air-conditioning (HVAC) business. Since his family was in that business, he decided to market his programs to that industry first.

He ran a $258 ad in a HVAC trade magazine for the marketing products he had developed. That $258 ad brought in $5,000.

He reinvested the $5,000 into more and bigger ads – and that $5,000 turned into $15,000. In 1997, he began marketing his HVAC programs online. That added another $5,000 each month to his bottom line.

When sales flattened, he reinvented his business for a similar industry: plumbing. It took him all of one week to convert the program for his new target customers – and that one, too, was very successful.

After a few years, Jim was faced with the question of whether to create a third product aimed at a third industry segment or to launch something brand-new, something that could take him “up to the next level.” That's when he and Jeff began Instant Profits Marketing ... which has skyrocketed them both into multi-millions.

The lessons to take away from Jim's experience are that it's always better to start a small business in an industry that you're familiar with – and to build it one step at a time.

If you're looking to start your own home-based business, start the way Jim did – by identifying a viable industry to market an information product to:

Look through the Yellow Pages for businesses that have lots of ads. Lots of ads indicates that there are probably a large number of customers who will want to buy the information that you have to offer.
Go to the library and look through the SRDS to find industries that have multiple trade journals. As with Yellow Pages ads, multiple trade journals could indicate a strong demand for your information product. This also gives you a list of places to publish your own ads.
As I said, it's best to start with an industry you're familiar with ... if possible. After checking out the Yellow Pages and the available trade journals, select an industry that you already have some knowledge of.
To pick a topic for your product, you need to find out what kind of information people in your chosen industry are buying. Search your library's database of recently published books, and search Amazon.com for keywords connected to your field of interest (forestry, ballet teachers). You'll come up with a long list of the most popular and most recent books on your subject.

That will get you started on creating a good information product that you can successfully market.