The Marketing Blog of Matt Wadsworth

Opportunity seeker or business owner, which are you?

Matt Wadsworth — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:10:26 +0000

There is nothing wrong with either, but it’s important to be very clear in your own mind whether you want to build a business, or whether you like dabbling with opportunities.

In my nearly four years in the online business world, I have come across all sorts of people from every conceivable walk of life.

Nearly all of them want to make more money, some of them do just that, and most unfortunately don’t manage it.

Let’s use a real life example to illustrate the difference between running a business and following an opportunity.

I recently came across Instant Niche Maker

which does all sorts of wonderful things at the push of a button.

The Instant Niche Maker link opens in a new window, so click it by all means, but keep reading here.

As a business owner myself, I think the people behind Instant Niche Maker have absolutely “nailed it”.

Look at the headline:

“Who else wants to click-a-button and instantly own a supercharged,

jaw droppingly gorgeous auto-pilot money-making website?

The hot buttons here are “click-a-button”, “auto-pilot” and “money-making”.

and the reason the developers have “nailed it” is because that is what the vast majority of people want.

Click a button, have everything done for them, and make some money in the process.

Let’s come back to the “money-making” part a little later.

For opportunity seekers, Instant Niche Maker is absolutely fantabulous, and I take my hat off to the developers for building the platform.

It makes building niche sites an absolute peace of cake, and it certainly lowers the barrier to entry which a lot of people face.

INM uses Wordpress and an already available bunch of plugins such as www.datafeedfile.com to populate sites with real-time content.

Nothing wrong at all with bringing together what is already available and making it super easy to use.

INM does exactly what it says on the tin in fact, and it is brilliantly positioned to target opportunity seekers: people who like the thought of the reward without doing any of the graft.

What I haven’t yet come across on the Instant Niche Maker site is any sort of demonstration of revenue generated by the sites it creates.

Now this will obviously vary from user to user, and I have no doubt what so ever that a small number of people will turn their INM sites into revenue generators: I certainly hope so.

So my question to you is this:

When you look at a site such as Instant Niche Maker, do you imagine yourself using it to build an empire of niche sites, or do you imagine yourself owning the actual business (in this case, a business similar to INM).

As I said, there is nothing wrong with either position, but it’s important to know which camp you fall into.

If you fall into the business owner camp, or at least have the desire to build your own business, the absolute most important thing you need to do, as quickly as possible, is build a list of subscribers.

You need to do this before developing any sort of product of your own, or before investing time and energy trying to figure out what people want.

Unfortunately, list-building is something most people really struggle with, and there is information a plenty out there which often doesn’t make it any easier.

The sad truth is, building a list of loyal subscribers is something almost anybody can do, if only they new how.

In other words, you don’t need any specialist technical knowledge what so ever to build yourself a nice seed list of a few thousand subscribers.

Once you have that list, you can develop a relationship with them. Give them useful content, and more importantly, ask them what they struggle with.

Only then, do you start offering them solutions, firstly in the way of affiliate offers, and then eventually with your own solutions.

Keep a look out for my email tomorrow (Wednesday)

The subject line will be “Lightning speed list building”.

As you know, I don’t release info products any more as most people don’t use them.

If you qualify (and most people won’t), This is one on one coaching where you will get on a call with me.

Three things will happen:

We will look at what you are currently doing and focus in on exactly what you need to be spending your time on.
I will walk you through my Lightning speed list building process, and send you step by step instructions.
I will tell you about a Wordpress plugin which, if used “my way” will automate 90% of your content creation and drive hundreds of visitors to your site.

This is the stuff I personally use to grow my own business behind the scenes, and it’s powerful stuff.

More details coming tomorrow (Wednesday).

Matt

Blogging from your browser.

Matt Wadsworth — Mon, 30 May 2011 11:44:13 +0000

Call me slow, but I have only just discovered Windows Live Writer and it’s absolutely amazing.

How many times have you been surfing the web and thought to yourself “Wow, that would make good content for my readers”.

And how many times do you not get round to putting the post together, either because something else comes up, or because it’s too much of a pain to login to your admin panel and faff around.

Well help is at hand.

Windows Live Writer Let’s you create a post directly in your browser and publish to your blog in an instant: Brilliant!

Personally, I use keyboard shortcuts to do everything on the computer, and I have listed them below for you here.

Happy blogging.

Matt

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows Live Writer.

Many of the below shortcuts are exactly the same as you find in other Windows applications such as Word or Notepad.

Blog and post shortcuts.

To do this

Press this

Create a new post

Ctrl+N

Create new page

Ctrl+G

Open a post

Ctrl+O

Save a post

Ctrl+S

Publish a post

Ctrl+Shift+P

Post draft to blog

Ctrl+Shift+D

Insert hyperlink

Ctrl+K

Add picture from computer

Ctrl+J

Add picture from the web

Ctrl+Shift+J

See post properties

Set categories

Ctrl+Shift+C

Update blog theme

Ctrl+F11

Change to edit view

F11

Change to preview view

F12

Change to source view

Shift+F11

Text formatting shortcuts

To do this

Press this

Bold

Ctrl+B

Italicize

Ctrl+I

Strikethrough

Ctrl+H

Underline

Ctrl+U

Subscript

Ctrl+=

Superscript

Ctrl+Shift+=

Bullets

Ctrl+Shift+L

Clear formatting

Ctrl+Space

Center text

Ctrl+E

Align text left

Ctrl+L

Align text right

Ctrl+R

New paragraph

Ctrl+Shift+N

Heading 1

Ctrl+Left Alt+1

Heading 2

Ctrl+Left Alt+2

Heading 3

Ctrl+Left Alt+3

Heading 4

Ctrl+Left Alt+4

Heading 5

Ctrl+Left Alt+5

Heading 6

Ctrl+Left Alt+6

Set text direction from left to right
(Only available in RTL mode)

Ctrl+Left Shift

Set text direction from right to left
(Only available in RTL mode)

Ctrl+Right Shift

General shortcuts

To do this

Press this

Cut

Ctrl+X

Copy

Ctrl+C

Paste

Ctrl+V

Paste special

Ctrl+Left Alt+V

Select all

Ctrl+A

Find

Ctrl+F

Undo

Ctrl+Z

Redo

Ctrl+Y

Ctrl+P

Show or hide ribbon

Ctrl+F1

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Matt Wadsworth’s Twenty Rules For Success

Matt Wadsworth — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:28:05 +0000

Here are the twenty principles I use to “make stuff happen” on a day to day Basis.

Feel free to share your own in the comments below.

1. Get out of your comfort zone.

2. Get over your own resistance by defining the worse case scenario.

3. Focus on the results you want to have happen, not the processes which will get you there.

4. Take decisive action.

5. Be clear about what you want.

6. Never expect life to owe you anything.

7. Solve your own problems.

8. Don’t take yourself too seriously all the time.

9. Work at things you enjoy and which are worthy of your time and talent.

10. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

11. Become the most positive person you know.

12. Be generous.

13. Take things a day at a time and persist.

14. Treat everyone you meet the way you want to be treated.

15. Commit yourself to constant improvement.

16. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, but on experiences and relationships with the people you love.

17. Take responsibility for yourself and for every area of your life.

18. Be bold and courageous.

19. Look after the people around you.

20. Never ever give up.

iUnstoppable is here

Matt Wadsworth — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:04:08 +0000

So, it’s been 2 months since my last post, in which I was talking about the importance of believing in what you can do.

Now if I hadn’t done anything in those 2 months, it would be pretty embarrasing I must say.

Fortunately however, that’s not the case…

In fact, I’ve gone completely overboard, and created an entire training program called iUnstoppable, and you can check it out here:

www.iUnstoppable.com

I’m very excited to be sharing the very strategies which allow me to “just get things done” in my online business.

Stop looking for bells and whistles guys, and start connecting the knowledge you already have with the action you need to take.

Check it out here:

www.iUnstoppable.com

Keep moving forward,

-Matt

It’s Not What You Can Do, It’s What You Believe You Can Do (Part 1)

Matt Wadsworth — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:28:39 +0000

Hi all,

Apologies for the 3 month absence. It’s been a busy time over at Wadsworth HQ, as my business is growing rapidly and the weeks have literally flown by.

Over the summer I took a 2 week holiday in Thailand. This was my first time in Asia, and let me tell you, it won’t be the last.

While we were there, my girlfriend and I spent about 5 days on an island called Koh Phi Phi, which is about a 2 hour boat ride off the South-East coast of Thailand.

One thing I love about traveling, is that it makes you more open to other people.

So as we were crossing from the mainland to the island, I got talking to a chap from the UK who told me he was a scuba diving instructor.

Never having dived before, I asked him if he thought it would be a worth-while experience for a blind guy to go diving.

To my surprise, he said he thought it definitely would be, so the day after we arrived, I went straight down to the dive center and booked myself in for a Discover Scuba Diving trip.

Let me tell you, it was an absolutely amazing experience. So much so, that I decided to go all-the-way, and get my SSI Scuba Diving license, which involved another 2 days intensive training.

Now you might be asking yourself, what’s the point of going scuba diving if you can’t see what’s down there, especially as you can’t go around touching the coral and stroking sharks?

Well, as one of my old mentors told me about 20 years ago, “If you don’t try, you don’t know,” and this is the way I do things folks.

I love challenges, I love new experiences, and I love having licenses for things which other people (through no fault of their own) think I shouldn’t be able to do.

Breathing under water, and experiencing the sensation of weightlessness would have been enough for me in and of itself; however, there was much more to it than that.

The guys down at the dive center had never taken a blind person diving before, and I wanted it to be an awesome experience for them as well.

scuba diving image 1

We worked out a bunch of tapping signals to replace the visual hand signs (you can’t talk under water), and my brilliant instructor Mckenna, swam above me and held on to my tank as we swam.

scuba diving image 2

The only thing I couldn’t do was read my pressure gage, which tells you how much air you have left, and at what depth you are swimming, so I was reliant on Mckenna for that.

scuba diving image 3

I’ve since discovered however that you can get talking dive computers, so, problem solved.

So why am I telling you all this, and more importantly, how can it help you?

Well, I’ve been thinking hard about what I can bring to our little community that will have a massive impact on people.

To be honest, I hate the thought of bringing out your typical “IM Course.” There are hundreds of them out there already, some excellent, most of them garbage… and yet, well over 90% of people who try and make money online end up banging their head against a brick wall.

You see, there is a huge market for systems and methods, not only in the IM world, but in betting trading, Forex, and just about anything else to do with making money.

I hear it so often from people, “If I could just find the right system… I just want a simple system, then everything would be OK.”

Folks, systems are great, and I use many of them myself in my own business.

Systems, however, are not the key to the kingdom… it’s something else…

Something much more fundamental and infinitely more powerful than any system out there.

Feel free to hazard a guess below, and I’ll reveal all in part 2.

Warmly,

-Matt

How to Get Really “Clear” with Your Ideas

Matt Wadsworth — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:34:14 +0000

Hi everybody,

I thought I’d write this post, as I’m going through a process at the moment of developing a new project, and I wanted to share some insights with you.

One of the major things which holds people back in life and in business, is lack of clarity… not lack of expertese or knowledge, as you might think.

Now, being “clear” doesn’t at all mean that you need to have every nut and bolt in place before you start… far from it in fact.

For me, being clear about something is knowing exactly what it is I want to achieve…

What value proposition am I bringing to the table…

Who exactly is the person or group of people I am targeting my message to…

What is my end goal with the project…

So the way I do this, surprising though it may sound, is to work backwards.

Start from the end and work your way back to the beginning.

It’s actually no different than knowing where you’re going while you drive your car, or exactly what you are going to bring back from the grocery store.

If you don’t have a clear idea of the final outcome, how can you possibly figure out how to get there?

So how do you do this?

Well, my method certainly isn’t the only way, but here are some of the things I do to help get my journey mapped out.

1. Spend as little time at the computer as possible.

I find my best ideas come to me when I am away from the distraction of the keyboard.

2. Work in short bursts.

I find it really helps me to have to work against the clock sometimes, so I’ll set an alarm for 25 minutes to half an hour, and then really “go for it”.

Once the time is up, I take a 5 to 10 minute break. I’ll sometimes have ideas during the break as well, and I commit those to memory, and then write them down at the beginning of the next session.

I recommend reading

The Pomodoro Technique

3. Talk things through with other people.

This is a biggy: actually having to “verbalise” your ideas has to be one of the best ways to strip away all the unnecessaries.

This evening, I was talking an idea through with somebody from my mastermind group, and I was amazed at how unclear I managed to sound.

It doesn’t make you feel good at the time, but I can tell you, there is probably no faster way to sculpt your idea in to shape than when you have to try and explain it to somebody else.

As ever, your comments and feedback are most welcome… I learn a lot from other people.

Enjoy!

-Matt

The Key To Focus And Filtering – My 4 Biggest Takeaways

Matt Wadsworth — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:55:46 +0000

Due to popular demand, I wanted to do a quick post on how I run my business each day, and the decisions I take.

Focus (or lack of it) can be a huge barrier to seeing results, which often then leads to chasing new shiny objects.

So, here’s what works for me…

Know the purpose behind what you are doing…

Before I do anything, whether it’s related to developing a product, building a relationship, or driving traffic to an offer, I am always extremely clear on what the intended outcome is going to be.

So for instance, if I want to get a site ranked in Google, I’ll effectively start from the end and work backwards.

My end result (or goal) on serious projects, is to rank in the top 3 of Google.
So I’ll do my homework before firing the rocket…

This involves doing competitive research on my competition, so that I have a goal to work towards.

One of my favourite tools for competitive analysis is Market Samurai. It’s actually completely inaccessible from my point of view, as it doesn’t work with my software which speaks everything aloud, however my assistant is a dab hand with it, and just passes me the results.

Once I have a picture of what needs to be done in terms of ranking, I then fire up my “traffic machine” which involves a series of on page and off page optimisation.

It’s taken a while to get this in place, however now that it’s there (and it was a struggle) it’s virtually automated… (automated meaning, “I” do about 5% of the work).

It just happens that the 5% coming from me, is then leveraged into the other 95% of the results, either by software, or via other people.

Thing is, if I was just shooting in the dark, then all that effort would be wasted.

So, take away number 1: You really do need to get it very clear in your mind what you are aiming for.

Focus on what you can do and get help with the rest…

Most entrepreneurs I know spend far too much time trying to do everything all by themselves.

In my own position, I’ve had to be very clear in my life about what I am good at, and what I need to get help with.

Personally, I’m very bad (and not very interested) in the technical side of things: I.E. building websites, installing scripts, graphics, hahaha!?

What I am good at is developing relationships, solving problems for people, coming up with solutions and turning ideas into reality.

While I’m a huge advocate of independence, I’m also ruthlessly disciplined about getting things done.

So, here’s take away number 2: know your strengths and weaknesses, and then get the right people around you.

Focus on creating value…

If you’re struggling to make money online, let me tell you that my biggest successes have come about when I have focused on delivering outstanding value to my customers.

Whether you’re building an online directory, or a fully-fledged membership site, the fact is, we are in the customer service industry at the end of the day.

Our job is to help other people out, by providing a solution which is valuable to the end user.

I realise this is perhaps difficult to bear in mind when you’re desperate to get that first break-through and just make some money, but please make it a priority.

So, take away number 3: aim to create value before aiming to create money.

And what about shiny objects?

The IM world is a noisy place… every week there must be at least 3 or 4 major launches, and it can be tiring, let alone confusing.

Personally, I take note of what’s going on around me, but I only ever make an investment if I feel that said product is relevant to the current path I’m on.

I.E. will I or my business benefit from that piece of software, or will that training help my business grow in the direction I want it to?

I take absolutely no notice whatsoever of income claims, dollar signs all over the sales page (which fortunately I can’t see , or any of that B.S.

I’m purely looking at whether I will get something out of whatever is being presented.

Now, what is relevant to me, may well be completely irrelevant to somebody else, and vice versa.

So take away number 4: know what is relevant to your current situation.

Of course, knowing what is relevant to your current situation is difficult unless you’ve got some of the other pieces in place, so let’s have a quick recap…

Take away number 1: get it very clear in your mind what you are aiming for.

Take away number 2: know your strengths and weaknesses, and then get the right people around you.

Take away number 3: aim to create value before aiming to create money.

Take away number 4: know what is relevant to your current situation.

At the end of the day, you are building a business, and it’s a question of asking yourself how serious you are about your intentions.

As ever, I welcome your comments below.

Keep moving forward

-Matt

It’s All About Vision (said the blind guy)

Matt Wadsworth — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:13:22 +0000

Thanks to everybody who commented on the posts below. I really appreciate you taking the time, and ultimately we’ll hopefully all benefit.

There were two main questions posed:

What do you find most difficult?

What do you think would help you most in moving forward?

The answers and feedback were pretty unanimous, and very revealing as well.

What people are finding most difficult are:

Lack of focus
Information overload
Generating traffic
Finding a good niche
Not knowing where to start
Believing that “this” can work (“This” being making money online)
Technical challenges

What people think will help them most is:

Coaching/mentoring
Step-by-step systems

Before we look at solutions, let’s try and understand reality…

The unfortunate reality is, that people buy what they “want” and not what they “need”.

As marketers (of whatever level) we learn to find out what people “want” and then sell it to them.

Now, trying to find our way in this crazy world we call the Internet, we are faced every day with offers and launches which tap in to what we “want”, and this is for one simple reason:

it works…

People buy this stuff, so marketers in the IM niche keep putting what we “want” in front of our eyes, and people keep on buying it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that there is some excellent stuff out there, both in terms of products, and genuine people who are trying to help others.

The IM market, however, can basically be broken down in to 2 main sorts of people: business owners and opportunity seekers.

Somebody building a business will usually buy something which is pertinent to what they are doing. i.e., if you are building a membership site for gardening enthusiasts, then you might buy membership site software, content management systems, video software etc. all with the aim of facilitating what you are doing.

An opportunity seeker on the other hand, might buy exactly the same products as the business owner, but it is usually with a view to “what the product/software/information will do for them” (as promised on the sales page).

So what’s the solution?

The people who make money on the internet are those who set out to build a business.

They are those people who know that their actions produce results, and they will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

If you build a business, you need to understand that things don’t happen over night, and in fact, you may not see results for weeks or even months.

Unfortunately, this is what causes the lack of focus and information overload in so many people.

Results don’t come quickly enough, it wasn’t as easy as you thought it would be, you start to lose enthusiasm, and then, another shiny object appears.

Imagine this: you start rolling a snow ball. It’s going quite well and you’re enjoying it.

After half an hour, you’re beginning to get slightly boared, and rolling that snow ball is tiring.

That snow ball also isn’t as big as you thought it would be after half an hour, so you take a break.

The next day, you come back, and start rolling a new snow ball, and the same thing happens.

After 10 days, you’ve expended a huge amount of time and energy, and all you’ve got are 10 slightly pathetic snow balls.

Now picture this:

Before you start rolling your snow ball, you’ve got a vision in your mind of how it’s going to look when you’ve finished.

It’s a 10 foot high snowball, and it’s so big, that it takes 5 people to roll it.

Every time it rolls however, that snow ball grows significantly and exponentially.

But wait a second, you haven’t even started yet…

So, on day 1, you start from scratch, rolling your snow ball.

After half an hour you’re beginning to feel less enthusiastic than you did at the beginning. You’re also pretty tired, and to be honest, you’re not really seeing any results.

You take a step back however, and picture in your mind the 10 foot high snow ball with 5 people pushing it.

You’re enthusiasm returns, and you carry on pushing that same snow ball.

You come back on day 2 and cary on where you left off….

On day 6, the snow ball is so big that you need to get somebody to help you push it. It’s already 5 feet high, and coming along quite nicely.

Now, you get the idea of what I’m saying.

In the next post, we’re going to talk about what it really takes to build a business on the Internet.

If you take in nothing else from this post, please hear this:

Without exception, the people I know who are successful in life (in whatever they do) have 1 thing in common:

They have the right Mindset.

Of all the comments on the posts below, only 1 person said they needed help with mindset…

Guys, it’s eeeeeeeverything!

Unfortunately, it requires effort and it doesn’t sell very well.

It is however, what you absolutely “need”, and if you’ll put the effort into this, it will give you what you “Want”.

Ask And You Shall Receive…

Matt Wadsworth — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:20:42 +0000

Thanks for all the responses on the post below.

This is hugely beneficial, and really helps to give me an overview of where people are at.

What I’d really like you to do now is answer 2 very fundamental questions.

This is your chance to really get the best out of me, and the more you push me, the more you will get.

1. What do you find most difficult in your online journey?

Some ideas to get you going:

focus
information overload
technical difficulties
can’t find a niche
don’t know where to start
traffic
offers
etc

2. What would help you most to move forward?

Examples:

step by step systems
coaching of various sorts
training on mindset, driving traffic, product creation, joint ventures, etc.

There’s a huge amount I can share with you, however we’ll get much further by knowing what some of the specifics are.

So bring it on guys, tell me what you want!

-Matt

Putting My Head Above The IM Parapet

Matt Wadsworth — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:00:02 +0000

For well over a year now, I’ve been hanging out with, and getting to know, some of the top people in the IM market.

Ask any successful business owner what the most important thing is in their business, and I can almost guarantee they will say…

Relationships…

Relationships with customers, and relationships with other business owners.

With relationships, you get a depth of knowledge and understanding that you could never get from a book or home study course, and this is definitely one of the reasons I have been able to progress so quickly.

Strange thing is, building solid relationships (in my opinion) is something 99% of us are perfectly capable of doing, and yet most Internet marketers just hide away behind their computer.

So how does this benefit you?…

At this stage, I have no idea whether I can be of value to the IM community, and this is something I really want your help with.

If the answer leans towards a yes, then great…

If not, no harm done, and I’ll just carry on doing what I do everyday, which is build businesses… I love every minute of it I can tell you, even the difficult moments.

Here’s your chance to take full advantage of me…

The only way I can possibly be of help to you is if I know what you need help with…

So, here’s what I propose…

In the comments section below, just tell me what you need help with.

Try and keep it concise, and bear some of the following in mind:

What have you tried
What has worked?
What isn’t working?
What is the number 1 thing you would like help with?
What do you actually want out of what you are trying to achieve?
If there was 1 question you could ask me, what would it be?

So guys, it’s over to you… I’m all ears.

Kind regards,

Matt