It is because the “make money blogging” space that I’m in is inherently BROKEN.

… and the “gurus” of this space have failed.

And the result of this is plain as day. Most bloggers are:

• Confused on what to do.
• Overwhelmed.
• Concentrating on the wrong things… if they even have a real focus at all.
• Not making any money.
• Not seeing much (if any) web traffic.

Now, you tell me…. with ALL these people (yes, myself included) teaching people how to make money blogging – and ALL these people reading our sites, don’t you think we’d have a little better success rate?

I mean, something is inherently wrong with the SYSTEM if all these people are out there consuming this stuff – and yet most aren’t making it.

It isn’t a surprise that this niche is becoming full of freebie seekers and skepticism. All these people are selling stuff and yet people still can’t connect the dots. It is only NATURAL to start getting skeptical.

Is This Just Because People Don’t Take Action?

It is pretty obvious that everything that is taught out there in this space is contingent on people actually taking action and DOING things.

And the people who actually get up off their asses and do what’s necessary represent a minority. Sad, but true.

But, I’ll tell you something here…

While the “gurus” in this space can (and often do) just chalk this up to the laziness of people, I think it is BULLSHIT that they use that as a “cop out”.

Let’s put it this way…

If 100 people enroll in a course designed to show people how to make money with a blog, and only 5 make any money… then that’s a 95% failure rate. The typical product creator in this space would say “They just didn’t take any action.” And, in many cases, they’d be right. Way too many people view the act of buying a product as an action, then when it is time to get dirty, they fall back into their routine and do nothing.

But, all of them?

In almost any “real world” business, a 95% failure rate would be grounds for going out of business. With that kind of failure rate, nothing but the federal government can survive with that kind of failure rate.

We’re talking pure, unadulterated CONFUSION and OVERWHELM.

This niche is giving everybody not only bogus advice (in some cases), but conflicting advice. And it is coming at you like a firehose! The target audience of all the major “pro bloggers” out there is being peppered every day with “advice”. Oh, and some of it is on repeat, but made to look new. As ViperChill recently pointed out in his Future of Blogging post, ProBlogger itself has 52 posts on the subject of guest posting. 52!

The “make money blogging” space has turned into a creator of the shiny object syndrome. Very little focus on overall strategy and real foundations, but a LOT of focus on volume of content and fancy list posts designed more for link bait than to actually help people get results.

What’s ironic, too, as that many of those blogs are on automatic now while the original founder doesn’t blog nearly as often. They’re focusing on real businesses while the blog just keeps up the firehose.

So, is it as simple as people not taking action? No. There’s more to it than that.

Focusing On The Wrong Things

Earlier, I said the “gurus” have failed. Let me explain this.

First, let me say that most of them are doing very well at what they do. I know most of them. Consider many of them to be friends. In their own zone, many of them are A-plus people and they do great work and help their audiences tremendously.

So, where’s the failure come in?

I think it is a systemic problem – not the fault of any individual.

SOMEWHERE along the line – and I have no idea where or who – this notion came about that one could make money by blogging alone.

So, what happens is everybody scurries around this notion. And they focus on blogging.

The mechanics of BLOGGING. F**king BLOGGING!!

Then, make money.

That’s STUPID. It doesn’t work.

I haven’t exactly been quiet about that, but people even look at what I do and assume that blogging, alone, is how I make my living. Even though I wrote things like how “monetization” is wrong, how it is a failure, why you need to be an enabler and not a reporter, and how a blog is not a business… even though I wrote these things… people still operate along the path I outlined above.

This “make money blogging” space seems to be BUILT on this assumption. Hell, in a couple weeks, I’m going to be speaking in New York about the top “monetization” tactics for a blog… on the “blog monetization” track… which I AM THE TRACK LEADER OF! It is the ultimate irony… but this “monetization” stuff is so ingrained into the lexicon of this niche that I’m almost forced to play along.

And all these gurus teaching the mechanics of blogging and skipping right over the notion of building a REAL business – it is STUPID. These bloggers then embark on what ultimately becomes the blogging rat race – and they go into it with zero business foundation. They’re told to blog about their “passions”. That’s fine, but the advice doesn’t work for everybody.

Reminds me of the funny people in Silicon Valley who think up cute little names, focus on building coolness and audience, go out and act like they’re worth a billion dollars just because of that – all the while having no product and making ZERO money.

Yet, many bloggers would probably idolize those kinds of companies. Nevermind that they only exist because they’re coasting on VC funding and angel investing… because they (in many cases) don’t create a freakin’ product and offer nothing of value to the world. And make no money.

Blogging is not a business, and the problem with this niche is that blogging is being taught like it is the end-all, be-all.

There are a lot of people who think the answer to making money online is to start a blog! WTF?! Unless you have a strategy and a foundation, blogging is one of the shittiest and slowest ways to make money on the Internet in the history of man.

I’ve Not Lived Up To My Potential (Yet)

For too long, I feel as if I’ve just been another person in this niche. And, I haven’t been a leader in this space. I’ve been operating by the rules somebody else wrote.

I wanted to help bloggers, so I talked about blogging. And I talked about much of the same advice, perhaps with a differing twist and a different way of putting it. And, surely, it has served me well. And I have a ton of testimonials showing that it worked for you guys, too.

But, I haven’t lived up to my potential yet.

I have more to offer.

I won’t beat around the bush when I say…

I believe I have a lot more to offer. I believe I have a perspective that many don’t have. And I know damn well I’ve been doing this longer than pretty much any other name you can throw at me.

One of those skills I’ve always had is making the complicated simple. That skill served me well as a tech blogger. I’m an excellent “big picture” guy. My gut-level understanding of things is rarely proven wrong.

I don’t want to show bloggers how to “monetize”. I want to help them BUILD BUSINESSES. Real systems and operations capable of not only generating wealth, but achieving core missions that can help make the world a better place.

We need to focus on the basics. We need to begin approaching the Internet not as a magic money machine (which it isn’t, regardless of what some scammy Warrior Forum a-hole will tell you), but as a platform for real businesses based on the same rules as business has ALWAYS been based on.

I want to show bloggers how to build real businessses. I also want to show real businesses how to utilize blogging to the fullest. And I want to approach it in a way which does not cause confusion and overwhelm.

Will this mean that my target audience on this site becomes smaller? It might. I’m fine with that, however. I never set out to be the most popular guy in this space, or get the most traffic. What I want is for people to get RESULTS with the stuff I produce. I guess I operate with a slightly different benchmark than some of the others.

And, internally, it is time for me to expand beyond myself. It is time to build a real company. This isn’t a matter of hiring a part-time VA to “get things off my plate”.

So, I’m Going To…

I’ll tell you a little more about my intentions soon.

Some of it is still being fine-tuned. And, surely, no “business plan” survives exposure to the real world without adjustments.

If anybody thought I was thinking of leaving this market, think again.

I want to set a different standard.

What Do YOU Think Is Missing In This Niche?

I’ve told you what I think. What say you? Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on what I’ve said here.

————

A reminder that “Phase One” of my business changes is under way right now…

The CLOSURE of the Blog Masters Club. It comes to an end on Friday, the 18th.

This course was created in 2009 and, even then, I think I did a pretty good job of focusing bloggers on the things which actually matter inside that course. Over half the course was about stuff which (at least then) was different territory for your typical blogger. In fact, right in Module 1, it will be VERY clear that I approach it from a very different angle than many others who focus SOLELY on blogging and the mechanics thereof.

But, alas, it is time to end that chapter.

But, first, check out this all-too-common scenario.

You get an idea for a killer blog. You think it is going to be awesome. You’re going to make it the internet’s premiere site on this topic, and you’re going to be awesome.

You’ll be the ninja, the guru, the authority on the niche.

You see what the “A-list” does, so you’ll do that. So, you write a LOT of blog posts. I mean, seriously – A LOT of them. You write an e-book that you plan to sell. This thing is gorgeous! A work of art. You know this isn’t some cheesy ebook. It has a lot of value.

People should really read your stuff. What’s wrong here?

So, you build up the courage to approach one of the “A-list” people and ask them to promote for  you. You spend a lot of time researching how they do it, and you start copying the techniques you think they’re using. After all, it worked for them, it must work for you, too, right?

So, you’ve put together this big launch, with great content. You’ve gone out of your way to do what all the “big guys” do. You promote on your blog. You really SHOULD start making some money here and start getting noticed, right? Right?

You sell just a few copies. Your blog gets just a little traffic, but it is all from the same little crowd of people. And they don’t comment on your posts much, which just pisses you off even more.

Seems like a lot of work for nothing. You feel as if you don’t have the magic touch that some others have. You feel you’re too late to the game. Perhaps you can’t stand out because too many other people have already come in and taken over? Or, perhaps it is a conspiracy from a “syndicate”? Hmmm…

The one thing you know is….. THIS SUCKS.

So, chances are (as I said), you’re in 1 of 2 camps. You have either already experienced something like this, or… you don’t even really give it a solid try because you fear this will happen to you. You don’t want to fail. You’d rather have the hope of success than the certainty of a failure.

And The Secret Key To Success Is…

Well, if you know anything about me, you know what I think of secrets. And what I have to tell you is not a secret.

First, you’ve got to have a product. Groovy. For anybody to take you all that seriously, you’ve got to have some kind of product. But, there is something even more fundamental than that…

You have to create something that people really, REALLY want.

See, in the above scenario (which wasn’t too pretty), you would be attempting to build your online empire based on your idea, what you think people need and want. And you simply built it.

In other words, you were thinking about yourself, not your audience.

The “secret” key, the one so many bloggers screw up, is to cater to the internal desires of the market, not simply what you care about. Bloggers tend to fall in love with themselves too much, and then get offended when nobody notices.

Putting Your Stake In the Ground…

It isn’t a safe bet to build a business on something which might not be there tomorrow.

You don’t build businesses based on Twitter, or Facebook, or even Google. It is easy to lose perspective on just how fast the Internet is changing. A few years ago, Twitter didn’t even exist. Who’s to say it will exist in a few more years? Who’s to say Google will still be doing things the same way? Maybe they’ll kill off Adsense, who the heck knows.

It is important, as online entrepreneurs, to focus, not on the medium, but on the message. It is important to build our online empire based on something solid.

Which brings us right back to the point about making yourself TRULY valuable by helping people, and by giving them what they REALLY want. Because, humans will remain humans. We want stuff and we’ll always spend money for things we really want.

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google…. these are all just the current medium. In a few years, we’re likely to see some adjustments to how we do things. But, the foundation will remain, and you’ll just adjust. No big deal.

So, are you basing your business on that solid foundation? Are you giving people what they need and want? Is your business model based on these fundamentals, or are you just riding on the tactic of the minute? Do you even have a business model?

————

A quick reminder… Blog Masters Club is CLOSING DOWN on May 18th – for good. To learn why, click here.

See, too many people live their lives in a constant state of “someday, maybe I will….”. It doesn’t matter how that sentence ends (it is different for everybody), but one thing is common. It is a maybe. Not a yes or a no, but a maybe.

And, what happens? We get stuck. We don’t move. We talk a big game. We make todo lists. We jot down ideas. But, we don’t take any action.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Internet – and ESPECIALLY when it comes to anything having to do with making money – the dreamers end up being preyed upon. See, people who don’t really want to take any action are a ripe opportunity for some marketer to come along with an easy button.

You’ve seen them. The “internet marketing” guru who tries to sell you on the idea that you can make a big ‘ol pile of money, in 2 hours per week, with a $27 ebook, all using some “secret, ninja source of traffic that nobody else knows about”. Oh, but of course, we’re to believe that that marketer really did figure out some huge secret and that he’s just being SUCH a nice guy to sell it to us.

Yeah, right. And last night, I got to watch the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause duke it out. Come on.

Your common sense tells you that it is BS. I mean, no wonder those kinds of sales tactics revolt some people. We see it so often, and it is such an affront to basic logic.

There is no easy button. I really hate to tell you this, I really do.

Now, this isn’t anything to be sad about. Something can be done about it. But, first, let me tell you why the time is NOW.

The Times We Live In

There’s another factor in play here: The world we live in.

There is no doubt that some people out there are without jobs right now. The economies of the world are in a time of readjustment. People were living large on debt, and it is all catching up both in the private sector and the public sector. The details are many, and there are about a thousand different opinions out there on the “why” of it all, but one thing is true…

Like any time of economic adjustment (even the Great Depression), there are those who do very well for themselves, and those who won’t. What divides them? What determines whether you will prosper or not?

It comes down to educating yourself, building your skills, then USING them to make a valuable contribution to the world. In other words, you’re building a solid foundation. You’re offering something. And you’re being paid for it.

This is a stark contrast to those who will simply complain, or try to blame others. It is also a stark contrast to all those easy buttons I mentioned above. Many will buy promises of easy buttons, thinking a little ebook of 30 pages is somehow a foundation you can build on.

No. You have to solve real problems for people. You have to have answers. You have to position yourself as and BE an authority who is going to be around for awhile.

… And you will be. Because, when you build a REAL foundation and make yourself valuable to people, you can weather whatever comes your way. You won’t be a feather in the wind, you’ll be a brick wall.

It’s Time To Put The Big Boy Pants On

The Internet happens to be a great playing field for building that foundation. And, as I’m going to show you, building an online empire with a blog as the center of your hub is POWERFUL.

It is time, though, to start really making that happen. It is time to get serious about it. The world isn’t waiting around for you to get your act together.

Those “any lazy idiot can do it” products are a dime a dozen. And, in almost all cases, you feel like a bit of an idiot the moment you open it up and think, “This is it?”

In today’s online environment, there are too many people in the playing field to take cheesy moves like that. Customers are skeptical (understandably so). The big boys keep releasing more and more free stuff. The lazy idiot with his $27 easy button just isn’t going to make it in this environment.

Fortunately, though, you’re not a lazy idiot.

You realize you need a system which works, but you also realize that you’re going to need to take action on it. You realize you’re going to need to put on the big boy pants and bring your A-game.

For me personally, this is the mindset I bring to the table when I announced that it was time for a change.

A change for my approach to helping people in this market… and a change for how I run my business.

Phase 1 is the closing of the Blog Masters Club – permanently. However, for a limited – and final – time, you can enroll in the program for the lowest rate I’ve ever offered it for.

I guess I have some perspective on how things have changed. After all, I’m probably the most “veteran” of almost any online publisher you know. I got started in this business WAY the hell back in 1998.

I was solely a technology blogger up until 2008, at which point I got into this blogger market. I did it because I felt like I had something to bring to the table. Plus, I wanted an outlet to scratch an itch that didn’t have to do with tech.

What many people may not know is that DavidRisley.com actually started out as WebbyOnline.com.

Hehe… to this day, that domain kinda cracks me up.

I can’t say I remember what thought process led me to re-brand as my own name, but it has served me just fine for about 4 years now.

Once DavidRisley.com was live, I quickly went into product creation. First it was 3DayMoney.com… then I went straight into the launch of Blog Masters Club.

Blog Masters Club was a BEAST (and still is). It is frickin’ huge, as it is basically a structured “brain dump” of a decade of online business as an online publisher. I launched it as a pre-sale in early 2009 (Clay Collins would be proud ), with only Module 1 created. Later, in early 2010, I did a large-scale launch of the product (with affiliates) and it did very well.

From Blog Masters, I went on to create Master Your List, the Inner Circle, then more recently, Time Master Formula.

But, at this point, look at what I had created for myself:

• A fairly busy blog
• 5 different products – which have overlap.

All this in a very busy market where the noise level is increasing all the time.

Then, I Flirted With A Crossroads

Some of you may remember this post, but I talked about a crossroads I was at, and my perceived problems with the internet marketing niche. I expressed some frustration in that post. I flirted with the idea of exploring software development and concentrating my training efforts on the Inner Circle.

There were two things driving this:

• Frustrations with bloggers going through all this material and most of them not seeing it through and getting the result they want.
• A feeling that I was stretching myself too thin.

Both of these problems still exist.

There is an inherent problem in the training being delivered in the blogging niche. Don’t get me wrong… it is good stuff. BUT… if that were really what was needed, there’d be more bloggers making money.

I’ll tell you more about what I think the problem is soon, but I sincerely believe that the “gurus” of this blogging niche are failing. Obviously, it is up to folks to take action and most don’t… but still, there’s something fundamental missing and I think I’ve identified it.

Anywho…

The other thing is that – yeah, I’m stretched thin.

For one, there isn’t enough delineation in my products. I’ve had people ask me what the difference is between Blog Masters Club and the Inner Circle, or whether the material inside Master Your List can be found inside BMC. It is confusing.

And… you should be the one trying to keep all these balls in the air!

It is entrepreneurial ADD!

And… all of this under a brand which has MY name on it. Everybody is expecting me on everything.

Fast Forward… To A Day At Sea

I was sitting there on the aft deck of the Carnival Paradise. We were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Cruise with the wife – no kids, no Internet. Nothing but time to chill out.

I went into brainstorming mode and let the ideas happen. I sat there with a notebook and a pen… and just… brainstormed.

• Where am I at now?
• Where do I want to be?
• What constraints is my business dealing with?
• What does the next level look like?
• How can I best serve my audience, and where are others in my market dropping the ball?

I left nothing sacred. I started questioning my own personal assumptions. Was I keeping things going just because I thought I needed to? Was I operating on certain self-created rules that needed to be re-thought?

A Course Adjustment

What came out of it was a plan. A loose plan, but it was a plan. And those plans became more concrete in the days after I returned.

And so… some changes are afoot.

Many of them are internal. But, many of them will be plainly visible in due time.

I’m not leaving the market, but I am changing my approach somewhat.

Some changes will be taking place as part of a transition.

And one of them I will announce right now…

Blog Masters Club Is Closing Down

Blog Masters holds a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons. But, for strategic reasons, it is time to pull it from the marketplace.

However, I am making a final offer. There is one, final opportunity to sign up for the full Blog Masters Club training program. I am offering it at a rate which is the lowest I’ve ever offered it for. I think the chosen price point is a good balance between making it as affordable as possible and the fact that it took me a good chunk of a year of my life to create it.

Not only that, my hope is that this “last hurrah” for the Blog Masters Club will also generate some additional revenue to help me fund the development of the new plans I have moving forward.

The training will remain online – in full – for all students. However, after this final offer comes to a close, no new students will ever be allowed into the program.

I will continue to support students inside the Club, too. It isn’t as if I’m going anywhere. In fact, the exact opposite.

Check out The Blog Masters Club – The FINAL Offer

They say that it is a good idea to post to your blog every single day. They say that the more you post, the more Google will like you and that your audience will grow faster.

Some people don’t even start blogging or doing content marketing because they think it will be too demanding. They don’t have time, or so they think.

I’m going to bust the myth right now. I’m going to free you from that trap. It is blogging advice that others give that I think really misleads people and does a lot of harm.

You Create Your Own Rat Wheel

Blogging all too easily becomes this thankless rat wheel. You hop on it and start writing. And you write. And you write. Not necessarily because your audience is demanding it, but because you think you need to do it. You give yourself quotas.

It is inevitable… at some point, the fact that it is an endless rat wheel becomes apparent. You have one of those days when you struggle with what to write about. You’re just not feelin’ it. But, then, you try to force it so you can meet your quota.

And then…

Your Content Quality Suffers

Again, unless you are God’s gift to blogging, this is inevitable. Your posts will be shorter. They’ll repeat themselves. They’ll be only surface-level stuff.

You’re not creating “epic shit” (as my friend Corbett Barr likes to call it). You’re just creating shit.

But, also look at your audience and what you’re doing to them…

Your Audience Yawns It Off – Or Goes Cross-Eyed

If you’re publishing “blah” stuff, your audience will think it is “blah”. Sure, you might get a few loyal followers… but those people are probably there because of those few really killer posts you’ve put out there when you were REALLY compelled to write those killer posts. The stuff in between – the stuff you wrote just to feed the rat wheel – is stuff they probably don’t care too much about.

And so you get very few comments. You get little reaction and acknowledgement.

But, let’s assume, for a minute, that you’re one of these magic workers who can post incredible stuff every single day. Is that a good idea?

Well, you can also OVERRUN your audience. You can give them so much stuff that they can’t keep up. You become a source of noise to them – even if the stuff you’re producing is awesome.

So, instead of hanging on your every word, they look at your blog like a firehose and they’ll just check on it every now and then. When they’re in the mood. In terms of having an audience that ACTS when you want them do, that’s not a good idea.

You’re basically hypnotizing your audience through constant, unending inflow.

A Few Observations From Personal Experience

I’ve done both.

My tech site still has a 5-day posting schedule, and we post 2-3 posts per day over there. I can tell you that it is difficult to keep up with that. And I have to pay people to help keep up that volume. Now, that niche almost requires that kind of volume – so I keep rolling with it. But, honestly – I’m beginning to plan my exit. In fact, I’m probably going to put the plan into action fairly soon to sell that site. One of the many reasons for this is because I’m ready to step off that rat wheel that is the tech niche. The tech niche is awesome in a lot of ways, but I’m ready for something different.

Then we take this site. I used to post every day. Now, I post maybe once or twice per week. In fact, I’m seriously thinking of moving it down to a once weekly schedule, but just making sure each post has some serious meat to it.

Interestingly, as I’ve adjusted my volume on this site, I’ve had NO negative consequences in the site’s traffic. So, in my experience, posting every day was just a waste of time. I know friends of mine who saw their traffic steadily INCREASE as they posted LESS.

How could that happen?

Well, consider how SEO is changing. It used to be that you wanted as much fuel for the search spiders as you could. However, today things are changing. Google is looking for quality indicators. One of the indicators they use are social signals such as +1′s, retweets, shares, etc.

In order to get people to share things, you need to write epic stuff WORTH sharing.

Not only that, you want to have a volume that people can easily consume. You want them to see the release of a new post as an EVENT. Something worth paying attention to. Leave them wanting just a bit more from you at all times and they’ll be hungry to hear from you.

Here’s the other positive side effect of posting less…

It gives you more time to concentrate on what will REALLY build your business. Things like promotion, product creation, marketing.

If you’re so busy feeding the rat wheel, you’ll never have the time to build your assets and your business.

It is the 80/20 rule all over again. For most bloggers, they spend 80% of their time feeding the rat wheel and it only leads to 20% of their results. Time to flip that bad-boy on it’s head!

You Are Free!

So, I give you permission, as it were, to post less.

Post less, but make the stuff you publish really worth somebody’s time. Give them take-aways. Make sure your posts will help them achieve a result they want.

Blogging isn’t a business model. It is just a marketing vehicle for a business. (click to tweet that)

If you’re spending no time building the business behind the blog – and spending all your time just feeding the blog – then you’re completely wasting your freakin’ time.

.

Before I leave you, I’m super-excited to soon announce some big changes for this blog and my entire business. In fact, it has a lot to do with that quote I asked you to tweet out above. Stay tuned for that. M’kay?

In all the talk about themes, plug-ins, retweets and pings, it is easy to lose sight of the TRUE purpose of a blog. And that purpose is COMMUNICATION.

Might seem obvious on the surface, but seeing how a lot of people blog, they don’t really get it. In this episode, David breaks down exactly what this means and how it should impact what you do on your blog.

The end result? An audience that actually pays attention to your content and responds to it. And ultimately… buys from you.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• Why most bloggers don’t get ANY reaction from their blog posts.
• Why thinking of your blog like a magazine is a mistake.
• The communication sequence – broken down into components.
• Why acknowledgement is VERY fundamental to your success online.
• Specific tactics in order to “train” your audience to respond.
• What this all has to do with marketing and making sales.

I hope you enjoy this episode. I was a little late on getting it produced.

I encourage you to take the message of this episode to heart. A lot of people dismiss these basics. They think it is “obvious”. But, then I see what they go and actually DO on their sites and it is clear that THEY DON’T GET IT. So, this stuff is NOT obvious.

Understanding the fundamental components of communication – and how you can strategically ensure each component is there in your dealings online – is extremely important and will make or break your marketing efforts – despite all the nice shiny tactics people will throw at you.

Lastly, I’d truly appreciate it if you take a moment to subscribe to the show in iTunes and rate/review it inside of iTunes. It’d really help me out. Here’s how you can do it:

• Open up iTunes.
• Search for “the blog program” podcast.
• Subscribe.
• When you’re ready, give the show a star rating and write a short review.

Thanks for listening!

To get automatic updates of this show to your mobile device, you can subscribe here:

• Click here to Subscribe via iTunes
• Click here to Subscribe via RSS (direct feed)

Plus there are reasons why having a consulting offer on a blog is a helpful thing.

For one, it is an awesome way to get SOME offer out there. Every person who is trying to make money from their blogs needs to have SOME offer out there. And, for many, offering some kind of service (like consulting) is a good way to go.

Secondly, it also frames your value. When marketing a product, the price is judged up against what it is compared to. For example, a $3 app in the App Store for the iPhone would be considered expensive because so many apps are less than that. So, you get people who are probably doing just fine financially who actually have to stop and think about spending $3 on an app…. right after they go blow that amount on coffee at Starbucks without even thinking about it. But, I digress.

Price framing is important. So, when you set your hourly rate at, say, $100/hour… then you come out and sell a really great product for $75… all of a sudden that’s a bargain (if, of course, the product truly is good).

Why Shut Down $250/hour Consulting?

At $250/hour, the money doesn’t suck. Now, it isn’t as if I do a ton of consulting (since I’m busy enough with my own stuff), but $250/hour isn’t bad at all.

Of course, that is… in an ideal world.

Anybody who charges by the hour – especially in single-hour units – you know that it often takes much more than an hour in order to deliver an hour of service. You’ve got all the back-and-forth communications to line up the right time to talk. You’ve also got prospects who will grill you before they ever pay you a dime… all because they’re trying to get some sense that you can actually help them.

(Actually, psychologically, they’re trying to find reasons not to hire you at all. Not a game worth playing.)

So, what happens is that you end up wasting time on back-and-forth… or trying to PROVE to somebody that an hour of your time is worth what you’re asking.

No thanks.

If people can’t read my blog or my reports and see that I know enough to deliver more than $250 in value to you in an hour, then I’m not interested.

But, it goes deeper…

If we look at the PRODUCT that a person wants… how can that be delivered in an hour?

An hour isn’t any good for much more than just bouncing a few ideas off me. But, in my experience, in order to truly guide somebody to their REAL goal, it takes more consistent time working together.

In other words, we need to talk STRATEGY and then execute on that. And that takes more than an hour.

In an hour, all we can talk about is a few TACTICS… but tactics without strategy… or tactics based on a shitty strategy… isn’t going to accomplish our goals.

Lastly, here’s one thing any successful business owner will tell you…

As long as income is tied to your time, you cannot get rich.

Period.

As long as income is tied to your time, you have a cap on how much you can make. You can’t really build real leverage. And you’re at the mercy of clients.

The (Better) Alternative To Hourly Billing

Hourly billing sucks. Outcome-based billing makes a lot more sense.

People buy an outcome. They want an outcome.

They’re not so interested in merely your time.

In fact, if you stop charging for your time and instead product-ize your outcome, you can charge more (hint! hint!).

So, if you’re in a service business where you bill hourly, I would suggest you re-think things and find a way to bill for the outcome.

Or if you do charge for time, have them buy blocks of time which are large enough to where you can actually deliver a real outcome… as well as accomodate for the usual logistics that go along with this kind of thing.

And so… on that note…

The “Rent Me” option which used to be on this site is now gone. I used to offer consultations in as little as half-hour increments.

Well, you learn by living.

If you or your business wants to get some REAL strategies in place and work with me to perfect your content marketing and REALLY make it work for you, then I offer a few options now. The only one even remotely hourly is a 10-hour block. I’d consider any less to be a waste of your’s and my time.

Everything is also by application only now. I want to make sure you’re in a business which could stand to benefit from my strategies before I promise to help you. Only makes sense when you think about it.

And for everybody else, I’ve got the group option inside the Inner Circle. (But, big changes coming on that front soon, too. Stay tuned!).

All the best!

- Dave

This whole online business space is a pretty interesting beast.

People everywhere want the outcome. They want the income stream that they control. They want the freedom from the 9-5 job.

But, then when it comes time to actually DO some of this stuff to make it happen, we all too often fall flat on our faces.

This comes in several typical forms, such as:

• Spending weeks – even months – trying to create the perfect design for your blog.
• Allowing yourself to get buried in the minutia of plug-ins and little tweaks.
• Spending weeks – or months – to create an opt-in offer… and it has to be just right before you even start trying to build your list.
• Going in endless circles about what your ideal niche should be.

… and so you continue to dream about the possibilities. You spin your wheels, telling yourself you’re making progress. But, deep down, you kinda know…

You’re conning yourself. The real problem here is that you’re afraid to fail.

If any of this makes you uncomfortable because you see it in yourself, don’t fret about it. This is one of the most common barriers there is in this business. And, all too often, people like me who are trying to help people get there end up feeling like we’re supposed to be counselors or something.

But, let’s dive into this for a moment. Dissect it until the point where the stupidity of it is (hopefully) apparent.

The Danger Of The Hidden Standard

One of the things that screw people up the most is the hidden standard. It is this… thing. This goal. This… way that it should be.

It is hidden in that you can’t quite place your finger on it. But, you assume other people have it figured out. THEY must know… because they seem to be running the kind of business you’d like to run.

Funny thing is… those other people who you think have it all figured out? They probably look at other people and think THEY have it all figured out. It is kinda funny how this works.

The whole thing is hidden… but the truth is, it is only hidden from us BY us. The hidden standard is completely self-created. I think it probably has its roots in some old, non-related problem that never got solved and you’re just bringing forward those same feelings over to online business – even though it isn’t related.

When you spend all that time working on the design and little tweaks to your site, what is the true standard? I mean, what are you shooting for? Plus, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself a few weeks or months down the road wanting to adjust things again because your standard has changed.

Plus, I could point out several examples of ugly-ass sites with big audiences and big incomes. So, at the end of the day, design doesn’t matter as much as some think it does.

If something is hidden, the best medicine is to make it NOT hidden. So, instead of moving toward this unspecific thing, set out simple, but SPECIFIC things that you’re shooting for. Write it down and get it out of your head.

Secondly, realize that you’re creating your own problem in your head. You’re looking around and placing this supposed hidden knowledge into the heads of other people… and assuming they’ve got it all figured out.

There is no hidden knowledge when it comes to online business. None.

Fear of Failure

A lot of people become paralyzed by indecision because they’re afraid something bad is going to happen if they make the wrong one.

But, again, let’s illustrate the absurdity of this.

First off, this is the Internet. And you’ve got a blog. What in the world could POSSIBLY happen to you if you make a bad decision? Are the Internet police going to beat down your door? Are you going to be the laughing stock of the entire Internet? No. In fact, in all likelihood, you’re going to be the only person in the entire world who knows.

So, you create an opt-in offer and it doesn’t work as well as you thought it would? Who cares! Try something else.

Pick a niche which isn’t working out for you? OK, try something else. There are people who operate in tons of niches simultaneously every day. If you’re truly getting all worked up over the possibility that you might have picked ONE bad one…. I mean, come on now.

Plus, if you didn’t take so DAMN long to do something, these tiny little mistakes wouldn’t be that big a deal. You shouldn’t be in a position where you feel like weeks of work is wasted. Putting up a blog which is good enough to get started with can be done in less than a couple hours. Most people waste that kind of time every single day.

So, the question would be… what the HELL are you scared of? The boogey man?

If you’re a parent, perhaps you can get some perspective on this. My little girl got to a point where she was sleeping in her bed just fine…. until one night. She had a bad dream where she thought there was some mean dog outside her bedroom window. She woke up crying. Ever since then (and this was over a year ago now), she doesn’t want to sleep by herself in her bed.

To this day, the idea of being alone in her bed at night freaks her out. All because of this past incident which she created on her own.

As her father, I know the whole incident was created by her – in her head. It wasn’t real. But, it was VERY real to her! And that’s the point.

Now, take that same perspective over into other things. Are you avoiding things because of the made-up mean dog outside the window which is out to get you?

Perhaps if you really look, you’ll see that it isn’t there at all.

What Its Like When The Self-Imposed Barriers Aren’t There

Let’s look at the flip side of this.

Have you ever experienced a time when you just took action on things? You didn’t sit there and over-think it. You just moved on it. Things just happened…. bam, bam bam! And it was awesome. You were proud of what you accomplished.

Now, think of that time. How did you feel? Was your morale through the roof?

A friend of mine just recently did a juice fast after watching the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (fantastic documentary, BTW). He literally just watched the movie and made a decision to do it. He was starting the fast by the next day. Today, he has lost, like, 40 pounds, feels fantastic, and even had some prior chronic conditions disappear. This friend of mine also happens to be a pretty successful online entrepreneur. But, that mindset is what has helped him find that success. He just made a decision and took action. He didn’t sit there and fret about it.

Just looking at myself, I see that those times where I made the most progress and got the most payoff was when I suspended overanalyzing and just took action.

When I entered this blogging market, my initial launch of Blog Masters Club was a big part of putting me on the map, so to speak. If anybody thought I had that whole thing figured out, think again! The whole affair was seriously outside my comfort zone. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing at all. But, I moved on it anyway. And, to this day, I think that launch was the fastest growth period in my traffic and income I ever experienced.

The results happened when I leaned forward and just said, “F**k this, Let’s roll!”

No farting around. No over-analyzing. No killing time worrying about stupid bullshit.

Imagine living your whole life that way!

Imagine what you could accomplish!

Think With Outcomes, Move Forward

I’ll end off this post with this advice…

The notion of starting and growing an online business can seem like a big, colossal mass of confusion. No idea where to start or what to do. You couple self-doubt and fear of failure on top of that, and you’re looking at the typical mindset of the internet marketing newbie. And it freakin’ sucks.

Try a different approach.

Start out with the outcome. What’s it going to look like? What’s that ideal scene look like? Like, really envision that.

Then, work it backwards. What components will you need? What actions need to take place?

As an example…

• You need a blog. Fine. Sign up for hosting and use a 1-click install. You’ll have a blog in a few minutes. Done.
• You need a design. Fine. Go find a free theme (or a premium one) you like and install it. You can make a few adjustments if you want, but realize… you have gotten it done now. It is GOOD ENOUGH and it probably looks like what you would have had to pay a designer a lot of money for in the pre-Wordpress days. Realize you can also change the design later and you probably will anyway. So, for now…. DONE. Move on.
• You need a logo. Fine. Some of the most popular logos in the world are nothing more than a font. Time Magazine? A font. New York Times? A font. No super-fancy graphics wizardry. So, pull out a photo editor or – hell, even Microsoft Word – type the name of your site, pick a font you like. Done. Good enough. Move on.
• You need a blog post. OK, fine. Write it. Keep in mind, the only person who is second-guessing the quality of it is YOU.

Get the jist? You know the outcome. Put it into existence then move on. Don’t sit there and fret about the hidden standard and whether it is good enough.

Lean forward.

Get things done.

Stop f**king around.

.

.

BTW, if you need somebody to hold you accountable and help you bust through the confusions, enrolling in the Inner Circle mastermind might make sense for you. We’re starting to do fully interactive mastermind meetings now – via GotoMeeting (and soon, something else which can fit more people). No need to go it alone.

So, today’s post by Khoa Bui is right on point. Don’t read this and then fall back into Facebook again. Take it to heart and DO something about it.
- David

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“Successful people don’t try to do everything, but instead focus on the most important tasks.” – Brian Tracy

We live in a world where there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Email, iPhones, iPads and computers. We have access to the Internet which contains billions of pages of information.

Yet even though we have all this great information and tools at our disposal, we still struggle to get the most important stuff done when building your blogging business. Aren’t these tools supposed to help us be more productive?

I was looking at the amount of time I used to spend on Facebook. It worked out to be around 1 hour per day. That’s 5 hours per week which is 20 hours per month which equates to 260 hours per year! If I reduced my Facebook time to 50% so it’s only 130 hours, I have 130 hours extra I can use to build my business, go to the gym, spend time with my family, writing books etc.

I believe the rate of information is growing exponentially. Today’s information such as SEO practices is going to be outdated in the next 12 months, maybe 6. Software used today will be replaced with better software tomorrow. New technologies will enter the market which will change the entire playing field.

Keeping up with the Jones is more like keeping up with the Apps. Don’t do that!

It’s time to take back control of your time and refocus on what is most important and critical to your blogging success.

Let’s not get distracted with the latest social media tool, application or magic technique, let’s continue focusing on our customers and the activities that serve them.

No matter which new software, application or tool enters the market, the fundamentals of building a blogging business never changes. Here are some of the activities that keeps you focused on serving your customers.

• Writing content rich articles for your customers
• Submitting guest posts to build your brand and finding more customers
• Creating videos that give value
• Creating audios that give value
• Build relationships with your subscribers by looking after them

Of course, a mechanic requires the right tools for the job, just like bloggers need the right tools for the job also. However, sometimes if you focus on JUST the latest tools, you can get sucked into the craziness of it and lose valuable time serving your customers.

Social Media Tools VS Email Marketing

One of my marketing campaigns I did with my blog site was to setup a Facebook like page and to generate as many likes as I could on it. I really did not have any idea what I was doing except most people said that you should get as many likes as you can so you can communicate with your subscribers.

It worked! I followed the plan and generated over 1,000 likes on Facebook in 3 days.

However, after several weeks of testing and measuring, I discovered that someone liking your Facebook page is not as powerful as someone reading your blog post and subscribing to you.

A Facebook like does not stay on their news feed that long as well, you have to continually advertise your story and also get them to interact with your messages so that they see your status updates.

I also used Twitter to advertise my blog, once again, a Twitter follower is similar to a Facebook Like, but it’s not as effective as someone subscribing to your list.

I also launched a brand new blog site where I grew my tiny list of 1 (my dog) to 90 subscribers in just 24 days. I did 1 product launch on that list of 90 people and the response was amazing. The income generated paid for all my startup costs, autoresponder service for several years and more.

90 Subscribers VS 1,000 likes on Facebook

After this social media experiment, I concluded that blog subscribers are far better than social media followers.

The fundamentals never change.

A blog subscriber is extremely valuable and should be served at all costs.

Email marketing which has been around for decades is still the most powerful media you can use to talk to your customers.

Therefore, it’s extremely important to continue focusing on the ball and serving your customers in any way you can through your blog content, email list and the value you create for them.

5 Action Steps To Keep You Focused And Frosty

“Stay Frosty” – Gaz from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

After many years of being an entrepreneur, writing 5 books, being an international speaker and traveling the world, I’ve discovered 5 key fundamentals to help you stay focused on your goals.

Here they are:

Action Step 1. Create a goal. Nothing happens until you draw the line in the sand and make a goal of what you want to achieve. Your goal must be something meaningful to you and something you’re really passionate about. Write down a specific and measurable goal you want to achieve within your blogging business. How many subscribers do you want and when? How many blog posts do you want to write by the end of X months? How many guest posts do you want to contribute to your community by the end of the year? Have a goal and make sure it’s achievable.

Action Step 2. Create a plan and work it baby. Once you’ve set your goal, write down a list of steps in order to achieve your goal. If you want to generate more subscribers to your email list, you could write down 10 ideas that will help you achieve that goal.

Action Step 3. Follow the Pareto Principle. Also known as the 80/20 rule. You know this principle, it’s about doing the small things that make the biggest difference in your life compared to the other things. When we start off in life, we are not given an instruction manual and we learn things by doing. Therefore, as you are building your business, keep learning and find the things that will make the biggest difference to your business.

Action Step 4. Spend every day focusing on that key activity. This is the key to success. Everything requires time and commitment. You can’t lose weight over night or get those six pack abs you’ve dreamed of by simply doing 100 ab crunches only once, it’s consistent action every single day that will compound into massive results. By having a goal and a list of steps, you are now equipped to begin working towards your goals every single day. You don’t have to do 100 different steps every day, just one step per day towards your goal. When you work every single day towards your goals, you create a life long habit of success. Remember, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Action Step 5. Eat that frog. Not a real one of course One of my favorite productivity books of all time is by Brian Tracy “Eat That Frog”. The concept of this book is absolutely amazing and I’ve applied this to my life with incredible success. What normally happens is whenever you write down a list of things you need to achieve for the day, there’s usually one thing on that list which is the most important and the thing that you’ll usually procrastinate on. Eat That Frog is all about working on that one thing the first thing in the morning before you do anything else so that nothing bad will really happen for the rest of the day since you’ve already eaten your frog. Is there an activity that you procrastinate on and know you should do it? Just eat that frog first thing in the morning

Remember To Stay Focused and Just Do It

“The fundamentals never change” – Og Mandino

No matter what happens in life, there will always be new changes, new technologies and new ways of doing business. Embrace those changes however never lose sight of the key fundamentals that contribute the most to your online success.

The ability to stay focused and work every single day towards your goals.

Good journey.

Khoa Bui is a best selling author, international speaker, corporate trainer and entrepreneur. He has a passion for writing, training, traveling the world, building online businesses and more. He has a blog site  SecretsEntrepreneur.com that helps Entrepreneurs create wealth in their businesses.

Case in point…

A recent survey I ran over the weekend shows that 56.4% of bloggers (at least in my audience) don’t engage in any kind of email marketing.

179 responses to that particular question – which isn’t bad since I did run this thing right over Easter weekend.

I was surprised by the result, though. (And, yes, the “shocking” pat of the headline was a bit of an exaggeration. )

I’ve talked a TON about the importance of building a list. Whenever somebody has asked me about the one thing I wished I knew to do when I was first starting out, my answer is almost always that I wish I started my email list sooner.

And I’m BY FAR not the only person saying that. Almost any successful blogger or online marketer out there will tell you the same thing. Having an email list is about the most important thing you can possibly do online. And I KNOW you guys are reading other blogs besides mine.

And yet…

56% aren’t doing any email marketing.

Why not?

What’s stopping you? Or, in other words, why are you deciding that this advice doesn’t apply to you?

Get this…

The same survey shows that 86.8% of respondents have the goal of making money with their blog.

Also, 47.5% of respondents get between 0-100 visitors per day to their blog. 21.8% get NO traffic (although 16% said they don’t even have a blog at all, interestingly).

But, the point is…

There’s a strong contingent of people who want to make money and have low traffic… yet they STILL don’t think they need an email list?!

Why You Need A List

Most people think they need a list only to pitch and sell things to them. And, because too many bloggers have this fear of selling, they just don’t build a list.

Or… people are unwilling to pay for anything to host an email list. And so they don’t start one.

Both reasons are stupid and let me tell you why…

First, selling things to your list is NOT the reason you build a list. Even if you never intend to promote anything to your email list, YOU STILL NEED TO BUILD ONE.

Your email list gives you the power to:

• Mobilize your audience’s attention and point it at something.
• Proactively bring your audience in rather than counting on their memory to come back.
• Reach out and communicate with your audience in the medium where they already are… rather than forcing them to come back to your blog.

Your list is the ultimate LEVERAGE for building your TRAFFIC. Without it, people will come and go and the chances of them ever returning to your site are almost none. No leverage at all. However, if you get people to subscribe to your list, you have the ability to bring them back.

This is so much more important than any ability to promote stuff to them later.

If you have no control over when your audience pays attention to something, you’ve got NOTHING.

Your traffic will remain in the dumps. You’ll get no interaction. And, yes, you’ll remain broke.

Now, as for the thing about paying for the list…

If you’re going to sabotage yourself by not doing what is necessary at the beginning, you might as well give up and go home. Aweber starts with a $1 trial and then goes for $19/month. It is MORE than worth it. And – in all seriousness – if you’re not willing to pay $19/month for something so fundamentally important to a goal which 86% of you say you have…. then you’ve already lost. Give up and go home.

There’s also Mailchimp. I’m not as fond of them as I am Aweber, but they offer a free account (with limitations). And that is a LOT better than having or building nothing.

Recommended Stuff

• Aweber. As far as I’m concerned, this is where you want to build your list. You get what you pay for. Plus, it isn’t as if Aweber is expensive unless you build a large list. But, by then, you’ll be making so much more than Aweber costs you, it’ll be a no-brainer.
• Master Your List. This is a short training program of mine to show you all the in’s and out’s for building your list and then how to use it. If your list efforts are flat-lined or you want to get better results with the list you have, that is exactly why I created Master Your List.

Your Experiences

What have been YOUR experiences with list building or email marketing?

Have you gotten results with it?

And, if you’re part of that 56%, please post below and let me know what’s holding you back. I’m here to show people how to accomplish that goal that 86% of you say you have. So, I’d like to help.