The Internet Marketing Magazine by John Delavera

THE INTERNET MARKETING M

OCTOBER 2014

e u g o l Pro

r u o Y Is tion s e Qu re? He 3

What are the different methods for making money online? What are the highest converting images for blogs? What's a Meta tag and why should you care? How can I travel the world while doing online marketing? And more. Q. On Google+, how do I switch between commenting as my brand page and commenting under my personal profile? A. The easiest and fastest way is to install the +CircleCount Chrome extension. Among other things, it lets you seamlessly switch between your personal profile and your business page. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/circlecount/ pbhmpihkeifflkcaipbljamjnidclpbi Q. What's a title tag and a meta tag? And why do I need to know this? A. On your website, a Meta Tag is a line of code that tells search engines what your page is all about, so it's important for SEO, although not as important as it used to be. These days search engines are more interested in your inbound links and your page content when determining ranking, but they still factor in your Meta Tag as well. Most website editors allow you to easily edit meta tags without any coding knowledge. If you don't have an editor, you can open a web page file in Notepad and you'll find the meta tags near the top. There are three key components to a meta tag: Title: This is the title of the page that's seen at the top of web browsers.

It's also the main headline displayed in the search engine results. Description: The is the description that appears in search engine results underneath the title. Keywords: These aren't visible in the search engine results like the title and description are, but they're still important. Choose 7 or fewer words that identify what the page is about. Q. What are the best type of photos and images to use on my websites and blogs? A. By “the best,” I'm going to assume you mean which ones perform the best, whether the goal is to keep someone reading the page, get them to click, get them to buy or whatever the desired outcome is. You know those canned images of smiling business people? And also those images of little round faceless guys doing stuff? Don't – repeat - DO NOT use those. Instead, use real people, real photos, real ANYTHING. According to Marketing Experiments, using generic stock photography and images can actually DECREASE the effectiveness of your page, where as using real photos, especially of real people, can nearly double the performance of your page. Take the time to find or create images that convey the right message to your prospect's subconscious – it's worth the effort.

Q. I'm new to online marketing and slightly confused. There seems to be so many different ways to make money – can you help me clarify them down to the basic methods? A. Interesting question. Yes, there are many methods and millions of variations, but really it boils down to these few: Affiliate Marketing – promoting products that are made by others in order to earn a commission on sales. It could be one time sales or memberships with recurring payments. Amazon, Warrior, JVZoo and Clickbank are examples of places you can find products to promote. Review Sites – this is still affiliate marketing, but if you do it right, it can be quite lucrative. You set up a site on which you review products, either tangible or digital, and make recommendations on what to buy and what to avoid. If you put your readers first and your profits second, you can build up a very nice following who rely on you to tell them the truth about products in your niche. Earnings Per Click – usually done by displaying ads on your website from an advertising network such as GoogleAdsense or any of these 415 Adsense competitors: http://www.adnetworkdirectory.com/ad_networks/ Creating Your Own Products – you create the products, and you and / or your affiliates sell them. You could sell them through Clickbank, JVZoo and so forth. The products are typically info products or software – something you create once and sell many times over.

Kindle – this really falls under creating your own products, but it's so huge it can have its own category. The good thing about writing books for Kindle is Amazon does a lot of the heavy lifting in promoting your work once you get some sales rolling in. The bad thing is you're charging less than you would for, say, a video course you sell yourself, so you're also making less per sale. Memberships – again, this can fall under the creating your own products category, but it's so important and profitable it deserves its own mention. You can create newsletter, memberships, software or anything for which people subscribe and send recurring payments. The benefit here is clear – you get paid monthly rather than one time, so you have some fairly steady income coming in. Services – performing a service for others that you sell. Easy to get into if you have a skill, but difficult to make real money since you can't scale it. You're basically still getting paid by the job or by the hour. The clever reader will no doubt notice there aren't really 7 categories here, but just two: Selling the click and selling your own product or service. Yes, online marketing is that easy, at least in theory. And of course there are many variations of the above. For example, blogging. You might think blogging is about writing, but it's actually about selling the clicks or selling the products. I suppose I could have answered this question like this: The only online business model is the same as the only offline business model – something, somewhere, somehow, needs to be sold.

Q. I want to travel the world as I work online. Can I do it? A. If you've got your laptop and a method of making money online, then of course the answer is yes. But if you don't yet have a stable online income, you might want to wait until you do. Things to keep in mind: You might not have as much time to work when you're traveling as you do when you're at home. If you spend all your time sightseeing and figuring out where your next meal is and where your next bed will be, there might not be a lot of time left for work. If you're working online, it's preferable to pick a spot and stay there for a week or longer, rather than going to a new location everyday. Traveling can be expensive unless you're willing to think outside the box. For example, instead of paying for lodging, consider being a house sitter. It doesn't usually pay much (or anything) but you get your housing for free. Here are two ebooks I found on how to see the world by house sitting: http://ultimatehousesittingguide.com/breakfree http://hecktictravels.com/housesitting You've got to have the right personality for all of this travel, too. You've got to be extremely flexible to adjust to new surroundings and people all the time. You need to be curious to enjoy yourself in these new places. And you have to have an appetite for risk. After all, traveling the world is not the same as staying in your cozy, safe environment you know so well.

Q. Is it all right to send text messages to my customers? A. If they opted in to get text messages, then yes, it is absolutely alright. In fact, you'd be crazy not to do it. Text messages have a 98% open rate and a 19% click through rate. This is HUGE and powerful. Here's the key: We're gun shy about sending text messages because we've all gotten the spammy kind on our own phones, and we don't want to look like we're spamming. But if your customers opt in to get timely, relevant messages from you, then you're actually doing them a disservice if you don't send them text messages. Let them know when your sale is starting and ending, when your webinar is beginning and the latest breaking news they need to know right now. Best of all, thank them via text, whether it's for a purchase they just made or simply for being on your list. Like any other form of marketing, do what's in your customer's best interest and you can't go wrong. Enjoy this month's issue!

IN E H T WS E N FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES FACEBOOK MEDIA Do you use Facebook as a marketing tool? Then check out this new hub full of best-practice advice from Facebook. http://media.fb.com/ Of particular interest: How to host a Facebook Q and A to talk directly to your audience http://media.fb.com/best-practice/hosting-qa/ How to engage fans on Facebook http://media.fb.com/best-practice/engage-fans/ How to drive referrals to your digital properties http://media.fb.com/best-practice/drive-referrals/

IDEAS 5 MINUTE METHOD TO GET UNSTUCK AND PROFIT You've got several great ideas on what to offer your customers, but you don't know which one to do first. And now your indecision is causing you to stay stuck, rather than moving forward. Here's a quick 5 minute method that will show you which idea to act on first. In fact, this is the same method I use, and I find it's highly effective at weeding out the bad ideas and zeroing in on the good ones that will quickly earn me a profit. If you've got all of these ideas in your head, you'll never figure it out. That's why you need to write each one down. Then for each one, answer the following questions and assign points accordingly, rating each answer on a scale of zero to ten: First Question: How much do your customers or prospects want the product or service? 0 – They don't really care if they have it or not 5 – They're interested but will need convincing 10 – They can't wait to buy it, or they feel like they MUST have it right NOW. Second Question: How easy is it to get this product or service elsewhere? 0 – Super easy, it's already everywhere 5 – Not easy, but definitely available 10 – NO ONE is offering this product or service

Third Question: Can you PROVE you can deliver the promised results? 0 – Nope – customers will have to go on faith that the product works or that I can perform the service 5 – I do have some evidence to back up my claims 10 – I have PROOF – clear, indisputable 100% guaranteed PROOF Now, each idea should have 3 numbers by it, ranging from zero to ten. Multiple these three numbers, and the idea with the biggest number is the one you should start on first. By the way, this is also an excellent way to detect a product's weakness and fix it. For example, if you don't have any proof, you're going to have to get some before you can begin marketing the product.

IN E H T WS E N

IS ADBLOCK KILLING YOUR CONVERSIONS? And are they extorting money from marketers, too? Depends. If a company blocks your paid ads from being seen, and then suggests you pay them money to get your ads seen again, one can't help but think of a mafia movie. You know the scene: Two big guys visit the small business owner and tell him that if he wants to stay in business, he's got to pay. Now. And every week. Forever and ever. Hmmm... who's running the show here, anyway? https://blog.kissmetrics.com/is-adblock-killing-conversions/

IDEAS HOW TO BUILD A POPULAR BLOG (ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NEW) Building a popular blog isn't hard, but it does take hard work. Yes, you've got to write some great posts, but that's only half the equation. The other (and more important) half is in promoting your content, reaching out to other bloggers and engaging with your community. So exactly how do you do this? Check out Adrienne Smith's posts here on how to build a popular blog and become an engagement superstar: http://www.adriennesmith.net/how-to-build-popular-blog/ http://www.adriennesmith.net/engagement-superstar/

IN E H T WS E N

BLOGGERS: HOW TO GET FACEBOOK LOVE Facebook will gladly share your blogposts, but only if your posts are getting a lot of attention from Facebook users. Of course, Facebook users can't read and share posts they don't know about, so it's a catch 22 scenario that leaves most new bloggers out in the cold. Here are 9 methods from Mommy Blogger Academy on how to get your posts seen and shared on Facebook now. http://www.mommybloggeracademy.com/facebook-hates-bloggers-what-to-do-about-it/

ARTICLE

THE BEST SKILL YOU CAN HAVE FOR MASSIVE ONLINE SUCCESS

Are you one of those marketers who only wants to promote affiliate products? If you are, you're not alone. Affiliate products are great â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you don't have to create the product and you don't have customer service problems. Heck, you can make a fortune promoting affiliate products, and I highly recommend that if your heart is set on affiliate marketing, that you pursue it without hesitation. That said, if you are ONLY doing affiliate marketing, you are putting yourself and your income at the mercy of other people, other businesses and other entities that you have NO control over. Plus, it's not always a bag of laughs, either. You want to promote that cookware set on Amazon because it's got great commissions? Cool. So go set up a website, get some lousy articles written by someone whose first language isn't the one you need, buy a few thousand spam links and so forth to get this site 'ready.' Then find a way to send the traffic, and then do it all again with the next product. Great fun, right? I'll bet you don't even care about that cookware set or the people who might buy it. But you should care that the seller can stop selling it at ANY time without notice. Or they can change the commission structure. Or they can do whatever they like. Are you getting your traffic from Google? Then you already know how fast Google can pull the rug out from under you. Maybe you're buying traffic from Facebook? Facebook has already banned certain businesses and untold numbers of marketers, and they will be banning more â&#x20AC;&#x201C; without notice. How do you like affiliate marketing so far? Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way. If you choose a great niche and focus just on that niche and build up your readers and your traffic and especially your lists, you can make a ton of money in affiliate marketing. But you know what? You can make even MORE money by creating your products, and it's not nearly as difficult as you might think. Plus, creating your own products have great perks:

First, when you make a sale, you get to keep ALL of the sale. Second, you can get your own affiliates to promote for you. Just think how much more you can sell with a hundred affiliates promoting your products, than if it's only you promoting. The difference is beyond huge, it's almost mind-boggling. Third, if you're a good affiliate marketer, you're building lists anyway. Why not sell your own products to those lists, in addition to selling affiliate products? Fourth, when you have your own products, you can earn money for months and years on work that you did ONCE. It's like being a songwriter and earning money every time the song is played for the next 20 years, only instead of a song it's an info product. Now, I know your next objection: “But I don't know anything that people want to buy.” And let me tell you, this isn't a good objection for two reasons. #1, YES you do. If you've been alive for more than, say, 15 years, then you know stuff that other people DON'T know but they WANT to know. Have you found a way to treat your own illness? Have you lost 20 pounds? Have you traveled somewhere? Do you know how to save major money on something? Do you have secret to seducing lovers? Think of it this way – what do you know? Make a list. Write that stuff down, and keep writing over the next few days because you will realize you know a lot more than you thought. Do this and you'll likely have three sheets of paper filled with things you know that others want to know. #2: Let's say that you do the exercise in #1 above, and you come up with nothing. NOTHING. You are the only person on the planet who doesn't know ANYTHING that anyone else wants to know. That's okay, and here's why: All you have to do is pick your topic, learn it, do it and teach it. That's it.

Learn it, do it and teach it. You don't have to become an expert. Just learn enough to get started DOING it, whatever it is. Make notes of what works and the results you get, and guess what happens?? You have yourself an info product. YES, it really can be that easy. “But wait! If I have to learn it, and then do it before I can teach it, that will take time and I need to earn money NOW!” True. So here's a shortcut: Choose your niche, go find an expert and use THEIR knowledge to create your product. Then cut them in on the deal. You get a percentage, they get a percentage. “But then I'll have to share the profits – wouldn't it be better to just promote affiliate products?” True, you're sharing the profits with the expert, but remember – you can then get affiliates to promote for you, something you cannot do when you are an affiliate yourself. So even if you give the expert 25% and you keep 25% so that affiliates earn 50%, that's 25% that you continue to earn for as long as the product is selling. One more thing before I forget – when you sell your own products, you are building lists of BUYERS. And as you know, one buyer can easily be worth 10-50 people who are just looking for freebies. So when you have your own products, whether you create them alone or with partners, you are building lists of buyers that your affiliates send to you. And this alone is HUGE. So much so, that even if you gave away ALL of your commission up front, it would still be highly profitable because of all the backend products you could sell to your new buyers.

IN E H T WS E N SNAPCHAT'S NEW ADS WILL ALLOW MARKETERS TO PURCHASE UNTARGETED, VANISHING PLACEMENTS Will disappearing, untargeted ads work for marketers? We'll soon find out.

http://marketingland.com/snapchats-new-ads-will-allow-marketers-purchase-untargeted-vanishingplacements-103233

IDEAS HOW TO MAKE MORE SALES WITH YOUR EMAILS If you're sending out emails but nothing much is happening, try these proven ideas: Use list segmentation to personalize. Which email do you think will get a higher conversion rate? “50% off” or “For New Moms only, 50% off” Obviously, the second one is much more targeted, and thus bound to get more attention and more opens. So how do you segment your lists? Create a separate list for each list building activity you do, whether it's for every different free report you give away, every product you sell and so forth. From those, make special offers to get people on the lists to raise their hands. For example, to a list of horse lovers you might send this email: “Are you interested in breeding horses for profit? Then click here to sign up for our free report.” Now you have a segmented list, and when you send them an offer, you can address it directly to their interest or desire. Make them feel special. If you can build a tribe of people, then your emails will get opened. Look at sports teams:

They're simply corporate entities, yet they get their fans to do just about anything including painting their faces, purchasing over priced clothing, driving or flying long distances and sitting in the heat or cold for hours to watch their team. How do they do it? By building a tribe of people with a common interest (the team) a common goal (winning) and common enemies (opposing teams.) Make your subscribers feel like they are on the inside, getting the inside info and the insider's deals that no one else gets. Give them a name they can identify with, let them in on your behind-the-scenes stuff and always talk about “we” rather than “me.” Remember, you are building a team. Include a clear call to action. Every email you send should have a goal, whether that's to further bond them to you, to educate, to get them to click or whatever it might be. “To get the report, click here.” “To see this script in action, click here.” “To join the hottest team in the nation, click here.” “To begin your journey for free, click here” and so forth. Give away premium courses. You might wonder how this will improve your conversion rates, but if you think about it from the receiver's point of view, you'll understand – we buy from those we know and trust. When you give away great info in the form of an email course, you are repeatedly showing up in their inbox. You are welcomed there. And your emails get opened. You are now viewed as an authority rather than a sales person. And when it comes time to send promotional emails, those emails get opened and read as well. Use dedicated landing pages. This is more work but it's totally worth it. If your call to action doesn't perfectly match your landing page, people will get confused and leave. Your top priority after getting the click is to deliver on your promise.

I don't know how many times I've gotten emails that say something like, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Click here to discover how to ___â&#x20AC;? and then I get to a squeeze page that doesn't say ANYTHING about the reason I got there. Usually, the email came from an affiliate who is talking about one of the product's benefits, and the landing page is talking about an entirely different set of benefits. They don't match up and I leave. Further, I'm not even expecting a squeeze page when I click the link because what I am expecting is information. So just imagine if that affiliate had created a simple page that talked further about how to achieve this benefit, and then gracefully sold me on visiting the squeeze page that would eventually lead to the solution I was seeking. The affiliate's conversion rate would no doubt double with this simple step. Just a little bit of effort can go a long way towards getting your emails opened, read and acted upon.

IN E H T WS E N

GOOGLE ADDS POLLS ON GOOGLE+ You can now run your own interactive polls via Google+.

http://marketingland.com/can-now-post-polls-google-et-tu-facebook-103292

ARTICLE

HOW TO GET PAID FOR YOUR PRODUCT BEFORE YOU CREATE THE PRODUCT

Seriously, have you ever received an affiliate commission before the product was even created? Of course not. A frequent objection I hear from affiliate marketers is they don't want to create their own products because they will have to wait until after the product is created to get paid. BUT, what if you could get paid before you create the product? Here's how you do it: Offer to let your customers watch over your shoulder as you do what you're going to teach. In other words, do a live case study so they can see step by step what happens. Let's say you were going to make a product on how to sell t-shirts. You would let them see the process from start to finish, watching everything you do. You then take these recordings and sell them as your finished product, too. So you get paid in advance by people who want to see you do this as you do it, and then you have an asset you can sell over and over again. Pick something you want to learn that others want to learn, too. Spend a week or two learning the basics, and then do it. Whatever it is, just do it. Then report on your results as you go. That is, document each day what you do and the results you get. How to Promote Your Product to Buyers There's likely no need to make a humongous promise, like earning a million bucks in 22 days. Who's going to believe it anyway? Instead, promise that you're going to show them how to do the thing that you're teaching. You'll use video, screenshots, writing, etc., to show them what to do in each step and how to do it, and what to do if this happens or that happens. And when you make a mistake, add that in as well, since it shows them what not to do. You'll begin with the very first step, whether it's research, finding an outsourcer or whatever, and do it in chronological order. It's easy for you to do this way, and it's easy for your customers to follow, too.

In your marketing, you'll tell them why they should care about what you're teaching – for example, that it's an easy market to break into, extremely hot and so forth. You'll also tell them what expertise you already have that you'll be applying to this training, if any. Then you'll tell them exactly what they'll learn, step by step, and what they'll get out of it. It might be as simple as they'll have their first product sold. This is how you market the product before you've even made it. After you make it, then you'll know your exact results. Maybe you sold 82 units in 21 days. That can become part of your promise, that you'll show them how you did it, and maybe by copying you, they can do it, too. But What if My Product Doesn't Sell? Hey, it happens. You spend hours creating a product and only sell a few copies. Guess what? That's okay, for two reasons. First, you've now got more experience creating products. Second, and this is the big reason – you can re-purpose the content. Maybe it didn't sell as a $27 product, but can you turn it into a Kindle book and sell a few copies a day? “But I'll only make $5-$10 bucks a day on Kindle.” Yeah, multiply that by 365 days and tell me if it's worth it. You can re-purpose it into list building material, email autoresponder series and so forth. You can rename it and re-market it, because odds are you didn't do a very good job the first time because you're still learning. You can use it as a free bonus to sell more of your next product. You can repackage it – if it's audio, add video. If it's video, add a pdf. You can sell rights to it. You can sell an entire website and sales funnel based around it, and so forth. You now have an asset. And even if it didn't sell very well in its first incarnation, there are plenty of things you can do to still make money from it. The Big Why of Creating Your Own Products Do you know why you should create your own products, above and beyond what we already talked about?

Because when you create products, you are exchanging a few hours of your time for an asset that can pay you for months and years to come. Creating and selling your own products will allow you to travel the world if you choose, enjoy more financial security than 95% of the population of the U.S., and live the life you want. And if that isn't reason enough to create your own products, I don't know what is.

IN E H T WS E N ANOTHER REASON TO MONITOR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BRAND

Next year Hootsuite will be giving businesses the ability to offer customers complaining on social media, the option to call customer service about the issue. It will work like this: • A customer complains on social media • The company replies with a link publicly • Anyone can click the link, but only the person making the complaint can access the page where a support number or Skype ID is provided Pretty slick, and an outstanding way to immediately take care of an issue before it escalates out of control on social media. http://marketingland.com/hootsuite-voice-customer-service-101388

IDEAS CONSIDER REMOVING THE COUPON CODE BOX FROM YOUR CHECKOUT PAGE Here's the problem: When customers see a coupon code box, they may leave your site to go searching for a coupon. If they don't find one? You've quite possibly lost the sale because they believe (rightly so) that they are paying too much. Or they simply get distracted and never return. In fact, in a study sponsored by PayPal and ComScore, they discovered that 27% of customers abandoned their shopping carts because they “wanted to look for a coupon.” So unless you're really good at making sure all of your prospects get a coupon code, you might want to simply offer the discount to everyone without need of a coupon. In fact, you might remove the coupon code box and test to see if your sales increase, because there's a good chance they will.

IN E H T WS E N

LARGE POP-UPS ON WEBSITES COULD TRIGGER A PENALTY Sites that display large pop-ups as soon as a visitor loads on the site could trigger the above the fold layout algorithm penalty. http://www.thesempost.com/large-popups-websites-trigger-page-layout-algorithm-penalty/? utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=large-popups-websitestrigger-page-layout-algorithm-penalty

IDEAS 5 SIMPLE HACKS FOR MAKING YOUR FACEBOOK ADS PAY OFF NOW As brand advertising gets more crowded and more competitive on Facebook, you've got to keep up with the times or face getting left behind. That's why we've compiled this short, yet super effective list of Facebook advertising techniques that are fairly simple to employ and can pay off in a big way. 1. Figure out who your customer is, write ads for that exact customer, and then target only that customer. Don't let this fool you â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it's actually pretty easy to do. First, if you don't already know, find out who your customers are. Are they 40 year old fathers who don't like their jobs? 23 year old women in their first serious relationship? 30 year old managers who love stock car racing? Whoever they are, create detailed personas for each one. Depending on your business, you might only have one persona or you might have several. Next, write ads that target each exact persona. If your customer is a 35 year old gym rat, then that's who you target the ad to. Last, use the Facebook demographics to target your exact personas with your exact ads. What you've effectively done with this strategy is go from using an ordinary light bulb to see if you illuminate anything profitable, to using a laser with precision targeting to hit your mark every time. If you haven't already been using this technique, you should see your Facebook advertising results double, if not triple.

2. State your price up front, right there in your ad. Yes, it's counter intuitive to do this, but here's why it's a great idea: It pre-qualifies your prospect. By stating your price up front, you are filtering out those who aren't willing to pay your price, which means they won't click on your ad. And if they don't click on your ad, then you don't pay for those clicks. So you end up paying less and getting better qualified leads, which means you have a lower cost per click. There is an opposite way to look at this if you're giving away your product for free. For example, when you're using Facebook ads to build your list, if you state up front that your offer is free, you will get more clicks but you'll also get a lower overall quality of lead. Instead, you might make your ad look like a paid product, and only tell them it's free once they click to your site. This way you're more likely to build a list of potential buyers, rather than a list of nothing but freebie seekers. 3. Use scarcity to get the click. You know who you're targeting, you've written the ad just for them and you're only displaying the ad to those people. Plus, you're pre-qualifying them with price, but you can still do better if you add in some scarcity, too. This scarcity might be in the form of a sale that lasts only for the next 48 hours. For example, that price you posted is only available when they get it now, not later. Or your scarcity deal might be for the first 99 people only, or you only take new clients for one week every two months. Whatever it is, find a way to introduce scarcity into your ad to get the click. 4. Add a call to action button. While you'll want to test this out, it's nearly always true that adding a call to action button will increase your conversions. Facebook is a bit unique, in that you can only add certain buttons: “Download,” “Sign Up,” “Shop Now,” “Learn More” and “Book Now.” So test to see which one gives you the best results. 5. Remove all distractions on your dedicated landing page. If you're sending them straight to your home page, they're likely to look around and then leave without taking the action you seek.

But if you send them to a page dedicated to exactly what your ad promised, they are much more likely to take the action you want, whether that's filling out an opt-in form or buying a product. Make the headline and copy match your ad, remove competing distractions, and make it super simple for them to do what you want them to do. Did you notice what we've effectively done here in these 5 steps? We've created a marketing funnel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one that can continue to pay off for months to come once you get it set up and profitable. Learning and using these simple techniques is a skill that pays. In fact, you could perform this as a service for other marketers. Or you can simply do this for yourself and keep all the profits. Either way, you're building a business here, not just playing with a hobby, so take it seriously and the rewards will be yours.

IN E H T WS E N

NEW AD-FREE SOCIAL NETWORK Ello not only doesn't sell ads, it makes it quite clear that advertising is simply not welcome. But that's not stopping some brands from joining their network. https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello

ARTICLE

HOW TO BUILD NEARLY PERFECT MARKETING EMAILS

Is there a trick to writing marketing emails that get the click? Actually, there are 20 tricks, and here they are: Use a great subject line: 1. Be specific and useful. Rather than saying, “You're going to love this,” use “How to get a 27% increase in stamina.” 2. Identify yourself consistently. Don't call yourself Bob Jones in one email, Robert Jones in a second email and Jones Consulting in a third. Pick a name and stick with it so recipients recognize you. 3. Use words such as 'sale,' 'new,' 'alert,' 'news bulletin,' 'daily,' 'weekly' and 'free.' 4. Ask a question. “Are you ready for this Tuesday?” or “Do you know how to increase subscribers by 42% with one tweak?” 5. Test your subject lines, then reuse what works and discard what doesn't. 6. Don't use the same or similar subject line twice in a row. Ever. 7. Use timely topics when possible. 8. Use [but don't over use] urgency. 9. Use all caps to emphasize one or two important words 10. Use brackets to create a second attention getter, like this: 12 killer traffic methods [And the 5 WORST] Optimize the body content:

11. Use SHORT paragraphs, just one or two sentences each. Make it super easy to read. 12. Use photos that sell your message 13. Be clear about what your offer is and how it impacts and benefits the reader 14. Use a strong call to action 15. Give the name and location of your company – look REAL, not fly by night 16. Focus on only ONE action you want your reader to take 17. Make your email as long as it needs to be and no longer 18. Use urgency but don't over do it. Use action words and action phrases. Don't use passive language. Make it personal. “Grab your copy”, not “Get a copy” 19. Make your button big enough. Remember, the majority of subscribers will be reading your email on a phone or tablet, so make your button big enough for a human finger to easily tap. 20. Make your call to action and button visually distinctive and inviting. Lastly, remember to make your emails mobile friendly. Picture size needs to be reduced for fast loading times. You can use a service such as Photo Resizer to reduce the file size without losing the image quality. And define image size by proportion if your email editor doesn't do this automatically, so the images look good on any sized screen. To do this, set the max-width to the proportion of the screen you want it to take up, and set the height to “auto” to automatically adjust based upon the width. One final thing: Put some personality into it. No one responds positively to being bored, and blending with the crowd won't get you sales. Instead of being a business robot, be yourself and have fun with your subscribers. AD

IN E H T WS E N FEELING SUPER ADVENTUROUS? WANT TO LIVE ON THE EDGE? TRY WINDOWS 10 Just don't install it on your primary machine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it's too soon [and possibly too buggy] to know what might happen. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview

ARTICLE

KINDLE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Kindle can be a marvelous way to add to your income, but there's a lot to know if you're a new publisher. Here are some of the most common Kindle questions I see in forums right now: Q. I understand what Kindle Direct Publishing is, but what is KDP Select? A. When you publish a new title, you're given the opportunity to enroll in a program called KDP select that offers you the following advantages: 1. Readers can “borrow” your book, generating commissions for you 2. You can give away your book for 5 days during every 90 day period 3. You can hold a “Countdown Deal” for one week The catch is, in order to enroll in KDP Select your book must be exclusive to the platform. You can't even sell your book from your own website or as part of any other info product. Q. What is a “Countdown Deal?” A. It's Amazon's version of a one time offer. Customers see a countdown clock along with a deeply discounted price on your book, usually down to 99 cents. You still earn 70 percent, even though the normal royalty rate on 99 cents is 35%. And your book appears in a dedicated section of Amazon where shoppers can find these countdown deals. What you need to know: These countdown deals last for one week only, and you can't do a free promotion and a countdown deal in the same 90 day period. Q. Why would I want to do a Countdown Deal? A. Because you're in a dedicated countdown section on Amazon, your book will get seen and you'll make more sales. More sales can mean more reviews and possibly more promotion from Amazon when the countdown deal is over. And just like a one time offer, the countdown timer is a huge incentive to buyers to purchase your book rather than putting it off.

Q. Regarding KDP Select, why would I want to give my book away for free? A. The additional downloads you get can result in Amazon promoting your book more heavily. Plus, it can also result in reviews, which is especially important if your book is new. However, this technique is not as effective as it once was. Q. What's the best approach to take with Kindle? A. Choose one market, or niche, and then write a stream of books for that niche. In other words, don't write just one book on your topic and think you'll make a million â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you won't unless your book is amazing and you spend all of your time promoting it. Instead, pick different sub topics of your niche and write a book on each. Then promote all of your other books inside each book you write. When someone reads one of your books and loves it, they'll want to check out your other books as well. If you write fiction, then choose one genre and stick to it. For example, if someone reads one of your horror books and loves it, they'll likely want to read the rest of your horror books. But if your other books are romance, travel, historical and mystery, they're not as likely to buy from you again. Q. If I'm building a Kindle business, do I need a blog? A. While it's not a requirement, it can be extremely helpful in increasing your book sales. If you have a blog and also a mailing list, you can capture people's email addresses and then notify them when you publish a new book. You can hold their interest between books with your blog. You can guest post on other blogs to send readers to your own blog, where they learn about your books. You can encourage book buyers to go to your blog and subscribe, and so forth. A blog and a mailing list round out a Kindle business so that the 3 together create a type of synergy that builds your business bigger and faster than if you simply publish Kindle books alone. Q. How can I sell more books? A. You might not like this answer, but to sell more books you need to write more books. If every book you write promotes your other books, you can see how this can create snowball effect. Plus, every book you publish can be on the KDP Select program, allowing you to give it away for 5 days every 90 days or to put it on the Countdown Program. Either way, you move a lot more copies of that book, which in turn is calling attention to all of your other, related books.

The other method I recommend for selling more books in the non-fiction category is by using the one problem, one solution method of writing. Instead of trying to write the encyclopedia on everything related to your topic, pick one problem and write about it in as much detail as possible. This is working deep and it's extremely satisfying to readers to get as much info on a specific sub-niche as possible, rather than getting something that just hits the high points on a lot of topics but doesn't go into depth on any of them. Q. How do I choose a niche for my Kindle books? A. Pick something that already sells a lot of books and that you can write about for a long time. This means you've got to have some interest in it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the more, the better â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or else you'll get bored after the second or third book and give up. And it means your niche has to already be a proven niche, such as health, self-help, business, finance, relationships, etc. Q. Is giving my book away still a good idea? A. There's still a benefit to it, in that you'll move more copies and possibly receive more promotion from Amazon after the free period is over. But frankly it doesn't work as well as it used to. An alternative is to initially offer your book at 99 cents, and then bump the price to $2.99 once you have some reviews. Oddly enough, people who pay for something - even if it's just 99 cents - tend to appreciate it more and leave better reviews than if they got it for free. Go figure. Another advantage of offering it at 99 cents is you are then free to use the Countdown program for one week during each 90 day period, which in my opinion is more effective and more profitable than offering your book for free. Q. Can I turn my blog content into a Kindle book? A. Yes. And No. Yes, you can absolutely copy and paste it into a book you publish on Kindle. But if you do, you cannot participate in KDP Select because your content is not unique to Amazon. You can, however, rewrite your blog content to make it unique, and thus get the advantages of KDP Select. In conclusion, the best advice I can give you concerning Kindle is choose a niche you have a lot of interest in and that is popular enough to sell plenty of books. Then get to work creating or outsourcing a new book each month in your niche. If you sell just 5 copies a day of a book at $2.99, that's about $4,000 a year. Multiply that by the number of books you have, and you see that Kindle can add up to a real business.

IN E H T WS E N

ENGAGEMENT IS FAR BETTER THAN REACH ON FACEBOOK Here's the results of a study on the different Facebook post types, and which ones get more engagement and clicks. https://www.stonetemple.com/facebook-post-types-picking-a-winner-isnt-easy

ARTICLE

20 DO OR DIE FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPS

Facebook is getting more and more competitive for marketers, which is why you need to know and use every tool and trick available to you for getting the most out of your Facebook social marketing time. First, some basics on setting up Facebook correctly: 1. Create a Facebook PAGE, not a personal timeline or profile. When you join Facebook, you automatically get a personal timeline. But for marketing purposes, you want to create and use a Page instead. When naming this page, keep it short and get it right the first time. You can't change a Facebook Page name once you have 200 likes. And a shorter name is helpful when you create Facebook ads. 2. Once you have 25 likes, get a vanity URL, such as Facebook.com/yourbusinessname. 3. Fill in as much info in your “about” section as possible. Be detailed and use keywords, because this will not only tell your customers about your business, it will also help with SEO. 4. Add a call to action in your cover photo. Use a photo that speaks volumes about your business, and then add a text description that tells them what you want them to do. Go to your website? Subscribe for your freebie? Visit a particular page? 5. Use a great profile photo. Remember, your profile photo will be seen all over the place – in newsfeeds of followers, in posts on your timeline, in comment replies and overlaying your cover photo. So make it good, make it clear, and make it friendly. Now for the good stuff: How to market on Facebook without buying ads: 1. Pin important posts. You can pin a single post to the top of your timeline for up to one week, so this is the place to put your most important content so the maximum number of people get to see it. 2. Use embedded posts. You can embed your page posts onto your own website to help encourage interaction with your readers. You might embed your posts onto launch pages, blog pages, product pages and so forth to get prospects and customers interacting and talking to you.

3. Re-post your top content, carefully. Not everyone will see your post the first time you make it, so repost your content several times using different wording. 4. Encourage your fans to select “Get Notifications,” found in the drop-down menu of the “Liked” button. This helps ensure your fans will see all of your page's content. 5. Let your fans private message you. This allows your fans to contact you directly for things like customer service, rather than them having to post on your wall (where everyone else can see it, too.) 6. Think like a sports team. Whenever you post, talk about “we” rather than “I.” With sports teams, it's “we won the game.” With Facebook, it's “We reached this milestone.” It builds a tribe who feel included instead of a group of people out in the cold looking through your window. 7. Nicely ask for share and likes. Don't do this too often or Facebook will take notice. And above all, be nice - not bossy or pleading. 8. Give your fans special deals. They're called “Facebook Offers,” cost a few bucks to create, and are totally worth it. You create the offer and then your fans can use a special discount code they receive via email to get a special deal. HINT: You might give them 100% off of one of your best products and ask for their email address to keep them updated (great email list builder.) Also ask them to share the offer with their closest friends. And put a time limit on any offer you make to create urgency. 9. Create your own hashtag [#yourbrand] to monitor and join in the conversation about your brand. 10. Conduct audience research. Use Facebook search to discover what pages your fans like, where they live, what their interests are and so forth. Then use this info to improve your own marketing. 11. Connect and engage. When someone posts a message on your wall or comments on your update, reply back in a timely manner to encourage more interaction. Use @mentions in your reply to add a personal touch and to be sure they'll know you responded. This can sometimes also increase the number of people who get to see your reply, increasing the chances of more traffic to your page. 12. Get fanatical about your fans. Thank your newest fans by listing them by name. You can find them in the “See Likes” link in your admin panel. Give out an award to the “Fan of the Week,” someone who engages regularly with your content. Make up awards, too. Like “Nicest Fan of the Week” and so forth. This personal touch will increase the interaction and make you look good – not to mention you'll feel good, too.

13. Optimize your blog images. When you link to an article, Facebook pulls an image from that article that will display on your page and on newsfeeds. To get the image to display properly and at optimal size, you need to have one image in your blogpost or article that is 600x315 pixels. Keep in mind that this is the image Facebook will use, so make it eye candy. 14. Cross promote with other Facebook pages to increase fans. Locate pages that complement yours and cross-promote each others pages, share posts, do JV's and add each other to your Featured â&#x20AC;&#x153;Likesâ&#x20AC;? section. Also, post on their pages with friendly, helpful, non-spammy comments, posting under your Page's username. 15. Use Facebook Groups to get seen and make connections. You can create or join existing Facebook Groups and position yourself as an authority to drive traffic to your own Fan page. The bottom line in all of these tips is this: Don't spam. Be helpful, be the go-to person for info, be personable and have fun. While social media in general and Facebook in particular is a terrific marketing tool, it's only effective as long as you always look for ways to help your fans. Yes, sometimes the way you can best help them is to offer paid solutions, but make sure that doesn't make up 100% of your content. This way you'll be their helpful expert they go to for advice, rather than the used car salesman they avoid.

IN E H T WS E N

TWITPIC LIVES ON

After announcing it would shut itself down rather than face further trademark infringement litigation with Twitter, TwitPic announces it will now be acquired. http://www.geekwire.com/2014/photo-sharing-service-twitpic-will-live-thanks-acquisition/

TO T R A T S S ’ H T N X O O M B S I A TH -IN Z I B H S I N I F ay/

b E e i P s a y e g a r Eas t i b r A n o z a Am

This little side business is so simple and easy, it can be outlined in just one page. But don't disregard it just because it's easy – sometimes it's the simplest things that turn out to be the most lucrative, especially when you need to make some quick cash. Here's how it works: Basically you're locating under-priced products on Amazon, listing them as “buy it now” on Ebay, having Amazon fulfill the order for you, and keeping the difference. It won't make you rich, it does take some research, but as we said – it's pretty easy, too. Unlike most Ebay work, you never actually ship anything. Listings are simple because you're using the “sell one like this” option to list. And when you find a profitable product, you can often sell it many, many times over. Here's a list of tips to get you started. First, you need both an Ebay account and an Amazon account. Next, search on Amazon for products that have been marked down that look like they're worth more than the asking price. This is where the work comes into play. Dig deep into search results, that's where you'll find the gems. Go to Ebay to further research the items you've found on Amazon. You especially want to know what they've sold for in the past. Choose the items with the highest profit margins for you. Use http://newlifeauctions.com/calc.html to calculate your profit after Paypal and Ebay fees. Only sell to the lower 48 states in the US – this way shipping is never a problem. If you have Amazon Prime, you won't pay anything for 2 day shipping. If the item is over $35, you again won't pay for shipping, but it will take longer to get the item to the customer.

IN E H T WS E N

YOUTUBE'S NEW REAL-TIME ANALYTICS Now you can get a minute-by-minute look at how many people are viewing your videos. See the estimated real-time viewership for your last 5 published videos both in minute-to-minute form for the last 60 minutes, as well as a sliding window of the last 48 hours. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6096647

TO T R A T S S ’ H T N X O O M B S I A TH -IN Z I B H S I N I F

t s o m l A e Th y l b a v e i l e s Unb s e n i s u B e l p m Si

Okay, this is something that your teenagers can do, and so can your Grandmother once you set it up for her. Yes, it's that simple. The basic premise is this: You advertise that you'll set up websites for people for free. Yes, for FREE. As you can imagine, you'll get a good response with this offer. And by the way, you pay nothing for the advertising. Your prospects agree to get their hosting through your link in return for their free site. They're going to need hosting anyway, so why shouldn't they get a free site out of the deal? They pay as little as $4 for their first month of hosting. You pay someone $5-$10 from Fiverr to set up their site, or if you prefer you can do it yourself. It's easy, so why not? You collect $70-$150 or more in commission from the hosting company. That's it. Seriously, it's that simple. I know you're thinking there must be more to it, or maybe there's a catch, but it really is that easy. Here are the details: You'll need a small site of your own. If you don't know how to set one up, pay the $5-10 to a Fiverr person to do it for you. If you want to learn how to do it, Google â&#x20AC;&#x153;WordPress tutorialâ&#x20AC;? and you'll discover everything you need to know. Place a few articles on your site about the importance of having a site and how you'll do it for them for free. Or simply write a sales letter that says the same thing. Sign up with a hosting company as an affiliate.

Do your research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; you're looking for a good company that pays big commissions. Here are several to consider, but choose whatever company is right for you. Please check their websites for the latest info and commission structures:

Arvixe Hosting

$70-$135 per sale

Bluehost

$65 per sale

Dreamhost

$97 per sale

FatCow

$100 per sale

Hostgator

$50-$125 per sale

Hostmonster

$65 per sale

InMotion Hosting

$75-$125 per sale

iPage

$105 per sale

Siteground

$50-$125 per sale

WebHostingHub

$100 per sale

WebHostingPad

$75 per sale

WPEngine

$150+ per sale

Your offer is simple: You will build simple site for your customer when they sign up for hosting through you. That's it. If they want a more complicated site, you're happy to discuss the details and strike a deal for that as well. Remember, you can always outsource some or all of the actual work. Now all you need is traffic. The first place to advertise is of course Craigslist.

Keep in mind that Craigslist does have certain restrictions to how many times you can post the same ad in different geographical areas, so you'll need to be aware of this and work accordingly. The second place to advertise is Backpage, because they have no such restrictions. You can post in hundreds of cities in a day and they won't bat an eyelash at you. In Backpage, look for the biz opps section under services and post your ad there. Your ad can read something like... â&#x20AC;&#x153;Free Website Creation for Youâ&#x20AC;? I will create your website for you, 100% free. You pay nothing, I set everything up, I add the plugins you will need, and it all looks completely professional. All you pay for is hosting which is $7 a month (or whatever) through the link we will provide, and a $9 domain. Remember, you need hosting and a domain name for your website to go live on the Internet. You do not need anything else but your own content, which we can provide for an additional fee if you choose. Click here for more info and to sign up. NOTE: Some hosting companies provide the domain name. If the company you choose does this, then reword your ad accordingly, since it will save them even more money. Obviously you'll want to write more than that, but you get the idea. Test and tweak to get it converting as high as possible. Another place to advertise is Facebook. Join groups of people who aspire to have their own online business and let them know about your free service. You can send them to a squeeze page to get more details, or have them send a friend request and PM for details, or link directly to your offer.

And of course you can advertise on appropriate forums such as Warrior, member sites such as IBOToolBox, and any social networks you choose. Could this be any easier? Maybe. Like, if a rich guy were to pay you NOT to do it. Otherwise, no. You set up your mini website and join an affiliate program, advertise, fulfill your orders, and make money. Pretty simple. And think about this â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if you get just 5 orders a week and make just $75 on each, that's $19,500 a year for very part time work. If you pay someone $10 to build each site, you're clearing $16,900. Not bad. Want to increase your conversions even more? Target specific groups of entrepreneurs, such as work at home moms, retirees looking for extra income, people who are just looking to put up a hobby site and so forth. And guess what? If you choose, this is only the beginning. Think about all of the other services you can then provide to your new clients â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it practically boggles the mind.

RESOURCES ADVANCED WEB RANKING Powerful online SEO software: http://www.advancedwebranking.com

IMT VAULT Internet Marketing Tool Vault of 325 online marketing tools and resources. http://imtvault.com

BIZZABOO It's often not so much what you know, as WHO you know. That's why networking is important, even for online marketers. Use the Bizzaboo app to discover great conferences in your niche or in your geographical area. One of its best features allows you to engage with attendees before, during and after the event. http://www.bizzabo.com/attendees

BUYER PERSONAS A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on actual market research and data about your existing customers. Buyer personas can include demographics, behavior, motivations, desires and so forth. The more detailed they are, the better for you, since it streamlines your marketing and allows you to zero in on your ideal customers. But how do you create a buyer persona? Here is a resource with 101 questions to get you starte: http://resources.thinkhandy.com/101-handy-questions-buyer-persona

CEO EXPRESS An almost overwhelming amount of links to great info for business owners. http://www.ceoexpress.com/default.asp

MOZ LOCAL Help local businesses show up in search with this tool. https://moz.com/local

CONTENT TOPIC IDEAS TOOL Get ideas and find topics your readers are interested in. Just type in a keyword to get ideas and see the questions, discussions and topics related to your keyword. http://www.rypmarketing.com/tools/topics

CROWD MICS Turns iOS and Android devices into wireless microphones, with text commenting and polling, too. http://crowdmics.com

EASY TWEET EMBED Allows you to embed pre-populated tweets within links in your blog. https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-tweet-embed

GRAPE VINE 6 Relationship building device finds relevant articles to share with your prospects and clients. Surprising statistic: 60% of articles shared on Grapevine6 are read by the recipient: https://www.grapevine6.com

JOIN BY TEXT This service lets people opt-into your email list anywhere they have their phone. You pick an easy to spell keyword that your audience then texts to a 5 digit short code, and they are now on your list. Interesting concep: http://www.joinbytext.com

PORTENT SERP PREVIEW TOOL Preview your title tags, meta descriptions and URLs to see how they'll appear in a Google search result. This tool will also measure your title tags according to pixel length, just as Google does. http://www.portent.com/serp-preview-tool

SNAPPY CHECKOUT Simple and fast way to add checkout to your website. https://www.snappycheckout.com

PURELY FOR THE FUN OF IT Proving that your age really is just a number... How old are you on Mercury? Venus? Mars? When is your next birthday on Saturn? Jupiter? Uranus? Find out here: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/index.html

REBUMP Email tool that automatically sends follow-up reminders to your email recipients when they don't respond. These automated emails are customized to appear as if you sent the email yourself. https://www.rebump.cc

STORMBOARD Online brainstorming and collaboration tool you can use from anywhere in the world, regardless of where your team members are. https://www.stormboard.com

SYNDICAL Get your events shared and seen via radio, TV and social media: http://syndical.com

TCHAT.IO Responsive real-time chat tool for Twitter: http://www.tchat.io

WHOBALOO Clever online graphic design tool: http://whobaloo.com

WOOVENT Organize and promote events on Facebook: https://www.woovent.com

WORDSWAG Add awesome text to your photos with this app: http://wordswag.co

IN E H T WS E N IS GOOGLE DISCOURAGING THE CLICK?

Google has announced something called â&#x20AC;&#x153;structured snippets,â&#x20AC;? a form of compilation that appears in search results. And while it might be cool for the searcher, it's removing the incentive to actually click a link and go to a webpage. While Google was built upon being the middle man between the searcher and the website, more and more Google appears to be trying to cut out the websites by using websites' content to block the click. Seriously, what are they thinking? http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/09/introducing-structured-snippets-now.html

LAST WORDS

Why Most People Fail in Business And In Life) Let me ask you: What are the questions you see on the Warrior Forum under WSO's? “How much time does this take?” “How fast can I make money?” “Do I need any skills to do this?” “Do I have to learn anything?” “Does this require any investment?” And so forth. We've seen these questions so many times, they seem legitimate – as though a business should take no time, require no skill, need no investment and so forth. Just press a button and WHAMO! Hundred dollar bills start spewing out of your computer. Anything short of this is something we're just not interested in, thank you very much. And there lies the clue of why so many people fail in business, and in life. They're not willing to put in the time. They're not willing to invest even the smallest amount of money, other than to purchase the initial 'how-to' product. They're not willing to just DO IT.

LAST WORDS Most people will say it's because we've gotten lazy. We want success NOW, not in a week or in a year. Everything is NOW NOW NOW or never. But I have another theory. I don't think people are lazy. Nor do I think they lack the time or the motivation. Heck, just look at how much time some people spend looking at and buying new how-tomake-money products. They literally invest hundreds of hours reading sales pages and buying products. And they might even read some of them. Maybe. But do they put them into action? 99 times out of 100, they don't. And it's not because they're lazy. It's because they're AFRAID. Somewhere in the recent past, we forgot that it's okay to not be a smashing success the first time we do something. We forgot that it's okay to fall down and get back up when we're learning to walk. We forgot that it's okay to look like a complete jackass the first few times we try to dive off the diving board. We forgot that the first time we made love, we were as awkward and clumsy as could be. But we kept trying to walk. We kept diving off that board. And we kept making love until we got GOOD at it. So why is it that we are so afraid to fail in business? Why is it that we are only interested in making the smallest, briefest of efforts before we throw our hands up and declare that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This doesn't work?â&#x20AC;? When did we get so damn AFRAID? More importantly, how do we get unafraid?

LAST WORDS By putting blinders on. You choose the path you want to take, and then you research the heck out of it for seven days or less. You read and watch everything you can get your hands on, and you take notes. Distractions are NOT an option. Nor is mulling it over and thinking of all the reasons why it won't work. You don't have TIME for that bullsh**. After your 7 days (or less) of research, you take action. Because you know what? Taking action is actually EASIER than learning. And it's more fun, too. But because we let those little fear monsters whisper in our ear, we think it's gonna be hard. We think it's somehow going to hurt. But once you break that first barrier and start moving, you realize that brick wall was only made of tissue paper, and you had the ability all along to walk right through it to the other side. Now here's where it gets really interesting: “D” and “F” students often do better in business than “A” students. Which is another way of saying that the not so bright people build empires while the geniuses don't have two nickels to rub together. Do you know why? Because the really smart people are too smart for their own good. They're thinking of all the reasons why their new business venture will fail. And because they're so smart, they're able to come up with all kinds of perfectly legitimate reasons why it won't work and why it won't last if it does work. And they're right, too – it will fail because they've already put their business on that course of failure simply by thinking about it.

LAST WORDS Not because of some voodoo mind magic, but because they will either not start the business at all because they fear the failure they see headed their way, or because they will start it but then quit at the first problem. “There! I knew it, I just knew this wouldn't work!” But the “D” and “F” students aren't quite so bright, so they don't ponder all the reasons why their new business will fail. Nor do they try to “fix” the business before they start it, with their new fangled ideas (another “A” student problem.) Instead, they take the book or course they bought, and start at page 1, and follow the steps. When they get stuck, they ask for help. “I can't figure this out, so I'll ask these people on the forum, or hire someone on Fiverr to do it for me, or whatever.” And they muddle through because they essentially don't see all the obstacles the “A” students see. They're just following the recipe. And guess what? They succeed! But what about fear of failure, doesn't that come into play even for the “D” and “F” students? Yes, it does, but to a much lesser degree. Think back to school and you'll realize that the “D” and “F” students have a lot of experience at failing because they got those grades. Contrast that with the “A” student who had a nervous breakdown if she got a “B” on one of her tests. You remember her, right? She was practically hysterical, because she had no experience at failing, and to her a “B” was a total and complete failure because it fell short of that magical “A” grade. Which, I think, is why so many are afraid to fail. We go through school thinking that we will always get that “A” or “B” grade, and we do get the grades until we leave school.

Then we realize the REAL WORLD works differently, and we might actually =GASP= not be a stellar success from day 1 at something new. So we decide to only do those things we KNOW we will be good at. And then the ultimate universal revenge happens â&#x20AC;&#x201C; because we don't try anything new, we succeed in not failing, but we fail in LIFE. And that truly sucks. So all of this is perhaps a very long winded way of saying, go out there and fall in love with failing, because only by embracing the concept of failure can you truly succeed. I don't care what online business you choose, in the beginning you will not be good at it, and that's okay. Because practice really does make perfect. Do you think the information sellers making six figures a month started out making that kind of money? No way. They started out small, threw themselves into learning the business and grew their income as they grew their knowledge and confidence. This is the way it works. This is ALWAYS the way it works. And to think that there is some magical button somewhere that, if only you could find it you could be an instant success from day 1 with no investment of time, learning and failure, is perhaps the stupidest notion of all. So choose your path, put on your blinders, learn everything you can for 7 days, and then just DO IT. You're new found successes will astound you.

BE HAPPY