Wishlist member is the best and most flexible membership site plugin for WordPress. It’s very powerful, but also easy enough to use that you really don’t need to be a techie to build a great membership site with it. The Wishlist member plugin allows you to build a high quality membership site that also looks sleek and very easy to manage as an admin.

I use this plugin personally, and know a lot of top online marketers who use it. It’s so popular for two primary reasons:

1. It’s really powerful – the features and options kick ass.
2. It’s really easy to use.

If you’re thinking: “But I don’t need a membership site.” Think again. Membership sites help you make money like a pro, big time. The bottom of this post gives some clear reasons.

Here is some of what Wishlist member does, broken down…

Integration:

Wishlist Member seamlessly integrates with…

• Various shopping carts and payment processors, such as PayPal, ClickBank, 1Shoppingcart, and more.
• Affiliate systems such as 1shoppingcart, clickbank, and iDev Affiliate.
• Most common autoresponders, and has a general option to integrate with other autoresponders.
• OptimizePress (actually, this is by far the easiest way to build a membership site: OptimizePress + Wishlist Member … it’s exactly how I have all of my clients do it)
• More! It has an API for flexibility… if you want to get all techie.

Total Content Control:

Build An Elegant Welcome Area:

You can have an elegant welcome area with some content, even for free members. That way, you can sell them more stuff within the members area. This can be a great way to convert your leads into customers by giving them “access.”

Import/Export:

Easy to use and manage:

What does Wishlist Member cost?

There have been some sweet sites built with Wishlist Member

While you certainly don’t have to be a design pro to build a good membership site, you can definitely see the possibilities by checking out some of the membership sites others built:

How does Wishlist Member stand up against other membership plugins?

Here are two that are often talked about:

S2 Member.

There are others, such as WP eMember and aMember. WP eMember is by the same people as WP eShop, and I know from experience that eShop is a poor option in comparison to its competitors. WP eMember lacks important integration tools, you don’t want to get stuck with it long term.

aMember used to be popular, but now Wishlist wins out in my book, especially in terms of user friendliness.

The Bottom Line

Wishlist is the best membership plugin for WordPress sites. While there are other good options, such as DAP, Wishlist makes it easy. And I’m a huge fan of making WordPress easy so that you can focus your time on content that will provide value for your members and readers and ultimately make you money… rather than playing around with complicated plugins.

If you’re looking to build a membership site, get Wishlist member.

Make More Money with Membership

If you’re not thinking about building a membership site, think again…

A membership site is one of the best ways to distribute your premium information (info products), create a continuity program, and distribute your premium tools and plugins. It makes it easier for you to keep selling to the same customer base over and over, while making it much easier for them to access the stuff they paid for. It also dramatically ups the security of your content, so you don’t have to stress about people sharing your hard work for free.

Because you can use Wishlist to upsell stuff directly through your membership site, you can create more passive income for yourself by just making different membership levels. You can even put all of your recommendations within your site. Since everyone in there is a buyer, they’re now more likely to actually purchase stuff through your affiliate links, without you even having to mail them!

Virtually every online marketer with any products or premium content uses a membership site. Start yours today.

If you’ve been online for any period of time, you’ve likely heard about the importance of landing pages.

But after a little digging, you’ll soon find that landing pages is a deep deep rabbit hole. So deep, that you reach information overload pretty quickly.

And instead of implementing everything, you do nothing.

Below, you’ll find a carefully curated list of the 30 best resources I’ve found on landing pages.

It starts with a broad overview, breaks landing pages down to their most critical elements, then gets into the nitty gritty of testing and analytics.

Like last weeks post on becoming a better blogger, this guide is not intended to be consumed in a day, but rather for you to bookmark and reference as you go through your landing page journey.

There are guides that detail how companies like SeoMoz improved their sales by 52% to add an extra million dollars to their yearly revenue.

Beginner’s Guides

Beginner’s Guide to Landing Pages

This guide to landing pages put out by Kissmetrics is the perfect overview of the head space you need to be in when planning your landing page.

It starts by talking about your goals, your calls to action, and removing any unncessary elements to help drive your traffic from viewers to customers (or leads, or subscribers, depending on your goals)

It also gives you screen shots of landing pages that are achieving their goals, so you can see what others are doing too.

13 Landing Page Tricks That Increase Conversions

Dtelepathy uses the “tricks” format to break down landing page basics into bite sized nuggets of information.

Some tricks include:

• Write Epic Headlines
• Show Happy People
• and Keep it Sexy

7 Tips to Increase Landing Page Conversions

Search Engine Journal gives you more solid landing page tips, but this time they’re curated by Alec Baldwin (or at least pictures of Alec Baldwin)

This guide is also a little more visual than the last, showing “good” and “not so good” examples of different principals they’re trying to illustrate (like long sign up forms vs short)

Copy

The perfect landing page pt.2 [Copy]

This is a video I produced for my series “Inside The Mind” that gives an overview of the perfect landing page copy.

In it you’ll learn some basic guidelines on

• How to Structure Your Copy
• What To Include
• What To Leave Out
• and Common Conversion Killers

You’ll also learn the importance of subheaders, testimonials and risk reversals. And Mario from Super Mario Brothers makes a guest appearance.

The 7 Point Checklist For Powerful Landing Page Copy

Hubspot has compiled a beautiful checklist of landing page must haves in your copy.

Some of these items include

• Use Action Oriented Language
• Use Value Oriented Language
• Use Reader Keywords
• Write in the Second Person

…and more. The checklist stresses the importance of catching your readers attention within the first 3 seconds, otherwise they’re hitting the back button, and you’ve lost a potential lead or sale.

The Perfect Landing Page Copy (Designed to Sell Anything)

This quite literally one of several landing page copy templates that come with the premium wordpress plugin Premise.

The copy here not only explains what to do, but demonstrates it throughout the copy, pulling you the reader in line by line until you reach the call to action.

8 Quick Tips For Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read

It’s a Twitterized world. We’re just living in it.

• Treat  Bullet Points Like Headlines
• Communicate Benefits Clearly & Quickly
• “Ninja” Your Way Into Readers Minds

They deserve special attention.

Writing Killer Conversion Copy with Joanna Wiebe of CopyHackers.com [Audio]

This interview with Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers.com is very insightful and playful view of “copywriting”

“Copywriting is using words, typography, punctuation and images to communicate your messages in ways that will engage your visitors”

Joanna does a very good job of keeping a balanced view of copy writing, and looks at copy as a part of an overall visual hierarchy , not the end all be all for your sales.

The Perfect Lead Conversion Outline

This lead conversion outline was taught to me by Frank Kern.

It is designed to simultaneously attract qualified buyers, and repel the hype seekers and bargain hunters.

This method is not focused on “getting a ton of subscribers” but rather people who WAY more likely to take action on the things you want them to.

Design

The Perfect Landing Page Pt. 1 [Design]

This is another episode of Inside The Mind that deals specifically with landing page design.

You’ll learn about color schemes, layout, and “trust symbols.”

You’ll also learn about different design techniques that are commonly used to compel users to the call to action.

Somewhere, Superficial, & So Much More: Designing for Conversion Experiences

I thought this article on Thinkvitamin.com was absolutely brilliant for two reasons;

1. Landing pages are generally an afterthought.
2. We very rarely think about the user’s experience when we want them to take an action.

However, this article talks about landing page user experience as being baked into your design from day 1.

If you’re planning a redesign at any point in the near future, read this article. It considers your users in every aspect of the design, and because of that gets you thinking about optimizing nearly every aspect of your website for conversions.

20 Best Designed Price Comparison Tables

This roundup of price comparison tables comes from our very own Nick Tart.

If you’re selling something that requires multiple price points, Nick shows you the best of the best pricing tables, and breaks down why each of them works.

Great if you need some inspiration.

22 Creative Landing Page Designs – A Showcase, Critique, and Optimization Discussion

Another great article if you’re looking for landing page design inspiration.

Oli Gardner of Unbounce goes through 22 really well designed landing pages and talks about what he likes, what he’d do differently, and what he’d like to test.

If you see elements of your own designs in these, it’s like getting an experts advice for free.

Images

How Images Improve – Or Destroy – Conversion Rates

Derek talks about how Apple was able to sell the Macbook Air with a simple image, how Chemistry.com improved their signups with a simple look, and how a Baby’s gaze can get you to read just about anything.

This article shows you how to use images with a purpose and should be read before you ever

Deciding When Graphics Will Help (and When They Won’t)

This article gives very specific examples of using images to better communicate with users.

They show how Bestbuy.com easily communicates the difference between the cameras they sell, how landlords who “share the view” on craigslist make their apartments more attractive, and how Citigroup showing a simple smile and handshake make their whole experience a little more personable.

Great short read if you’re trying to figure out how to enhance your landing page by using images.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

Not so much about images, but rather the F Shaped Pattern eye tracking studies show how readers view a web page.

When you use your images strategically using this information, you have a much better shot at drawing your readers eyes to exactly the places you want them to go.

Human Photos Double Your Conversion Rates

People prefer looking at people over objects.

This article gives two case studies that show incredible lifts in conversion rates.

Video

The Benefits of Using Video on Landing Pages

If you’re the type that has an easier time explaining a concept than you do writing it out, you should consider doing video landing pages.

“Video should be used on your landing pages whenever possible. It provides a passive engagement medium where visitors can experience your message with very little effort.”

Think about it, people have been watching Tv since the middle of the 20th century, so if they stick around for a video on your landing page, your message has longer to sink in.

You also have more tools at your disposal than just the written word.

Making Video Accountable

This study by eyeview digital shows that video on landing pages can lift conversions by 80%.

In the whitepaper, they talk about how to use video on your landing pages to make a personal connection with your viewers, and how to measure whether on not it’s an effective use of your time.

Bonus: Case study of Hotels.com using personalized videos to increase bookings by 30%

How We Made $1 Million for SeoMoz– With One Landing Page And A Few Emails

Conversion-Rate-Experts.com walk through step by step their revisions with SeoMoz.

It’s incredible the amount of customer and company research they did before ever creating a design.

In their research, they found that Rand Fishkin had a much easier time explaining the companies main offering in a video than they could with static text or images.

They also debunk the “keep it short for short’s” sake myth.

 A/B Testing

A Primer on A/B Testing

A/B testing is exactly what it sounds like. Testing one version of a page against another.

However, it’s very easy to give importance to things that don’t matter, and not give enough importance to things that do.

This article from A List Apart is the perfect starting place if you’re totally uninitiated to the concept of A/B testing.

Behind the scenes: A/B Testing Part 3: Finalé

If you’re a A/B Testing Skeptic, this article is for you.

Yes it’s true that when you’re designing a landing page, you’d like your intuition to be 100% on that color opt-in button, or that headline choice, but wouldn’t it be nice to have more conversions? 

When you are torn between two choices, test them both, because in the end you still win. This is a lesson the guys at 37 signals learned once they stopped whining about A/B testing and just started doing it.

A/B test case study: how two magical words increased conversion rate by 28%

“It’s Free.”

These two magical words added next to the “Sign Up Now” button on Soocial’s website improved conversion by 28%.

Seems simple, but even the designers didn’t think it would be the “right” choice.

Which goes to show if you’re not A/B testing, you could be losing out.

Practical Guide to Controlled Experiments on the Web:Listen to Your Customers not to the HiPPO

“What’s the HiPPO?” you ask.

It’s the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.

This practical guide to controlled experiments on the web does read like a science white paper, but it’s meant to instill confidence in yourself and your customer’s opinions.

If you’re considering hiring someone to work on your landing pages, this is an absolute must read.

Google Website Optimizer 101—A quick-start guide to conversion rate optimization

” If you read this entire article, you’ll know more about Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) than 99% of web marketers!”

This is not an untrue statement, I learned A TON more about CRO (and Google Website Optimizer) after reading this article.

For instance;

22. Don’t test the small stuff. Test big, bold changes. This has two advantages:

• You’ll get the results quicker (it’s a statistics thing).
• You’re more likely to achieve improvements.

This may seem obvious, but when you’re getting wrapped up in things like button color, it’s hard to remember there are bigger fish to fry.

Google Website Optimizer Case Study: Daily Burn, 20%+ Improvement

Once you’ve gone through all of the tips for CRO, let’s look at what conversion rate optimization in action looks like.

Tim Ferris, Author of “The Four Hour Work Week” and “The 4 Hour Body” walks us through split tests that were done for one of the sites he’s invested in, DailyBurn.com

Seeing this stuff in action really helps it all to sink in.

Metrics

How Successful is Your Landing Page? The 3 Key Metrics You Need to Know

Long story short…

• Your Conversion Rate matters, even a 1% boost in sales lead to big money
• Pay attention to your home page bounce rate, you could be losing a ton of leads
• Know your lead generation costs, otherwise you’ll have an incredibly difficult time scaling your business.

Misc.

Landing Pages that Convert

Really this is another round up of tips that talk about landing pages that convert, but it adds a few unique perspectives to the mix, like

• Lead with Finished Story Benefits
• Be more credible
• Make Your Offer/Value Incredibly Clear

Conversion Killers

10 Little Known Factors that Affect Your Conversion Rate

To wrap up this roundup, we’re going to end with the different ways you can tank your conversion rates.

This article from Kissmetrics shows 10 common things people do thinking it’s doing them good, when really they’re shooting themselves in the foot.

Less Is More: How We Used Crazy Egg To Boost Our Own Conversions

Conversion Rates Experts show how they used click tracking heatmaps by Crazy Egg to remove unnecessary features from their primary subscriber page.

Note: You should probably do this too. 

And there you have it, 30 of the best resources I’ve found on landing page optimization. If there’s anything you’d like to add, or a resource you’d like to see added to the list, please let us know in the comments below and I’ll be sure to put it in

They’re just nice enough to let us live in it.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google out of a dorm room in 1998, they had no idea that it would one day employ 32,000 people, process one billion searches a day, and earn over US$30 billion a year.

What they had, instead, were some very non-traditional thoughts on how to run a business.

Rule #1: Stay Simple

Google’s home page is a perfect example of the company’s commitment to simplicity.

For Google, simple means faster, easier to use, and higher quality.

That’s why software developers who work at Google are taught that the best products “include only the features that people need to accomplish their goals.” When they’re creating a new product, they don’t try to stuff it full of as many features as possible.

“Simplicity is powerful.”

Google Company Philosophy

What a Tangled Web We Weave…

For some reason, it’s human nature to make things more complex than they need to be. As a writer, I’m always resisting the temptation to use long words and complex sentences.

But simple writing is usually more effective – and the same goes for business models. 

Rule #2: Collaborate

The first day Larry Page met Sergey Brin, they got into a long argument. According to Page, they “both really disliked each other.”

But their studies at Stanford soon led them to respect one another as intellectual peers. It was this mutual respect that brought them together in 1995 to collaborate on Page’s doctoral thesis: an algorithm that could rank websites based on their shared hyperlinks.

Even though it was Page’s idea (hence the name PageRank), he couldn’t have created the algorithm without the mathematical wizardry of Sergey Brin. Without a math prodigy like Brin on board, Google might have been just another thesis.

It was the joining of two very strong brains and personalities that made the algorithm what it was: a search engine so effective that it put Lycos and Excite to shame.

Google’s PageRank system rocket-propelled Page and Brin to the top of the upper echelons of Silicon Valley. Suddenly, their little search algorithm was duking it out with industry titans like Yahoo! and Microsoft… and winning.

Part of the reason for Google’s success was the collaboration they encouraged among their employees. Since the beginning, they’ve implemented something called open source software development, “where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers.”

But as the company grew even larger, Page and Brin realized that they had to bring another brain into the trust: this time, someone who could lead Google as a corporation and offer the boys “adult supervision.” In 2001, they hired Eric Schmidt as CEO and began running Google as a triumvirate. Schmidt started running Google like a business – and acquired YouTube in the process.

Even though Schmidt has since stepped down as CEO, he still serves as Google’s executive chairman, and Google continues to emphasize a spirit of collaboration in all they do.

Going it alone?

Having a partner to collaborate with isn’t a requirement. Many very successful businesses are founded, owned, and operated by one person.

With that said, two complementary business partners will motivate one another, brainstorm innovative ideas together, and each allow the other to do what they’re best at.

I can speak from personal experience on this subject. My business partner has been absolutely essential to our company’s success and I feel thankful for him daily.

Rule #3: Great Just isn’t Good Enough

“We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint.”

Google Company Philosophy

When Google launched its search engine in 1998, it was already great. The PageRank algorithm was simply better than the competition, which focused too much on words and often returned irrelevant results.

It was this greatness that allowed Google to grow without spending millions on a marketing campaign like Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves. Google was so great that it spread almost entirely by word of mouth.

But great wasn’t good enough. Google believes, “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” So, instead of spreading out into different industries, the company kept perfecting their search engine.

“The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we’re a long, long ways from that.”

Larry Page

The above quote is from 2004, by which point Google had cemented their position as market leader. Not only were they the world’s top search engine, they were about to unleash their IPO to a market capitalization of a cool US$23 Billion.

But even at that point, Larry Page was not ready to rest on his laurels. As he said, they were a “long, long ways” from where they wanted to be.

Thanks to this attitude, Google has been churning out big improvements to its search engine year after year. Innovations (i.e. the spelling suggestions Google gives you when you misspell a word) are a big part of the reason they’re still the world’s top search engine.

How Can You Improve?

I don’t care how good you are at what you do, you can always get better. That’s why I’ve suggested that you spend 20 minutes actively learning every day. 

Rule #4: Give Value for Free

“Our goal is to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

People don’t expect to have to pay for much of anything online. But that’s not a problem for Google, which offers more free value to their users than any other online company.

Just think of all of their free software and services: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Google Earth, Google Chrome… the list goes on and on.

Collectively, these products have cost Google millions and millions of dollars to develop. Some, like Gmail, generate revenue through advertising, but many do not make Google any money at all.

What they do is more important: build brand loyalty. Thanks to all they’ve given away, Google has an army of devotees eager to use their latest services, share them with their friends, and shell out cash when Google releases something that actually costs money (like a Chromebook).

Count me among the converts: I’ve been so impressed with Gmail and Google Chrome that I just assume everything Google does meets a high standard of quality.

Giving / Receiving

When people receive something of great value for free, it instills in them a sense of gratitude to the giver. It’s human nature to want to return the favor.

Start being more giving with your business and you will find that you’re getting more referrals, making more sales, and getting a warmer response on social networks.

Rule #5: Protect Your Market

Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors of his time. He laid the foundation for radio communication, wireless technology, and electric power. Without his advances, Google couldn’t exist.

Yet Tesla died with hardly a penny to his name.

When Larry Page read a biography of Tesla as a kid, he learned an invaluable lesson: protect what makes you valuable. This is an especially difficult task if your value comes from easy-to-steal ideas.

As CEO of Google, Page has been sure not to follow in Tesla’s footsteps. Google has kept a close guard on their big competitive advantage: the PageRank algorithm that Page and Brin had labored over as graduate students at Stanford University.

While Stanford actually owns the PageRank patent, Google bought the exclusive rights to use it for 1.8 million shares of stock (later sold by Stanford for $336 million).

No other company is able to use their patented method for ranking pages. That’s a big reason Google still sits at the top of the heap.

In recent years, Google has been more active working with the government to protect their interests. They spent about US$10 million on lobbying the US government in 2011 and took part in a successful campaign to deter the SOPA/PIPA legislation in January 2012.

How to Protect Your Big Idea

Every idea is different and there’s a good chance that yours won’t require a patent.

But that doesn’t mean you need to be telling your competition your secret formula:

“There are two rules for success. 1) Never tell everything you know.”

Roger H. Lincoln

Rule #6: No Hype Necessary

“Part of our brand is that we’re pretty understated in what we do. If you look at other technology companies, they might preannounce things, and it will be a couple years before they really happen, and they don’t happen in the way they said they would.

Google tends to release things without announcing them in beta, or whatever. We wait until they get really big and really good, then we start talking about them. And so that’s a really different way of doing business.”

Larry Page

Google doesn’t do hype. They let their innovative products and services speak for themselves.

I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs who talk a big game. They’d have you believe that they’ve got all of the most important connections and that their next project is the next big thing. Talk to those same entrepreneurs in six months and chances are that last project fizzled out and they’re already onto talking up the next one.

Talk is cheap. It’s always better to let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

Three Good Reasons Not to Hype Yourself Up:

You Make a Stronger First Impression

Everybody knows how important first impressions are. When somebody’s first impression of your project is you talking about it before it’s ready, then you wasted that first impression on mere talk.

It’s tempting to tell all of your friends, relatives, and colleagues about your brilliant idea. But think about how much more powerful it will be if you wait until your project is completed, successful, and has a few mentions in the media.

Be patient – and wait until the time is just right to share your business with the world.

You Don’t Box Yourself In

Until a project is set in stone, it should always be evolving. Keeping quiet also allows you to be more versatile with your business.

If you realize that it would be better to evolve in a slightly different direction than you had initially planned, you don’t want to be constrained by the expectations of the people who already know your original plan.

You Increase Your Commitment

At a more personal level, talking up your plans too much can actually make you less likely to follow through with them.

When we tell someone what we hope to achieve, we feel some of the satisfaction of actually accomplishing that goal – and it actually makes us less hungry to pursue them.

Rule #7: Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

“You can be serious without a suit”

Google Company Philosophy

Google may be the world’s most powerful website, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a little bit of fun. Since 2000, Google has been playing April Fool’s Day jokes on the world.

Their first prank was a new search feature called Google MentalPlex – which claimed to scan your “personal aura and brainwave activity” and then determine which website you were trying to reach.

In 2002, they “revealed” that their search results were determined by “data coops” full of trained pigeons. They’ve since announced job openings on the moon and unveiled a sports drink called Google Gulp. Sounds tasty.

Google’s actually ramping up their pranks. In 2011, they pulled a whopping 17 of them on April 1^st.

Why does Google spend so much time joking around? The pranks earn Google plenty of press and a small bump in traffic. But more importantly, it brings a sense of fun and real personality to their brand – both for their users and for their employees.

Nobody Likes a Robot

When you interact with somebody online, they could be all the way on the other side of the globe. Just because you’re distant from one another, that doesn’t mean you have to act distantly.

Every website visitor, every Facebook sharer, and every email subscriber is a flesh-and-blood person, just like you. A personal touch goes a long way.

#8: Don’t Be Evil

“We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.”

Larry Page

In a 2004 meeting, Google employees were brainstorming an unofficial company motto. Suggestion after suggestion was met with little enthusiasm. Then one finally stuck: “Don’t Be Evil.”

Big companies like Google can often make more money in the short-term by taking advantage of their customers and employees, damaging the environment, or ignoring human rights. Google’s adoption of the “Don’t Be Evil” motto meant that they were committed to being a different type of company – one guided by a strong moral compass.

This philosophy has had a big impact on Google’s ad policy. Their search results only turn up relevant ads, clearly marked as “sponsored.” They also refuse to use pop-up ads or any other flashy ads that would interfere with “your ability to see the content you’ve requested.”

Google also does good through philanthropy. In 2004, they launched Google.org, a not-for-profit organization that looks to solve the problems of global health, poverty, and climate change.

“We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served – as shareholders and in all other ways – by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Still Not Evil?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely – and Google has become very, very powerful in the last few years. In 2009, Google quietly dropped “Don’t Be Evil” as their official motto.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Google’s gone to the dark side. The slogan was simply attracting too much negative attention.

The company has drawn criticism for allowing their search results to be censored in China and for making a deal with Verizon that some journalists considered damaging to net neutrality.

Today, in 2012, Google is getting a ton of heat for their new privacy policy, which will allow the company to more easily merge personal information it has collected from across its many platforms. This means more powerful, targeted advertisements and more money for Google, but it also represents a new low in online privacy.

Do Good, Make Money

“You can make money without doing evil.”

Google Company Philosophy

We could argue all day about whether Google’s doing a good job of practicing what it preaches. It’s a worthwhile conversation to have, especially given than an immense amount of our personal data sits on Google’s servers.

But here’s something where, in my opinion, there’s no room for debate: doing good is good business.

It’s not just about being a better person or getting that warm, fuzzy feeling; businesses that do good are simply more likely to be successful in the long haul.

Do You Follow Google’s 8 Simple Rules?

Google’s principles are pretty idealistic. I think this explains why they’ve become so popular but also why they sometimes have trouble living up to their own values.

Take a moment to reflect on our own businesses. Are there any of the rules above that you think your business does a great job of embodying? Are there any areas where you think you could improve by being a little bit more like Google?

Personally, I see a lot of Google in my own business (an emphasis on collaboration and a daily desire to improve the service), but there’s still a lot for me to learn (keeping things simple and protecting my share of the market).

This article has left me more energized than ever to apply Google’s principles to my company and my website.

I hope it does the same for you. The more people who follow Google’s lead and create simple, collaborative, value-packed websites, the better off we’ll be.

Even if your business only requires a computer and an internet connection, you’ll need to know how to get the ball rolling and start generating income.

Here are five tips on where to start making money, plus a word of warning from someone who has experienced the battle of starting a business with an empty wallet. The best place to start is everyone’s least favorite, but ultimately the most effective opportunity:

1. Freelance job boards

Any Google search related to “starting a business” or “freelancing” and “financing” will turn up a plethora of freelance job boards.

Get started signing up for them, and be sure you complete your profile on each one.

Before you start building profiles, you should have a few things ready to go:

-Your business name and online/offline contact information
-A brief description of your business and the services offered
-Either a portfolio or a convincingly-worded description of your skills acquired elsewhere

You should know exactly what you’re offering and be able to convey it concisely. There are plenty of transferable skills learned through school, hobbies, and work that can be applied to satisfying a client’s needs – you just need to make them aware that you’re competent, regardless of whether or not you have a portfolio.

Apply everywhere, and apply for gigs or projects where you can be even remotely helpful.

Until you have a job, this is your job. Be religious about looking for updated project listings and following up on bids you’ve placed.

Remember: pricing doesn’t matter as much as the ability to say you have a client. Don’t lose that chance by getting hung up on the idea that your time is “worth” a certain amount of money.

So, know what you need, and aim for that, only go for more if your pricing can remain competitive.

Odd jobs/ Part time work

Sounds counter-intuitive, right? You’re trying to start your own business, not work for someone else.

But how badly do you want money? How badly does your business need financing?

If money isn’t coming to you easily, you scrape it together.

Look at it this way: if you were told you had six months to live and needed $10,000 for a life-saving operation, what jobs would you take and how many hours would you dedicate to getting that money?

That same urgency can be applied to your business, if you take your goals seriously.

$7 an hour is more than the zero you’re making sitting at home, reading business blogs. Get out and do something, then roll that tiny paycheck into ads, or buying leads, or creating your product.

Spend carefully, take on bit projects or odd jobs, save your change and have a clearly defined goal so that when you’ve done enough, you know it.

Family and Friends

For some businesspeople, this is the first line of defense, but I only recommend asking people you know for money as a next-to-last resort.

Put the time in elsewhere so that they can see your passion, dedication, and level of responsibility.

Talk about your work with your family and friends, share more if they seem interested. In order for someone close to you to feel comfortable investing in you, they’ll need to have a clear understanding of what kind of business person you are.

If they can tell you’re willing to do whatever it takes to become a success, they’re far more likely to help out than if they think you’re a financial gamble.

Creative Networking

I got my break in the business by chatting about work at a Superbowl Party a few years ago. All it takes is one client, one chance, one paycheck to give you an opportunity to get your business underway.

Be knowledgable, be confident, and be curious about other peoples’ lives and work.

Get out into the world, both the real world and the virtual world, and experiment with talking to strangers. The more connections you make, the more likely you are that someone will either a.) want your services for their business or b.) have you in mind for a recommendation when a colleague needs the services you offer.

Know the difference between friendship and a business relationship, and work to cultivate both via social engagements, webinars, meetups, tweetups, and other local business networking events.

VC’s, banks, etc.

I don’t have a lot of experience with these yet, because I was able to grow my business organically via odd jobs and creative networking.

I have researched the options and learned that it’s important for anyone relying on a VC to do their research. Not all loans, and not all financial institutions are created equal.

Just like getting started on freelancer boards, you’ll need to know how to convey your skills and abilities confidently. If you have a portfolio, make sure the information is organized, thorough, and demonstrates your capacity as a businessperson.

Again, you’ll need a presentation of sorts available. It’s better to have some basic financial projections and a business plan on file at all times, whether they’re needed in early phases or not. It would be terrible to get a shot at a short-notice meeting and not have the required documents handy.

Get a clear understanding of what their investment means for you in the long term. If they own a portion of your business, or your profits, determine how long that ownership lasts and whether you’ll be able to work with that down the line.

Word of Warning: Have a Plan

Money may be tight for awhile even after your business finds clients. Have a plan in mind (or written down) for where that money will go once it comes in. You should know the answers to these questions:

-Which financial obligations are the top priorities for your business?
-What specifically does your company need in order to have opportunity for growth?
-What are the minimum and maximum amount of income you will dedicate toward growing your business? (Percentages are easier to guarantee than actual dollar amounts.)

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list, so please add any other thoughts on how you can make money right away to the comments below.

If that’s not you, leave now, this article has nothing for you.

However, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, by the end of this article you will learn exactly what it is that separates the successful from everyone else.

The First Thing Nearly Every Entrepreneur Does Wrong.

Before we start on doing things right, let’s first look at what nearly everyone in business does wrong. Focuses too much on Technology.

You see it all the time, “I need to get on Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Blogging/etc”

They think the technology will be the cure to the problem, when really focusing too heavily on technology can cause more headaches than it’s worth.

Without fail, when nothing comes from simply being represented on the platform, they either:

1. Claim their customers aren’t there.
2. Seek refuge on another platform, only to find the same outcome.
3. Give up entirely and curse the technology as a whole.

Here’s the thing about technology…

It’s just a device to communicate a message.

Blaming Facebook for failing to generate leads is like blaming a piece of paper for failing to make more sales.

I can almost guarantee you that at some point in history, there was someone who said “We need to make this telephone thing work for our business.” which of course is silly when you think about it. The telephone is only a device, and has very little to do with the actual income generating part of your business.

In short, technology is the least important aspect of your money making efforts. It’s important, just not as important as most people make it out to be.

The Second Thing Nearly Every Entrepreneur Does Wrong.

Next, nearly every entrepreneur thinks if they just have stellar marketing, they’ll sell a ton more product, and everything will be right in the world.

Don’t make this mistake.

Marketing by itself doesn’t make you money.

I recently had a guest post for chrisbrogan.com go viral netting 38k visitors in the first 2 days of being live, and eventually it got picked up by Google, and still, despite excellent marketing and exposure for myself and my business, it did not make me a single cent.

Now, it is true that a killer marketing campaign can lead to a ton of sales of a shitty product.

But the big money that’s made on the front end is usually lost on product returns, customer service issues, and in some cases, law suits.

In short, if you’re marketing a bad product and you make a ton of money, at some point karma’s going to come around and bite you in the ass.

The Most Important Thing Very Few Entrepreneurs Actually Get Right.

The most important thing that very few entrepreneurs actually get right is the product itself.

Sure, you put a product out, but how good is it really?

How above and beyond does it go?

It’s not about whether or not you’re able to set your personal best either,it’s about whether or not you’re delivering something that is of massive value to the market place.

Think about the iPhone for a second. Whether or not you’re a user is irrelevant, because when the iPhone came out, it was undeniably one of the coolest, and most useful devices on the market.

It allowed you to watch full length movies, surf the internet, listen to music, search for directions and more.

“Marketing” for the iPhone didn’t really have to do much beyond just show you what it did.

Really, that’s what makes a superior product. If you can simply put it in front of a person and they get excited about everything it does, that’s when you know you’ve created a superior product.

What separates the truly great from everyone else is that they’re putting the time in to understand their customers wants and needs, then delivering a product that far exceeds their expectations.

This is why Facebook killed Myspace, Twitter killed FriendFeed, and why Youtube still remains the Number 1 video sharing platform online in spite of countless imitators.

Want to make more money GUARANTEED?

Spend every hour of every day learning exactly what it is that keeps your customers up at night. Explore every aspect of their problem and understand it so intimately that it becomes a part of you.

You need to understand their fears, their frustrations, and their limitations, then deliver something that exceeds anything they ever thought possible.

When you want to create a superior product, spend your time listening. Not just to what’s being said on the surface, but read between the lines as well.

You also need to know what specific outcome customers will achieve by using your product, and how it can improve their life.

Only then can you truly understand how to create something that will be almost magical to the customer. Only then will they not be able to live without you. Only then will you make more money guaranteed.

If you sell your services at a single set price, get prepared, because your business is about to level up.

It’s no secret the most successful companies give a variety of options to appeal to a broad spectrum of customer’s financial situations.

But what you may not realize is those price points are planned to subconsciously direct people to spend a set amount, whether they realize it or not.

At a spa, there’s a wide range of services between the 15 minute facial or the all day relaxation package.

You’re not just stuck with the option of lawn seats or VIP passes at a concert.

And many consultants, don’t just limit their services to the one hour phone call, or the $30,000 full-service training package.

Multiple price points with benefits and add-ons at each tier gives your client more options, and if you’re strategic about your price points, you can very easily guess what the majority of people are going to go for.

Secret #1: Use Tiered Pricing to Play Ego against Logic.

Imagine for a moment you are considering buying SEO software.

You plan to blog regularly. Perhaps every day, at the very least a few times per week, and this software promises to boost your blog’s visibility by evaluating your articles for keywords, and give suggestions to improve your Google ranking.

You know you will use it at least a few times per week, and are estimating you’ll spend between $35 and $45 for it.

A click later, you see that the pricing options are:

Which do you choose?

If you said “professional,” well done. You did exactly what they wanted you to do.

Now despite the landing page design being very pointed in where you should click, you would have likely came to the same decision (the design just got you there sooner)

Why?

Their multi-tiered pricing creates a war in your brain between your primal instinct and your logical response to options.

The logical response says, “I’m one person… I clearly won’t need 300 evaluations a month. That’s far too much.”

But the primal instinct says, “I need more than the bare minimum to survive. I’m going to grow. I’ll need more next week. I need to stockpile, to prepare, ‘just enough’ won’t be enough.”

So why does simply offering more options create this response?

Because with a single price point a purchase decision can be either accepted or dismissed with a simple“yes” or “no.”

But when you bookend the choices, suddenly your customer is involved, however briefly, in imagining different scenarios for each level of ownership.

They start thinking, “What if the cheapest option isn’t enough?” They start seeing themselves as being unprepared because they bought the lowest-priced item.

Others are more optimistic.

They envision themselves achieving more and therefore justify paying more. They see themselves becoming more successful because they haven’t limited themselves to “just enough,” have room to move and grow.

Either way, the purchase has drama and more emotional investment when there are a limited set of options.

You can create these same subconscious, survival-based thought patterns in your clients by switching your pricing from a single option to offering different levels of pricing for your services.

Switching to a variety of options vs. a single price point is the first and most important step in guaranteeing more purchases.

Secret #2: Give A Lot More for Slightly More Money.

To the majority of people, the two central options will be where their attention focuses immediately.

For these groups, the highest and lowest prices are briefly considered and immediately dismissed as being “too much” and “not enough,” which means the battle is in choosing between the the lower-middle and the higher-middle pricing options.

These folks spend the most amount of time on their purchase.

They take the time to time debate the pros and cons of spending the extra few dollars per month, or per level, so set pricing to make it simple for them.

Do so by offering a value multiple times higher than in the lower-priced option, without changing the price by the same ratio.

Back to our SEO example, by purchasing the Professional package for $47 per month, a customer will receive four times as many evaluations as they would for the next option down, the Publisher.

But the Professional price is not the Publisher price, quadrupled.

Instead, it’s not even doubled. It’s an affordable step up with an immense added benefit.

Make it painfully, starkly clear that the higher-midrange price is where the really good deal is found.

Logic will win out in nearly all cases, as clients justify to themselves the great bargain they just got by buying from you.

Secret #3: There’s always someone who only buys the best.

We all know someone who enjoys spending money.

It’s more than a necessity, it’s a symbol of their self-esteem. When it comes down to it, money equals status and self importance, and that matters a great deal to a large percentage of business people.

You may never know it, but even Joe Handyman in the flannel shirt is saving his dollars for the creme de la creme of cars, tools, and blueprints.

Some folks who are pennypinchers at home will indulge on their business, because their work is their passion, and that is how they justify high-cost items.

Your highest price point should be something that seems indulgent.

The folks who want the best, who gauge value based on cost, won’t take you seriously if  “just anyone” could afford it.

They are out there, and some have already passed you by.

It’s all about the implications made by their purchase, and because they feel that more money means better quality, and they want only the best.

In your pricing structure, include a best-of-the-best, enterprise-level price point and you will convey the sense that you and your services are more than worth their time.

On the flip side, you want your lowest price to be reasonable, profitable for your company and helpful to your clients, but ultimately not a huge gamble on their part.

Thrifty clients want to feel that if their investment is a total waste of money, they haven’t lost too much. They want to get just enough because they plan to be frugal with their usage and get every bit of functionality or information from you or your product that they can.

Bonus Secret: It’s not that difficult.

Offering your services on a tiered price structure isn’t as difficult as you think.

Consider what it would take for you to go above and beyond all expectations, I mean everything you do and roll that up into one bundle to create your highest price point. Remember: it should offset a considerable amount from your next highest price point.

From there, take out the additional services that go above and beyond, leaving a really good option. This will be your third highest pricepoint, and likely what the majority of your business will be.

Then for the last two subtract services until you are left with just the very basic service at the bottom.

For Example: Let’s say you design websites, your structure could look something like:

(From MenswithPens.ca)

WordPress website including optional integrated blog
Custom-designed business logo
Customized social media section in sidebar
Attention-grabbing opt-in/sign-up section on website
Custom-designed Twitter page to impress followers
Custom-designed Facebook page that fans will love
Custom-designed newsletter design to stay in touch with readers
5 pages of copywriting for your website pages (Home, About and three pages of your choice)
25-page ebook: Full design AND content custom-written based on your outline and notes
Members-only site-matching forum. Great for courses and community building!
Professional site-matching business card design
Retail Rate	$4,999	$6,799	$12,999

Of course, there is no “Copper” package, but it’s easy to see how a simple wordpress setup could be the bottom tier option in this scenario.

A final word of caution: when factoring in the different values per cost, do not make the disparities so clear that one group or another feels taken advantage of. Your product or your service must be justifiably worth the cost, at any level.

Your turn…

How can you use a tiered price structure in your own business? What services do you offer right now that you might be undercharging for?

If you research multiples on auction platforms you will find an average of around 8-12 times monthly net multiples. On a site that makes $5,000 per month that is $40,000 to $60,000 at the close of sale.

While this this may be a respectable sum, you might be sitting there thinking about all the hard work you’ve put into your site and you deserve a better return on the sweat equity you have invested.

That is why you need to find a retail buyer not a wholesale buyer.

A retail buyer is an investor that is looking for better places to put their capital than earning low returns in the bank. They want assets that are relatively hands off and have good growth trends. You won’t find these retail buyers on many of the auction platforms because they want to deal with bigger sites with more established revenue streams (minimum 2 years) and pay a premium for them.

That is where a website broker comes in.

You may get $40,000 for your website from a wholesale buyer. Whereas with a retailer buyer you can fetch anywhere between 2-5 times yearly earnings, with the average around 2-3 times yearly net earnings.

Would you rather $40,000 or $180,000 for selling your website?

Website brokers introduce you to retail buyers.

What is a website broker?

Full disclosure here: I am a website broker, so I can answer these questions in full.

The primary function of a website broker is to help webmasters sell their web business.

Your site will get evaluated and then presented in a way to gain the highest possible price.

In that process there are a number of tasks performed to try and maximise price:

• Determine an appropriate valuation range
• Compile an information memorandum (sales memorandum)
• Market the website
• Present the website to potential buyers
• Draft and present offers
• Assist in negotiation on behalf of the seller
• Protect sellers’ confidentiality
• Look after paperwork
• Provide after-sales support.

How does it work?

The process is similar to that of a realtor (real estate agent). You approach a website broker looking to sell. You enter into a sales agreement with them. This is normally an exclusive agreement that is valid for 90 days. The broker will then prepare the information memorandum about the website to be used to show potential buyers. In this document is all the relevant information about the website, its financials, traffic stats and answers to general questions.

The broker will then go out and sell your website to potential buyers. Screen them with their screening process and present you the best offers.

The buyer will normally sign a letter of intent (LOI) and ask for  a set period for final due diligence. It is your choice as the buyer as to whether you allow this to be exclusive or not

They will make a formal offer after due diligence, you will either accept or decline that offer.

Then the transfer process happens. Money is normally transferred using an escrow service. That can either be the brokers trust account, a lawyers trust account or an escrow service. We prefer our own service or escrow.com. The site is then transferred to the new owner, the seller receives their funds and the buyer will take ownership of the website.

Why would you hire a website broker?

Brokers give you a wider reach of retail buyers and investors. Also they will usually have a unique marketing method of selling sites as well as processes and systems that support the sales process.

This includes marketing and contacts that the average Webmaster can’t access including their list of buyers, investors, entrepreneurs and subscriptions to business-classified sites.

An example of a recent site we sold. A general Webmaster blog on entrepreneurship and online business. The owner started the site back in 2005. It had over 3000 pages of content and was earning $69,000 per year in advertising revenue

He came to us wanting $80,000. We ended up selling it for $193,000.

What is the time frame?

Anywhere from two weeks to 6 months. Factors that influence timing of sales include getting access to the relevant website information from the seller, negotiation time and sellers getting finance available.

What do they cost?

A website broker will generally charge 10% of the gross sale price to sell your website.

Are fees charged up front?

They are 100% commission based.  They do not make any money until they sell your website so there is a low level of risk of listing your site with them.

What are the best sites for a website broker?

The best sites are established sites that are making solid monthly earnings. A good range is between $50,000 and $2,000,000 in value.

They also have the following characteristics:

• Established websites, not turnkey sites. 2 years plus income is a bonus, a community or strong presence in your particular niche is seen favourably.
• Sites with credible traffic in their market. Buyers prefer sites with multiple traffic streams.
• Premium money is paid for:

• With premium domains
• Have an existing active community
• Make recurring yearly income
• Have multiple income streams
• That are highly systemized
• Have strong earnings history

• What’s not good:

• Adult sites
• Pharmaceutical Sites
• Proxies, arcades, etc.

What if I can’t sell my website?

Normally they will ask for a 90-day agency period. Good brokers have a clearance rate of about 80%. Main reasons for a site not selling is generally price related and the seller wanting more money than the market will offer them.

The New Year is a fresh start.

The person you were last year no longer exists. All that matters is who you are on New Year’s Day and who you become by the end of the year.

January 1^st is a perfect time to make a personal change, but it’s also a perfect time for entrepreneurs to make big changes to their businesses.

The 12 resolutions below are for entrepreneurs hoping to help their business thrive in 2012.

#1 Resolve to Finish Every Project You Start

I’ve written previously about how most entrepreneurs have so many good ideas, that it can be difficult finish one project before starting the next one.

Don’t make that mistake this year. If you decide to develop a business, commit to seeing it through completely.

#2 Resolve to Start Charging Your True Worth

When trying to get your business on its feet, sometimes you have to charge less than your product or service is actually worth. It’s a good way to gain clientele and experience. But it’s not a good way to get rich.

Eventually, you’ve got to start charging clients for the actual value that you’re providing.

If you’ve been working for less than you’re worth, then 2012 is the year to make a change.

#3 Resolve to Keep a Clean Work Space

It’s hard to be productive in an environment that’s cluttered and disorganized.

Look around your work space right now. If it isn’t clean and controlled, then make a commitment now to maintain a focused work space for the next year.

#4 Resolve to Improve Work Systems

When Henry Ford implemented an assembly line in his factories in 1913, he completely revolutionized the automobile industry. By making the production system more efficient, The Ford Motor Company was able to produce more vehicles for less money – and profits went through the roof.

A business is only as efficient as the systems it employs.

Some systems are simple, like the way you organize your inbox. Others are very complex, like your step-by-step approach to completing a project over the course of a month.

We often create systems without much thought and then take them for granted once they’re established. As long as a system works, what’s the point in meddling?

But this is one thing where you really need to put in the extra time and make sure you’re doing things right. Take a step back and look critically at the systems you implement regularly with your business.

Systems are so important because their effect is cumulative. If you improve a system one time, that improvement continues to benefit you every time it’s implemented.

If you haven’t paid much attention to your systems lately, then make a point to focus on them in 2012.

#5 Resolve to Be Authentic

People are spending more time online than ever before. By now, they’re pretty adept at recognizing who’s being genuine and who isn’t.

2012 is a great year to tune out the voice in your head that tells you to pretend to be someone you’re not. Instead, communicate online with your authentic voice. People will take notice and respond.

#6 Resolve to Keep Track of Your Hours

How many hours are you putting into your business a week?

It’s not necessary to have a set schedule or to work eight hours every day. That’s part of the joy of being your own boss. But it is important to be aware of your work hours – and four hour days aren’t going to cut it (at least not at first).

When you begin to keep track of your hours, you start to understand where your time is going and how you could use it more effectively.

If you’re doing freelance work and you’re being paid by the project, this will also help you in pricing your services.

A Time Tracking Tool

There are many applications out there that help you keep track of how you’re spending your time on your computer.

Rescue Time is free software that automatically tracks which programs and websites you’re using throughout the day. Over the course of a few weeks, you begin to get a clear picture of how efficient your computer time is and how it compares to the work habits of others.

At the end of the month, take a look at the data. You may be surprised to realize how much of your time goes to work that doesn’t actually you earn you any income (like answering emails or being active on social media).

#7 Resolve to Redesign Your Website

Even if you’re website is up-to-date now, it won’t be in six months. The Internet keeps changing and the most successful online companies will continue to change with it.

Don’t risk becoming outdated. Make sure you update and improve your website at least once this year.

#8 Resolve to Eat Right and Exercise

Okay, okay – I know these are the two most cliché resolutions in the history of New Year’s. But they’re cliché for a reason.

Eating right and exercising are great resolutions for anyone who operates their own business. It will give you more energy and focus to make the most of your work day.

Of course, it will also make you healthier and it may even help you look better in the bathroom mirror.

#9 Resolve to Spend 20 Minutes Actively Learning Each Day

Solo entrepreneurs must be proficient in many different fields. In any given day, you may work as a designer, marketer, salesperson, and writer.

There’s not always time to master each of these skillsets. When you’re just starting out, sometimes all that matters is that the task is completed. Whether or not it’s completed perfectly is beside the point.

So entrepreneurs tend to become jacks of many trades, masters of none.

The good news is that means there’s a ton of room for improvement. And even if you’re getting by with your current ability-level, honing your skills will make for better and more efficient work.

That’s why it’s such a good idea to spend 20 minutes actively learning every day.

Ways to Learn

Podcasts

This is a great learning solution for the time-crunched entrepreneur. Maybe you’ve got a full-time job, run your business on the side, and you don’t have 20 minutes to spare.

Pop in a pair of headphones and start learning while involved in an activity that doesn’t require your full attention. Suddenly riding the bus, doing the dishes, and exercising are opportunities to become a smarter, better entrepreneur.

Video Tutorials

While audio is a great learning tool, actually seeing something is often the most effective way to understand it. There’s simply no substitute for watching a pro as they complete a task, talking you through every step of the way.

In the last few years, a huge number of quality video tutorials have been posted on YouTube. Simply search for a subject, press play, and start learning.

Video isn’t the best if you’re just looking for a few bits of essential info. You can’t skim a video like a written tutorial. But they’re an ideal method when you need to sit down and learn a process from front to back.

Books

Ink and paper may be old-fashioned, but a big “how-to” book is still one of the best learning resources available.

Even if all of the information within its pages is available online, that’s no replacement for having it right there in your hands. You won’t have to search the web for quality instruction and you can take it with you wherever you go.

A 500-page tome can set be pretty expensive, but the cost is small when you think of it as an investment in your business. Check out your local bookstore or Amazon to find a compendium on whatever subject you want to master.

Refresh, then Rest

If you really want to get the most out of your daily lesson, revisit it for a few minutes right before you go to sleep. If you read an informative article, skim through it again. If you learned a new technique in Photoshop, create something simple with it.

Not only will this reinforce what you learned the first time around, the new knowledge will sit at the fore front of your brain as you prepare for sleep.

Sleep is your brain’s opportunity to organize and store all of the knowledge it gains throughout the day. So you stand a better chance of actually remembering your daily lesson if you revisit it before you call it a day.

If you resolve to devote a little bit of time to learning every day for the next year, you’ll be see a huge improvement in the quality and quantity of your work by the end of the year.

#10 Resolve to Keep Your Resolutions

Every January, people across the world make resolutions to change the way they act.

Every February, many of those resolutions have been broken or forgotten.

It’s only over the course of the whole year that a change can have any real impact. But if you do stick to your resolutions, they will eventually become habits that will improve your life (and business) for years and years to come.

So, the most important resolution you can make is to really stick with whatever changes you decide to make this year.

What’s Your Resolution?

Let us know how you’re going to make 2012 the best year yet.

Warren Buffet isn’t a psychic, but he does have a knack for predicting the future.

His eye for savvy investments has earned him the nickname the “Oracle of Omaha” — along with a net worth of US$50 billion.

Buffett has never been shy about sharing his common-sense business strategies: he’s famous for writing shareholders once a year to explain his thinking. In the process, he’s left the world with a wealth of business knowledge.

Get inside the mind of a legendary investor with the lessons and quotes below.

Lesson #1: Choose a Good Path

Do What You’re Good At

“There’s a whole bunch of things I don’t know a thing about. I just stay away from those.”

We all have our talents. For his part, Buffett realized long ago that he was very good when it came to investment. Ever since then, he’s focused on that, staying within what he calls his “circle of competence.”

You should do the same. Identify your strengths and then stick to them.

Find and Follow Your Passion

“Do what you’re passionate about. If you do this, there will be few people competing or running faster than you.”

When you complete a task that you’re passionate about, you’ve got more energy than when you started.

Buffett doesn’t get tired of his job, because he actually enjoys what he’s doing. He has said, “I get to do what I like to do every single day of the year,” and that at Berkshire-Hathaway they enjoy, “the process far more than the proceeds.”

I know that you’ve heard it before, but there’s really no greater way to ensure the success of your business than by founding it on something that you are truly passionate about.

As Buffett said, “Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.”

Know When to Abandon Ship

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Every business will someday face adversity, just as every boat will eventually spring a leak. You should never let your business drown just because an unexpected problem arises.

But if your business isn’t getting any traction at all, maybe the underlying model is making everything more difficult than it has to be. Instead of expending all of your energy trying to keep a sinking ship afloat, seek out a better model. 

Lesson #2: Keep it Simple

Make things Easy on Yourself

“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”

People often make work more challenging than it needs to be. Have you ever spent hours and hours working on a project that you know you could have completed in thirty minutes?

Don’t languish with unproductive habits or inefficient systems. Find ways to work that makes your job easy.

Pick Low-Hanging Fruit

“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”

If there’s an apple within your grasp, you’re not going to reach for a ladder.

Buffet adopts a similar strategy while investing: he doesn’t make risky investments because he doesn’t have to. Good companies make him money, but great companies make him more of it.

Whether in investments or business, focus your effort on where you get the most bang for your buck. Pass on lofty challenges.

Simpler is Better

“The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.”

The day-traders who buy stock are making their job very difficult. They study pages of market analysis and work 40-hours-a-week just trading.

If you’re good with complicated data, you’ll make some short-term gains that way. But you could also take Buffett’s lead and tune that noise out.

Berkshire-Hathaway makes its stock purchases based on just one thing: the intrinsic value of the company. Buffett buys stock in companies that have good fundamentals and a track record of growth. Pretty straightforward.

People love to come. up with complex formulas, but most success in business is simple, common sense.

Two Simple Rules:

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”

Lesson #3: Character is Good for Business

Don’t Swim Naked

“It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”

Before the global recession of 2008, financial institutions were making risky investments and pretending that they were safe. It worked for a while.

But the thing about the tide is that eventually it goes out. When that happens, the only thing that will matter is the true value of your investments.

Resist the urge to put up a faux-exterior. Conduct your business solid through and through, you’ll have nothing to worry about when the water gets shallow.

Look Out for the Customer

“Decide early in life to make your money by selling things that you really believe are good for the customers.”

Profit is a symptom.

It happens naturally whenever a company provides value to their customers.

The best way to make money is to offer a product or service that’s truly good for the people who use it. One way you’ll know you’re onto something is if you actually want to use it yourself.

Good People do Good Business

“You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”

When Berkshire-Hathaway acquires a company, Buffett makes the deal in person and seals it with a handshake.

He likes to get to know a company’s management on a personal level because he’s only interested in buying businesses that are managed by good people. For Warren, personal integrity really matters.

He’s realized that being the good guy pays off. Taking shortcuts may pay off in the short term, but they always come back to haunt you eventually.

So act with good character and only associate with businesses that do the same.

Good Business is Contagious

“Hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

Don’t be intimidated to work with people who are smarter than you. On the contrary, surround yourself with the brightest and most productive people you can find.

Not only will they push your business to new heights, their good habits will spread to you. Few factors have a greater impact on our behavior than the behavior of our peers.

Lesson #4: Think Long-Term

Be Patient

“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

We live in a world of instant-gratification.

But short-term thinking can only lead to short-term success. If you want the type of consistent growth that creates true wealth, you must recognize that real success takes time. No matter what you do today, you can’t build million dollar business before you go to sleep.

So don’t try to rush something that can’t be rushed. Instead commit yourself completely to the long-haul.

Look Ten Years Out

“Our favorite holding period is forever.”

A stock’s holding period is the time between its purchase and sale.

When Berkshire-Hathaway makes a decision to buy stock in a company, they intend on owning it for the next ten years – and preferably even longer than that.

This long-term perspective gets them thinking about the factors that really matter, like the quality of the company’s business model and management.

Long-term thinking is more than just a good strategy for investors. Life is a long-term game, so start thinking about where you want your business to be in ten years.

Keep Your Reputation

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

A business’s assets will come and go, but a bad reputation is like a stain you can’t wash out.

All it takes to do permanent damage to your reputation is one slip-up. That’s a big problem, because people won’t work with a company that they don’t trust.

So don’t let yourself get sloppy. Cultivate an ethic of quality work.

Leave a Legacy

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time.”

What’s the best part about building a successful business?

It isn’t the money and it isn’t the freedom. It’s the fact that you’ve provided a huge amount of value to a huge amount of people.

Starting a business is like planting a seed. With proper care, it will still be making the world a better place long after you leave.

Buffett’s legacy doesn’t stop with his businesses, either. Like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, he’s pledged to give half of his wealth to philanthropy.

Lesson #5: Develop a Mindset of Wealth

Plan for Success

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”

I’ve already written about how being totally confident can help you bend the universe.

Believing that you will succeed is the first step to making it happen.

Tune Out the Noise

“Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”

The more successful you become, the more haters you’ll have. You don’t have any control over what other people say, but you can choose to ignore their negativity.

Know when to listen in and when to tune out.

If someone gives you constructive criticism, then you should do everything you can to learn from it. But when criticism is unfounded or fueled by jealousy, listening to it will only be a distraction.

Accept that You’re Not Perfect

“I’ve made lots of mistakes. I’m going to make more. It’s the name of the game. You don’t want to expect perfection in yourself. You want to strive to do your best. It’s too demanding to expect perfection in yourself.”

You’re only human. You’re going to make some big mistakes.

Even an investment genius like Warren Buffett doesn’t win them all. He has accepted that fact and he doesn’t beat himself up when things don’t turn out like he had hoped.

It’s exhausting to expect perfection from yourself. Be satisfied with your best effort.

Be Happy

“I am not inclined to make myself unhappy. I sort of accept things as they come.”

If every one of his businesses went bankrupt tomorrow, Buffett would still be smiling.

His happiness doesn’t come from seeing green arrows next to his investments. It springs from his unflappable optimism and buoyant spirit.

There’s no greater gift you can give yourself than personal happiness. But if you’re not happy now, no amount of money or success is going to change that.

Be thankful for what you have, live with passion and purpose, and accept things as they come. Happiness will follow.

Ad Injection

Ad Injection from reviewmylife makes managing your different ads even easier, as you can place them around your site, and within your content. You can use any type of ad that you want, including Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, ClickBank, TradeDoubler, etc. into the existing content of your WordPress posts and pages. You can control the number of adverts based on the post length, and it can restrict who sees adverts by post age, visitor referrer and IP address. Adverts can also be configured in the post (random, top, and bottom positions) or in any widget/sidebar area.

I personally found this this plugin to be incredibly useful as I was able to input ads where I had never had them before, and start to see an increase in my earnings. This plugin works especially well for me as I write very long posts, never under 1000 words, often exceding 2000, so it’s acceptable to include a small break, by using an advert. Ads are commonplace now, and so long as you don’t overdo it, no one is ever too offended by seeing them. You need to be careful that you don’t start to include too many ads because they will decrease the worth of each ad, and will actually result in lower earnings – it’s simply supply and demand. Experiment with your own website and you’ll soon come to a situation that maximises your ad earnings.

WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin

This is a premium WordPress shopping cart plugin, built by Tribulant that allows the WP blog admin to sell both digital and physical goods online plus any services the admin decides to offer. This if perfect for anyone who sells online teaching courses, hands on training, premium support, or any other non-product related sales that are service oriented. Using this premium wordPress plugin you can easily find ways to monetize your WP blog whether it’s through selling digital products like ebooks, online services, or any tangible goods.

You can set up your multiple products and categorize/organize them into multiple product categories. Add additional images to showcase your products so that users know what they are buying and add digital downloads to products if needed so that users can securely download paid files from your website.

With suppliers, shipping methods, payment gateways, product variations/custom fields, product inventory, affiliate products, discount coupons and many other amazing features, you can run a full featured online WordPress shop that suits your needs. The cost is just $54.99 for a single website licensee, but once you start to see a return, you’ll forget that you ever even spent that money.

Amazon Associate Filter

I don’t know about you, but I find the whole process of manually going in and creating custom HTML links for Amazon through the Associates Central, really laborious. That’s why I was so happy to find this plugin, which stops you from even having to login to your Amazon. You simply share a normal amazon like like you would any other link, and this plugin will pull your information and add it to the link when someone clicks on it. Now you don’t have to be bothered by spending ages putting together hundreds of links through Amazon, which will encourage you to link more often – I recently made 140 of the them hard way.

Another really good selling point is that people are always asking me follow up questions about products that I’ve written about, and I can’t include HTML code in the comments, so I’m losing commission when I help people out, by providing them with a specific link. Now, I don’t have to worry about this because not only is the plugin is doing all of the hard work for me, but it’s inserting links where I couldn’t have them before. 

WordPress-Amazon-Associate

You might be wondering why I’m suggesting another Amazon Associates plugin, when clearly there’s a plugin already out there that does the job just fine, and that’s true, to a certain extent. You see, this is more than just another Amazon plugin, because it does more than just provide you with links and commissions, it also comes with various advertising widgets, which help to improve sales. This plugin also fully supports amazon product localization to supported markets, such as Canada, Germany, France, Japan, United Kingdom (GB), and the Unites States.

The WordPress Amazon Associate plugin is designed to be your all inclusive source for enriching you website with Amazon Products and Widgets embedded with your unique Amazon Associate Tag. Widgets such as the carousel have been proven to provide better results and more commissions, as they’re more like adverts, than anything else. So long as you’re advertising the right products, to the right crowd, then there’s a good chance that your commissions are going to be much better than the space that would have been taken up by Google ads. It’s certainly worth trailing.

Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer

This plugin not only automatically changes any Amazon link on your site to use your affiliate ID, but it also changes the link to point to the user’s local Amazon store. This means that if your visitor is visiting from the UK they’ll get a link to Amazon.co.uk, and if they’re visiting from the US they’ll get a link to the same product on Amazon.com - All you have to do is provide all your affiliate IDs.

It doesn’t matter if the link is in your post, in your template or anywhere else on your page – it’ll be converted automatically. This can make a noticeable difference to your earnings, from a very small amount of effort. The last time I checked, 66% of my traffic came from America, and 10% came from the UK, so by simply installing this plugin, I can tap into the UK market and increase my earnings by approximately 15%. With the exception of checking that the plugin works after you make the odd update, you very much just install this plugin, and leave it to do its thing.

SEO Smart Links

If you’ve been following this site for a while, then it will be no secret to you that I love this plugin, as it’s easy to set up, and has numerous benefits. The idea is that you input different keywords, and you assign links to them, so that whenever these keywords pop up in your text, they automatically redirect to different content that you’ve preselected. Obviously, there are a great many uses for this when you’re trying to promote your own content, throughout your own website, as you can link to different articles, and keep your readers interested.

The beauty of this plugin is that you don’t have to just link within your website, you can link to anywhere on the internet, which can be used for affiliate marketing purposes, or even just to gain recognition from a source that you’re referring to. In my niche of photography, there’s a program called Animoto, which can be used to create video slideshows, and they have an affiliate program, which provides me with money, every time someone goes to their site, through my special link. This is nothing special or unique, as you’ll find that there are plenty of programs out there that offer a similar service, and I’m sure that you’ll have no problem finding someone in your niche too. All I have to do is to assign certain keywords, such as ‘animoto’ and ‘video slideshow’, and they will automatically send people to the website, using my custom link. Now I can start earning passive income, every time I write a certain keyword.

Cleeng Content Monetization

This is a very cool plugin, which allows you to sell articles, videos, images & downloads, whether it’s a single item, or a long time subscription, and anything in between. Cleeng (pronounced cleng) is designed in a similar way to cable TV, where you have to pay to see good content. You can limit access to certain parts of your website, which holds the information that someone is looking for, until they’ve paid for the access. It’s a really simple system, and the same used by large newspaper organisations, such as The New York Times, who insist on money to see the latest articles, and it seems to work for them. With Cleeng you can sell any individual piece of content directly from your own website.

It’s certainly a bold idea, but it seems to be working so far. This plugin could be considered a bit of a risk, depending on your niche, and how readily available the information is, but it’s been proven to work. The great thing about it is that you keep 80-90% of the money and there are no hidden costs; all payment fees, user support, software maintenance is taken care of. You just need to create the right content that sells.