Hi Everyone,

Today, I want to introduce you to my new, favorite Twitter Application.

Last August I did a Twitter Tips Post explaining how Twitter was sending over 100000 visitors per month to my sites. That post has gone on to be one of the most widely read posts at IncomeDiary.com, but you know Twitter and how to make the best use of it is always evolving.

Twitter and the micro-blogging phenomenon is the BIGGEST single change I have seen during my time online. TWITTER is no GOOGLE but in terms of how it has gone mainstream and impacted everyone’s lives it is right up there with Google. Internet Marketers were amongst the first to embrace Twitter – but these days, just about every celebrity, news program or business of any substance has a Twitter element to it.

That is why I consider what I am going to talk about today – MarketMeTweet – as the single biggest Twitter Application to come out in recent months – certainly one of the most useful and innovative.

MarketMeTweet is the creation of two good friends of mine – Alan Hamlyn and Tammy Fennell but as I am sure you appreciate, I am not promoting this product because they are friends. I am promoting this product because in my opinion it is the best Twitter Application out there and also currently one of the least expensive. Currently for a one time fee of $40 you get a tool that easily beats any of the other alternatives out there. (Some Inferior tools compare at over $188 to buy and have a monthly recurring subscription)

Normally I shy away from posts promoting an individual product but frankly this Twitter Application really is worth making a song and dance about

In this post we go into quite a bit of detail of how to use MarketMeTweet and get the best out of – a sort of step by step guide.

No matter is you are low level user of Twitter or a heavy user, this tool will make Twitter easier to use, more valuable to you and save you time.

I know a good number of readers have already invested in this product – this post will hopefully also act as a good primer for you, so you can get the best out of MarketMeTweet.

Finally, on the subject of price Alan and Tammy have deliberately priced this application at a very low price – so that they may build up a strong army of users as soon as possible. But I also know they are planning to increase that price in the near future. I am not saying in the next 24hrs or even the next week, but you can expect that within the month MarketMeTweet will no longer be available at this low price. (And I shall have to update this post then)

So without being too Salesy – now is the time to invest in MarketMeTweet.

Naturally I earn a commission should you buy via my link (can’t really believe anyone does not realize that) – but just in case you did not, I wanted to make a full disclosure. That said I don’t think I have ever given a piece of software as glowing a commendation as I am doing here for MarketMeTweet.

To our Success

Michael

PS: Just in case you are not following my IncomeDiary Twitter account – you will find it here:
Twitter.com/IncomeDiary

How I Use MarketMeTweet to Brand, Market and Manage Twitter

What Is MarketMe Tweet?

MarketMeTweet is a marketing tool that equips with Twitter management ability. As far as I can see it’s the first of it’s kind, so I had to give it a chance. Here is how I set it up for Income Diary.

I’ve determined people who would truly benefit from this tool fall into 5 categories:

• Internet Marketers
• Very Niche-Based Businesses (Realtors, Chiropractors, etc)
• People who want to keyword target and track progress
• People who want to add more high quality followers
• People who want to increase their brand exposure

Reply Campaigns

When I started using this tool the first thing that drew me to it was the Reply Campaigns. So here’s how I have set up mine to look. As you can see I’m showing you an image for the word “Wordpress Theme.” So I can track multiple keywords and even filter out unwanted terms using ‘Negative Keywords’, and also have ready-to-go reply templates. The first time I did this I got 5 responses within an hour, and 3 of them wound up asking me for advice and then came to my blog. So it’s definitely something that engages people.

Branding

This is the only tool I’ve found that does this, and it kind of blew my mind. I am able to set it so that my tweets now say “via IncomeDiary.com” with a link back to my website. Before this all my tweet’s said “from web” or “from Tweetdeck.”  And as soon as I tweeted from my own brand people started asking me “Hey, how did you do that!” I won’t say it doesn’t have a few steps you need to follow, because essentially what it’s doing is allowing you to create your own application while using MarketMeTweet to do it, so you do have to go through Twitter.com/apps, but they do make the steps super simple. I call this “passive marketing.” Takes the pressure off having to tweet a link every single time!

On their blog, they published that recently an agreement was reached with Twitter regarding branding, but make sure your brand name does not violate Twitter’s terms & conditions. (No affiliate links, pornography, etc) Twitter does have the ultimate say in what brands are approved, but I haven’t had any issues in this regard.

Scheduled Tweets

I’m a busy guy and yes, I do sometimes forget to Tweet. So is pretty cool. I can schedule my Tweets for up to a year in advance and there’s no limits which I found refreshing. Here is one I’m setting up to Tweet out during Underground in DC.

Location Targeting

This is a neat tool, and I spoke to the people at MarketMeTweet and apparently it’s going to get really awesome very soon. Right now I can filter my targeting for followers based on language and country, but soon I can do it for city too. I see major potential for marketing events in this way.

Unlimited Updates

This is something I’m really picky about. I really hate it when I buy something and then a week later new features come out and they’re like “Upgrade… for a fee.”  MarketMeTweet has made a public promise that all updates to the desktop version are going to be free of charge. Since I bought it I’ve already had 3 updates come my way, each one better than the next, so I do have to give the tool Kudos for that.

Management Suite

So like many people I have been a “Tweetdeck Junkie” for a long time. It’s comfortable, I’m used to it.  However, the fact that MarketMeTweet has a pretty decent management side is a MAJOR plus in my book because it was a bit exhausting to have marketing and management in two different tools. This is something that they have said they are going to be adding more functionality to as well.  I was able to get some ‘inside info’ that in April, version two will be released (free to everyone who already has version one, but at a higher price to anyone who wasn’t bought) and this version will be a management juggernaut.

OAuth Secure

I’m not an overly technological person, so at first I didn’t understand the relevance of this, but it didn’t take me long to find out that Twitter is really changing their rules VERY soon. June of 2010 to be exact. What does this mean? If apps don’t follow Twitter’s rules, they will be suspended. That’s going to admittedly be a sad day for some tools I have grown to like, but I’m pleased that MarketMeTweet is totally Twitter Compliant. If I spend money I don’t want to see it cease to function!

Bit.ly shortening

I like bit.ly because I can track clicks, so this a neat little extra that I use regularly and it’s conveniently located as both a shorten button and a stats button.

All in all I give this tool high marks. Is there room for improvement? Sure, but the fact that MarketMeTweet actually took a call with me, listened to my suggestions and made a commitment to keep improving free of charge? Well that’s certainly worth $39.99 in my book! You can pick up yours at MarketMeTweet.com/newtool

PS – As you know I make my living promoting products I think are worthy and I use affiliate links. They do have an affiliate program for this so if you wanted to sign up to help spread the word, you can do so here.

Twitter Tools – a Comparison

OK, so as you can tell I am a big fan of MarketMeTweet – but what other alternatives are out there?

Well I do detail some of them here but I have in particular has success with the following tool in the past:

Twitter Adder ! – which allows you to Find and Engage Like-Minded Twitter Followers & Automate Twitter Posts. You can buy one Profile for $55 or unlimited profiles for $188.

Some more useful tools:

TweetDeck – the leading browser for the real-time and social web, allowing users to connect with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace

SocialOomph.com – formally called: TweetLater. SocialOomph.com is a service that provides free and paid productivity enhancement services for social media users.

Hi Everyone,

This weekend I shall be attending Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit in Stamford, Connecticut and next week I shall be in Washington DC for Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Seminar

But before I go I thought I’d produce both a quick video and a blog post to answer one of the most frequently asked questions I receive – which is: ‘How Do I Monetize My Blog?’ or ‘How Can I Monetize My Blog?’

Believe it or not, some people, even now, don’t fully understand how I monetize this blog.

I still get people wondering why I don’t accept advertising!

This video explains one strategy I use when it comes to putting Interviews on this website, but there are other methods such as list building, ecourse and endorsing offers from other Bloggers. In addition I have also expanded on some of what I say in the video in the post that follows (It was just going to be a transcript of the video – but I got carried away and added a good bit more)

As always I look forward to your comments.

To Our Success

Michael

PS: Attending seminars and masterminding with fellow Internet Entrepreneurs has given me the biggest return on investment of anything I have done in my online business. There are always more ways to improve our businesses – and I am looking forward to returning home in a couple of weeks, with even more ideas, which of course I will share here. I also hope to get the chance to do a blog post or two as I travel – and of course you can always keep up with the latest goings on at Twitter.com/IncomeDiary

PPS: By the way I am looking forward to meeting a good number my readers in Stamford and DC. It will be a Blast!

How I Monetize My Blog – The Video

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How I Monetize My Blog – Expanded

Today I wanted to share with you a method I use to monetize my sites.

Ingredient No1: INSPIRATION

For example an INTERVIEW with a successful Internet Marketer

For an interview I have three main ways to monetize:

1) You start with the interviewee’s product. For example if it was Ryan Lee that I was interviewing I’d recommend one of his products. Additionally if I found there was a good number of conversions for the offer I may later do a special feature / promotion on the blog / to the list (but that is for later)

2) In addition in just about every blog post I will include links to other worthwhile products that I recommend. As a lot of my readers are bloggers it naturally makes sense to include some Blogging Related products here. That is why you see me promoting: Blogging To The Bank by Rob Benwell and Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak

I have also discovered that some people only every seem to buy cheap products while others will always opt for the most expensive option – partly I believe because some people believe the more you pay, the more value you get. For this reason the two products I suggest are at different ends of the spectrum when it comes to price.

3) Create a comparison page or comparison chart. I cannot do this for every product but were I can, I have found it makes a big difference to conversions. My page on Blogging Resources is a good example of a comparison page.

You can have a comparison page for just about every product type – e.g. foods, tools, fitness equipment, website hosting etc

In most comparisons you will also want to make a recommendation or promote one option over and above another. If you can offer your readers a ‘coupon code’ for your recommendation then you will have a lot more conversions of the type you want

A great example of using a ‘coupon code’ is when people use my Coupon Code “Retireat21” to get their first month of hosting with Hostgator for just 1 cent!

To give you another example – I found a great Twitter tool so I created a post on how to drive traffic with Twitter and featured that product and others on it.

This is an example of discovering something that works from a Blog Post – and then making a bigger feature of it elsewhere on the site.

Every-time anyone asks me about Twitter – I direct them to that page.

How Else Do I Make Money?

Well of course I have an email list, people who have signed up for the IncomeDiary.com eCourse or one of the other optins within the site. I have covered Email List Building and Auto-responders in detail in this post, so will not go into great detail here – just suffice to say there is something magical about sending out an email to your list and seeing a $1000 or more turn up in your commissions account within a few hours.

If you look at IncomeDiary.com in detail you will see that it is designed to help people to take positive action in their online business TODAY.

It is the “No Leakage Rule” applied — this website does not have a Blog Roll or anything like that. At IncomeDiary.com I have concentrated on delivering outstanding value – value that encourages people to join my lists / follow me.

This is perhaps my strongest recommendation to you – that you deliver value first and the money really will follow. A lot of people struggle with writing posts that can take several days to put together (such as researching a list) but if you are committed to doing that on a regular basis you will get the visitors and many of those visitors will join your email list.

Once you get on the IncomeDiary.com email list, you will receive a series of emails (eCourse) via an Autoresponder. You’ll get like day one, day two, week four, week five and various other Free reports which produce income via affiliate commissions. Make sure to read Email List Building and Auto-responders in detail to be fully conversant with this and in particular how to email and NOT email your lists. No one likes a Spammer.

Also, and this is most important get yourself a reputation for delivering value and benefit – that means people are more likely to read your emails when you get them and take action.

One thing that has been very successful for me has been to promote other peoples products as the go through the Product Launch Sequence. You will often find that there are reports and videos with great value in them given away in the launch. Even if people don’t but the product people will get value from these free reports / videos and if you do it right, people will thank you.

VERY IMPORTANT: Only ever promote a product you would buy yourself and only a product from an individual you know and trust yourself.

It makes me cringe when I see some people promoting several different offerings from different Marketers every week – some even promote more than one offering in a day! I hate to say it — but there really is not that many great products around – so frankly finding more than a few offers per month to promote is difficult. (Anyone who is promoting more than that I think must be going for QUANTITY over QUALITY)

Talking of Promotions and Product Launches – it is nice to find products that pay you a recurring commission every month, for as long as a customer remains a member of the program. This applies not just to membership websites but also to some software products, indeed one of my nicest recurring incomes comes from promoting some software.

The great thing about most of these offers is that there will be a special introduction price – e.g $1 Trial for the first month which allows people to try out a product before making a serious financial commitment. AWeber Offer a $1 Trial which has proved very successful for me.

NB: Please note I do not promote “forced continuity” — This is where people are not fully aware of what they are committing to.

Forced continuity is a big NO, NO. Fortunately that is becoming less of an issue and most sellers make everything clear in the sign-up process, but in the past it has been an issue.

For this reason I make sure to only promote offers from ethical, reliable, honest marketers. And you should of course do the same.

6THMHX8UG65X

Affiliate Marketing, Squeeze Pages and Video Tutorials – What’s It All About?

Hi Everyone,

Last week I was on Skype with a new friend of mine Adam Horwitz brainstorming, masterminding and generally picking each others brains.

What was cool for me is that Adam is even younger than me and I was thinking I just don’t interview enough really young internet entrepreneurs. This interview partially corrects that. The thing I love about the Internet is the lack of Age Discrimination – no matter if you are a teenager (or even younger) or someone who is long retired the Internet provides opportunity for all.

There are quite a number of highlights in this Podcast interview (Transcript also below) – information on Video Marketing, Squeeze Pages, Pay Per Click, Adwords, CPA offers, Affiliate Marketing, Clickbank and Google Trends to name just some – but I think Adam’s reply to my last question (Any last little bit of advice?) is in fact the biggest take-away in this interview.

If someone says, “There’s no way, you’ll never make money online, everything’s a scam online, blah blah blah, they’re lying. You don’t have to listen to what other people says – trust me, I went through that day in and day out with my friends and stuff. They did not believe that I could make money online, and then as soon as I did, I think their jaws dropped to the ground. So JUST GO FOR IT!

OK, I know that has been said so many times before here – but really it cannot be said enough. I was fortunate, my family was very supportive of my online career and being self employed, but I just like you had plenty of people sneer at me, try to poke fun of me – especially when I set up my RetireAt21.com website.

Have the ultimate revenge – Laugh All The Way To The Bank!

On a very personal aside – I was anything but an A-Grade Student at School but my Mom recently bumped into one of my former school teachers who apparently is now following my online career. I think to be fair, I frustrated that teacher and there must have been days when she teared her hair out over me – but she did tell my mom she always knew I would be an entrepreneur. For those that don’t know, I was the School Tycoon – selling Pokemon cards amongst other things.

So as you can see – Success is not only about laughing all the way to the bank.

Like myself Adam has been a little naughty in this Internet Career (ask him about Dirty Laundry) – but the amazing thing I find about so many successful Internet Entrepreneurs is how they just keep trying – until something eventually works! Adam is one of those – plus he has had a fair amount of fun along the way – as you might expect from a Californian Teenager.

There are lessons here for everyone – not matter what your age or what level of success you have had up to now.

This Podcast is a great listen – I just listened to a play back and I am quite proud of what we managed to cover here.

Enjoy and as always, I look forward to your comments.

To Our Success

Michael

PS: I have used this quote before – but it is one definitely worth repeating — and especially worth noting for those of us who are afraid to TAKE ACTION:

Action Diminishes Fear, Action Creates Success

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Adam Horwitz Interview Transcript

Michael Dunlop: Michael Dunlop from IncomeDiary.com, and today I’m with Adam Horwitz, and he’s an 18-year-old young entrepreneur who runs two six-figure businesses and has a great story. And hopefully today we’re going to share some great tips with you guys about how you can be online and start making money. So welcome, Adam.

Adam Horwitz: Hey, what’s up?

Michael: Hey. So all right, I first want to just quickly touch on your first online business, because it was really entertaining listening to you the other night. Let’s quickly run over your parties Website and how that one went.

Adam: All right. Well, when I first started, I was about 15, and there was actually this Website that started up at school about – it was called “Dirty Laundry,” and it talked about all the gossip of the kids around the school. It got banned pretty much within three days of starting, but all the kids went to it, and they loved it. It was like a blog setup. And so I thought that I had – when it went and stopped – I have no idea why it stopped – of course it was the legal purposes. But I decided to start up my own one that was kind of a twist, but the legal version. And I started putting up parties, when parties were going to be in Los Angeles, because that’s where I’m from, and just telling people stuff about events and all that.

But it kind of got out of hand eventually because I’d have 800 people show up to a house where it would be like a closed party for only like 20 friends, and then another 400 people would show up at another house where the parents would only be there because the party was supposedly canceled two hours before, and I would get all these phone calls and just go crazy from that. So I had to stop that pretty quickly, but it was fun while it lasted.

Michael: Sounds wicked. So after that, you did another Website and you played around with a couple of other ideas for making money. But I understand you started making some real money when you played with PPC, pay-per-click, and affiliate marketing. And one thing is you started selling chicken coops, I believe.

Adam: Yeah. Well, when I first started with affiliate marketing, I was just researching… well, originally I went to StomperNet with my father as a guest, and that kind of opened the doors to me to see that there is potential out there for making money online. I hadn’t really learned much when I was there, because I was kind of just like listening to what everyone had to say and I was just kind of absorbing everything into my head, because this was all new to me. So then I came home and I tried to set up some PPC campaigns, and I tried about four or five and I failed miserably. For the first ones, I lost a few hundred bucks. But then I came across chicken coops, and I went to Google Trends, and I saw that for some reason, people were looking for chicken coops at the time. And I was like, “Who would buy that?” But anyway, I just went for it. I set up a campaign, and i was able to start making money from that from the day I set it up. So that was kind of an eye-opener to me.

Michael: And so is that where you’d recommend anyone looking to find their hot market, is to go to Google Trends?

Adam: Well, when I first started – yeah, I went to Google Trends. Well, I first went to keywords, the Google Adwords keyword thing, and then I would just look up different keywords and see if there were a lot of advertisers in that market or whatever. Pretty much the basics, what any newbie does. From there I would just type it in on Google Trends, and it’s like a little graph thing, and if it’s going up, I assumed that more people were searching for it, which means more buyers. And that’s how I kind of thought, “Well, maybe I should give this one a try.” And it actually worked. So that was quite a good little secret I learned there.

Michael: Great. And what should – so many people are really looking into pay-per-click and affiliate marketing. What’s your biggest tip for anybody who is new and starting and sort of at the same position that you were when you were starting?

Adam: I think a lot of people’s struggle is they set up like eight different campaigns and they let each campaign get around 20 clicks. And then they say, “Well, I haven’t made any money or anything.” But I always say to myself that you ought to at least get one campaign going before you start other ones, and the one campaign, you have to at least get it to 100 clicks, because most products will receive about a one percent conversion. So if you just do a bunch of different products and they’re only getting 20 clicks, you’re not going to make a sale for any of them.

You have to just focus on one and get that up to 100 clicks, and then hopefully you’ll make a sale around there, and then you can expand it as long as you’re breaking even and making a profit. And then if you’re not you should stop that one and try a different one.

Michael: And because you have to buy so many clicks, do you recommend that you go to the higher-priced type product because… If it’s so low and you’re spending all the money on clicks, it wouldn’t work out, yes?

Adam: Yeah. Well, when I promote products and it’s actually funny because first started, the first product that I promoted was $10 commission, and I had no idea at the time that you really did need a higher product. I thought you could just make sales instantly off AdWords and all that, and that was not true. And I lost a lot of money there. So you really need to look for products that are – I love to think of products that are over $30 commission, so they can at least cover it, because I – and also, I don’t really spend that much on keywords. I try to spend as little as possible. So I maybe spend around 23 cents, 25 cents per click, and even though you’re not at the top, you’re still going to get the same amount of clicks as getting at the top, but it’s just going to be over a slower time period. But you always still make the same amount of money. I mean, it’s just going to be slower and you’re not wasting as much. And if it doesn’t work, then you’re not wasting as much money at all. So…

Michael: All right. Great. So, like a lot of people, once you learn how to do something, there’s a great opportunity then to teach it and make a lot of money. All right. I know you’ve set up a Website called Tycoon Cash Flow where you pretty much take everyone through how you’ve gone with pay-per-click and affiliate marketing. I really want to go through what you did then, how you’re having such great success. So firstly, what would you recommend to people, anyone who wants to create a product, and preferably quickly?

Adam: Well, I think to create a quick product, the best way to do it is through video. You just buy a program that you can record the screen and you can talk into it just like you’re talking, and I’m talking into the computer right now. And you just talk and record the screen and show them what you did to be successful, pretty much. That’s all people want to see. They want to see step-by-step how you did it. They don’t want to read a lot, they want to watch you talk about how you did it, and they can pause it and follow your steps and all that. That’s definitely the quickest way, I think, too.

Rather than writing out pages and pages and pages of an e-book, I think it’s much quicker to just do a quick video tutorial

Michael: Do you think people don’t mind? Typically a lot of products are just text and images. Do you think they don’t mind that it can be all covered in a few videos, or do you think they even prefer to have a few videos instead of a big, long e-book?

Adam: For my market, I kind of go for the younger crowd, my age. I’m trying to help a lot of kids my age so they don’t have to work at fast food places or they don’t have to go get minimum wage. I want to show them that it is possible to make money online. So, for them, I know they don’t want to sit in front of the computer and just read an eBook. I wouldn’t want to do that. I think of them like me. I would want to watch something. Just like you watch TV, or just like you watch YouTube videos. You watch it and then it’s just much easier to implement things. And it gets your attention. If you’re fun and laid back and stuff, they can relate better to you and it’s just a better connection. And it actually gets them motivated to make a change and start something.

Michael: All right, that’s cool.

Adam: Yeah, well when I first started we weren’t getting much traffic. What I did with my Tycoon Cashflow Website, I did with a partner of mine actually, who is also a little older, he’s 21. His name is Derrick. But we actually didn’t really have much traffic when we first started it. And we couldn’t figure out ways to get traffic. And then, all of a sudden, I was like let’s try to figure out if we could get traffic through going into contact logs and stuff, and seeing if they want to put an affiliate link up on their banner on their Website. From there, that resulted in getting 10 gravity. And then they all got up to 20 gravity. Then when that happened, we started to get people from ClickBank starting to pick us up. And inside of the course, and I think this is important for any course, you should have some viral thing going on.

Derrick and I actually gave away a free course, which is called the Enigma Marketing Method, which we still offer now. And it teaches people how to make money through affiliate marketing, through articles, through SEO’s, search engine optimization, and all that. And inside we used our product as an example.

So a lot of people took our product and re-promoted it. And that upped the gravity of two. And from there it was just a snowball effect and then more people started promoting it.

Michael: Nice. And for those who are listening and don’t understand what gravity is and Clickbank. Would you like to quickly explain that to them?

Adam: Clickbank is an online digital outlet with over 10,000 products that are all digital. So that means you just download them to your computer or you just get access to members area. But you can promote any product that gets accepted onto Clickbank. Which means you can become an affiliate to any of them. And they all offer, I don’t know one Clickbank for audit, that doesn’t offer 50 percent or more commission for the affiliates. Because they’re digital. There is no other money that the owners have to pay for. It’s all done automatically. So they can afford to give out that high of a commission.

But it’s actually interesting, because there’s like 9,000 or 10,000 products on ClickBank, and within those three months of getting Tycoon Cashflow up, we were able to get in the top 100 products on Clickbank.

Michael: Wow!

Adam: Just from Gravity wise. Just from that viral side of it where people would re-promote us inside the product. And just the snowball effect. It was very cool. It went quickly.

Michael: Presumably that’s because you had a great sales pitch or a great product to sell. What do you ultimately put down to the success of the product?

Adam: The thing is, the sales page isn’t like super advanced. It isn’t super crazy and modern looking. It’s just very simple. I think with any sale page now, people are so used to watching video that you need to have some sort of video on there. My sales page is all based around video. So when someone comes they watch. They see me talking to them. I kind of get them through the whole process. It’s me showing them things through video. It’s all video on my sales page. There is just very little writing. I think the video helps the conversion. It helps people feel more comfortable to buy. Because they feel like they can connect to you and that you’re a real person. Unlike if they just see writing, they’re like: “How do I don’t know this person is really real” and all that. So I think the video is a big help.

Michael: We have a lot of young readers, especially from RetireAt21.com, and they always send this into me. What would you say to them regarding being young in Internet marketing? Because I know when I started, a lot of people didn’t really want to listen to us because we’re young.

Adam: Yeah, I know.

Michael: What do you say to other young entrepreneurs who may be faced with that problem?

Adam: It’s changing. I mean the young people are going to just keep getting more and more into the whole Internet world. The older people are going to eventually fade out. And now all of a sudden the younger ones are going to come into the picture. I think it’s only going to get better for us. Trust me, I went through it too. Even as it went on and on, if you could deliver good content, and you really know what you’re talking about and they can see it in you and you’re passionate about it and all that, then they’ll believe you.

They also like it when you’re young. They think it’s interesting how a young person was able to pull it off. And you can even use it as a marketing advantage for yourself. “I’m this age and I was able to do this.” I think that’s also a benefit of being young.

Michael: Yeah I have seen change in the recent years. I think especially being young went from a negative to now a positive, I believe. You mentioned earlier that you actually have a business partner. What would you say to other people out there who may want to have business partner? Should they? How to go about it?

Adam: Well I actually met him at Stompernet. We were the two youngest people there so we kind of mixed from that. I think if you find someone that you really think knows what they’re talking about and if you like them as a person, then go for it. Because when you have a business partner, it’s much easier to separate. You don’t have everything on your shoulders. It’s a lot easier to just get things pumping. It’s a lot faster to get a course going and stuff like that. I enjoy having a business partner.

Michael: And you never cool out? You never worry that they won’t pick up the slack?

Adam: I mean there are times but you just have to talk to them. They’re normal people just like you. You just have to speak to them and say: “Look this is what’s going on. We have to do this, we have to do that. If you’re not into it, then maybe we should go our different ways.” But you really should figure out before you even get started with that partner, if that’s going to happen. Because you can tell with people. If you guys don’t mix from the beginning then it’s not going to work.

Michael: All right. Cool. Since launching Tycoon Cashflow, you’ve also bought a new product: CellPhone Treasure. A long time, people being one hit wonder. They’ve done it once but they haven’t done it again. I understand that site is another successful Website where you sell another product. Does it get easier with your second product?

Adam: Oh, yeah. It was 20 times easier, because first of all you’ve done it before, so you kind of can look back at what you did on the first one and say, “All right, I did that, I did that. How did it work out?” You answer questions. People ask emails, you answer them. You say, “All right.” And then you have more insight and you have a better understanding of what to do next. And then on top of that you have a huge email list – or a pretty big email list, at least – and then you have all your affiliates that have all opted in. So then you just say, “I’m sending this product out on this day. This is what it is. Go check it out, and if you mind, blasting it to your list as well.” It’s all about, really, networking. If you can get a good list of affiliates, you’re pretty much set for the next product you do, because they do the work for you.

Michael: All right. So your main sales page isn’t really – it’s a squeeze page, I believe. You don’t see the sales page until you opt-in, is that right?

Adam: Yeah, you first opt in. And then you go to the next page where there’s another video of me speaking to you and talking to you a little bit more. And then it says you can get in, you can buy now and get access to the members’ area. So that’s – I just like that whole thing, because I feel like when people come straight to the page and they see a price. Especially if it’s one of those longs sales pages which I’m not into, that’s one thing. But I wouldn’t even go that way from when I started because I like everything to be small and to the point, and so everyone can see one thing on the one page they’ve looked at instead of having to scroll down, like hours and hours of scrolling down.

So I just give them two steps: a video, opt-in, another video, talk a little bit more about it, and then buy now, then get access to the members’ area, and then I come up, back right up with another video of me. Once I’m in the members area and I’m walking through it, it’s pretty much me the whole way through helping them out. That’s what I try to go for.

Michael: And what if they don’t buy once they’ve opted in? Do you do anything after that to try and convince them to buy?

Adam: Yeah. Well, what I do is I actually send them – follow-up them or autorespond to them with a 50 percent off – because I’m like, “Look, times are tough right now. I know that not everyone can afford something, but you should definitely give it a try because I don’t want you to be backing out because you don’t have enough money to make money, you know what I mean? So I try to cut them the best deal as possible so that they can actually get started in finding change for themselves, and I also send them some free courses with the Enigma marketing method, and also I have something called Boot Camp, which is a seven day course that gets sent to them as well. And I try to help them make money there, and then once they make money there, then they’ll go for the course and they’ll have money to purchase it.

So it’s kind of a… Then if they don’t purchase it inside of those two or three courses I give them, that’s the viral effect. So even if I don’t make money out of them or they don’t take action and buy the course, then at least they’re just making money in other ways by promoting our course.

Michael: That’s very clever.

Adam: Yeah.

Michael: So apart from your two products, you also have a blog. Something I’m a huge fan of, having blogs. How do you find having a blog as – do you use it for promoting a product, building a personal brand? How do you use it, and what’s your top tip for readers?

Adam: I really think that a blog is very, very important, especially if you’re trying to build a relationship and you’re trying to brand yourself to your readers or to your customers or whatever. Because by them seeing you and your sales page, if you have a video there, you’re pretty much talking about- I mean, you’re trying to make them buy the product, so you can’t really be that personal and that laid back and stuff. I try to be the best that I can in my videos because I don’t want to be, like, an up-front, pushy salesman, but on your blog I feel like you can really let loose and be yourself and just share what you really are all about and all of what you do on a daily basis, and I think it’s a good place to just have be like your home where you can really be yourself to everyone and where they can communicate with you and comment. It’s just a fun place to have, you know?

Michael: Yes. I understand you’re still at college, but making money online sort of gives a lifestyle that most don’t – what would you describe your Internet lifestyle like?

Adam: Well, compared to a lot of my friends, they are also – they’re all in college, too, and maybe they do babysitting jobs or they work at a fast food place. They work, somewhere they make minimum wage, and I make a lot more than that. So I’m able to buy a lot more things. Like, I don’t waste my money. I’m trying to save up because I want to build equity for myself, and I have a lot of plans to- my goal eventually is to come out with a service, kind of like a social networking service, that- I have a few ideas in my head but I need the money to get started, and that’s what I am striving towards, because it is- I am looking for investors and all that.

So I’m saving as much money as possible, but I do spend on computers and stuff to help my business grow and all that kind of thing. And then TVs and my video games, and I just bought a car recently, a hybrid so I don’t waste gas. So I’m not, like, super spendy, but I do buy a certain amount of things that my friends wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy themselves, you know?

Michael: Naturally. What if it was possible there was actually such a things as a time machine and you could travel back? What would you do differently?

Adam: Well, if I could travel back, I’d travel back and start Facebook. No, but if I could travel back, I don’t think I would do anything differently, because I think I’ve learned a lot on the way, and if I didn’t do what I did and I didn’t start all my Websites and I didn’t fail all those times. I wouldn’t be who I am now. And I think with failing and getting back up and trying it again, failing and trying it again, it kind of builds up something inside of you that you’re not scared of failing anymore, and I think that’s huge. I don’t think people should assume that they’re going to make money within the first thing they do. I think you have to try a few things, like I had to try a few things, and eventually I hit it. I made it through. But you just don’t want to give up – I mean, that’s the main thing – and I was very close to giving up, but I just kept going for because I really – it was a goal of mine to be able to make money online. So you just have to find it out for yourself, give yourself a goal and go for it, and you’ll make it eventually. You’ve just got to go for it.

Michael: Hmm. That’s really cool. What’s the best advice you’ve been given while being an Internet entrepreneur?

Adam: Do what you love. I think that’s very important. You can come out with a bunch of products and stuff. You can come out with products that you don’t know anything about, and you can get writers and stuff. You can get outsourcing, get writers to do it, or get people making videos. But at the end of the day, do you really want to own a product, do you really want to sell something that you don’t like? That you don’t really believe in? I feel like if you’re passionate about something, you should start up something on that and start up a course on that. Something you’re passionate – start up a blog on that. And I think doing what you love is very, very important with anything, but I think especially online.

There’s a saying, “You’re the worst boss.” You could go work for someone else, but then if you’re – you can come back and work for yourself, but if you’re still not doing anything that you like, then you’re the worst boss of yourself. Then you’re just back to working. So I don’t think of this as work. This is fun, this is what I’m doing. And I like to get on a computer and set things up and set up new Websites and all that. So that’s my thing.

Michael: That’s great. So many people have probably failed because they just don’t enjoy what they’re doing. Everyone should probably do what they enjoy, then.

Adam: Yeah. And with the opportunities out there now, there’s no reason that with the Internet the way it is and with social media and with YouTube and Twitter and ways to create Websites for free and blogging, there’s no way that anyone should do something that they don’t enjoy. The opportunity is out there, you just have to to for it and really hustle and if you do that, you’ll make it and you’ll be above the game with what you love. That will be the best thing.

Michael: All right. Well I’m sure everyone who is listening to this who hasn’t yet created a product is dying to know how they can go off today and at least start. Could you just briefly break down what you’d tell them to do right now? What should they be doing straightaway to get this ball rolling?

Adam: Well, first of all figure out what you want to create your product on, and hopefully it’s something that you enjoy, after what I just said. From there you just start- if you want to go the screen recording way, you just get a screen recorder, which is Camtasia, and there’s ScreenFlow for Mac. Camtasia also just came up with one for Mac which I really like. And you just start it: start your course. Start teaching people what you love to do. Once you package it all up, once you make all the videos, then you just set up a simple Web page of you talking, maybe in a video. And say, “Here, opt in,” or whatever, and you send them to the same layout that I have – and that was successful for me, so I don’t know why it wouldn’t be successful for anyone else – and then you just go from there. Go contact some blogs, ask them to put advertisements up from your product that you’ve created. Then put it onto ClickBank so that other people can promote it.

I mean, it’s pretty simple. You’ve just got to start. I mean, the thing is that people feel overwhelmed because they just think about it: “Oh, my, that sounds like so much work.” But when you just do it and when you just start it, then it’ll just go, and once you start it running – well for me, at least, once you start going and once you start really pumping things out, it just goes very quickly. And that’s how I feel it goes. [laughs]

Michael: Wicked. I’ve got a five quick questions to end this interview.

Michael: Firstly, what do you like most about the Internet?

Adam: I like how easy it is to earn a passive income, and how I can be sleeping and I can be playing video games and I can be sitting in math class – which is dreadful, and I hate math so much. But I’m sitting in math class, and I can be making money. I think that’s why I like the Internet so much. It’s also so easy to get your opinion and to get your ideas out to the world, unlike having to hand out business cards and having to go talk people personally. With the Internet, you can put up a video on YouTube and potentially everyone in the world can watch that video if they decided to watch it and if they had Internet access. So I mean the opportunity is just insane. 10 years ago that wouldn’t have been possible, but now we’re right in the time which – the gold rush time, I like to say – and everyone’s rushing to get their spot, and everyone’s trying to really figure out what they want to do online, because anyone can do anything. No matter what age you are, no matter how old you are, or if you’re older, if you’re younger, if you’re 10. I mean, even a 10 year-old can pull something off. It’s just – the opportunity is huge.

Michael: And what do you like least about the Internet?

Adam: Hmm. That’s interesting. What do I like least? I don’t think I dislike anything that much. Well, once you get out there, you’re out there. You can’t really hide with the Internet. You’re kind of like a lifetime documentary of yourself. Once you put something out, once you put a Facebook picture up, once you put your own Twitter up, it’s kind of all adding to a documentary of your life, and that’s going to pretty much be there forever. Even if you delete it, it will still somehow be out there. So just thinking about that, it’s kind of – it’s not scary, but it’s kind of just something that you need to just keep in mind, that you’re always kind of leaving something behind you, and you need to make sure that you do the right things and not pull off something wrong. Because if you do something wrong, then it’s a little hard to pull yourself out of something like that.

Michael: All right, I completely agree. And you’re actually the first person to ever mention that, and it’s a really good point.

Adam: [laughs]

Michael: If the Internet hadn’t existed, what do you think you’d be doing right now?

Adam: I have no idea. I think I was just born at the right time. That’s it. I don’t know. I started out with the home business thing at my school, selling gum to make some extra money, and I was kicked out a few times of classrooms and stuff because you’re not allowed to have gum at school because it gets stuck on the ground and all that. So I don’t know, maybe I’d still be selling gum. I hope not, but… I was just here, I just found the Internet at the right time, and I’m just glad that I’m able to be here right now while things are really exploding. That’s that.

Michael: And who do you look up to? Do you model yourself on anybody?

Adam: I really like Gary Vaynerchuk. I watch his stuff all the time. Even though I’m 18, I watch him on library TV, the wine Website, and I just like – not for the wine part, but I just watch it to see how he does it, and I really aspire to how he is able to pull that off and really build a community on that. And he’s one of them. I also like Frank Curran. When I first started, I was watching Frank learn videos and all that. So I mean, there are a few marketers out there that I watch. That’s really who I look up to, and I’m like, “That’s what I want to be like when I’m older. That’s what I want to do.” So that’s that, I guess.

Michael: That’s really cool. So, any last little bit of advice before you go?

Adam: Yeah. I guess just go for it. No one should be holding you back. If someone says, “There’s no way, you’ll never make money online, everything’s a scam online, blah blah blah, they’re just saying lies to you,” or whatever, this is for you. You don’t have to listen to what other people are – trust me, I went through that day in and day out with my friends and stuff. They did not believe that I could make money online, and then as soon as I did, I think their jaws dropped to the ground. So I think just go for it. Do what you believe is best, and just have fun with it. To me, that’s pretty much all. Just really have fun with it.

Michael: Great advice. All right, thank you very much, Adam.

Adam: Any time.

ADAMS WEBSITES:
http://www.adamhorwitz.tv
http://www.tycooncashflow.com (Watch the Introduction Video – look how Adam connects with people, builds rapport)

Google Overtaken By Amazon?

Hi Everyone

Back in March 2009 one of my earliest posts here on IncomeDiary.com was a list of the the top 30 earning websites in the world

Back then the Top Earning website was not surprisingly Google.com, but I have just done a new Top Earning Websites In The World list based on stats that are now available for 2009 and surprise, surprise, Amazon.com has overtaken Google.com!

Can this really be the case?

Let me be clear – this is a list of some of the Top Earning Websites in the world and as such I don’t claim to have covered every possible website. (but what I wanted to do was give us a comparison of some of the best known websites revenues based on the PER SECOND model)

I don’t know why but there is something amazing about comparing earnings on a per second basis – it almost gives me a shiver up my back (in a good way)

I remember not that long ago being excited about earning just $10 a day, then $50 a day and then the day I first earned $1000 in one day! ($1000 in a day is ONLY 1.157 cents per second by the way)

Imagine what it must be like to be Jeff Bezos, Larry Page or Sergey Brin.

Mind you — one thing I am excited about – my profit margins (net profit) as a percentage is significantly higher than either Amazon or Google

My Father and indeed many other entrepreneurs I know are always telling me:

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but CASH is king

That is something to always be remembered in any business comparison

I look forward to your comments – what names on this list surprised you? Who should be on this list that isn’t?

There is 31536000 seconds in a Year — make all of them count — like Amazon.com

To all our successes

Michael

PS: Quote For Today:

Business without profit is not business any more than a pickle is a candy ~ Charles F Abbott

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since I did a LIST – so here is one for you

20 Things That Every Internet Entrepreneur Needs

Most of us work from home offices – or maybe just a corner in the bedroom, but one thing I have been thinking recently is what items of technology (old or new) could we not live with out?

This list contains the obvious ones – but I hope it also contains some things that some people will have forgotten. I was speaking with a friend (who is quite successful) the other day and I was surprised at some of the things they had not considered – in particular Disaster Planning.

I mean he had virtually no back ups (back-ups of websites, back-ups of PC, back-ups of Email Contacts etc). In addition they had never considered having a fireproof safe or an off-site location for back-ups.

Now I know not all of us need these things – but it is too easy when you don’t work in the so called ‘normal’ office environment to miss out on some essential Admin tasks.

Another note — Home Office Insurance – How many of us have it?

Question 1 – What have I missed of this list?

Question 2 – What one item (apart for a computer) could you not do with out?

Let me know your thoughts

Also — thank you to everyone who commented on my last post: The True Story Of My Overnight Success – I am touched. Thank you.

best wishes

Michael

#1 Dual Monitor Display
	I remember ages ago reading that having a dual screen can increase your productivity by over 29.7% and would have to say, since implementing this into my home office, it’s made a huge difference! I would always be flicking back and forth between lots of different things and now I can just manage so much more. More Information
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#2 Business Cards
	Business cards are one of those vital things all entrepreneurs and business people should carry at all times. It amazes me how often and where I get asked for a business card, from waiting in line at the airport to having my hair cut. When people ask for your card, there basically showing an interest in your business and what you can offer them. More Information
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#3 Whiteboard
	I love to brainstorm ideas, having a whiteboard is a huge advantage for this. I use to have to do it on small sheets of paper and everything got kind of messy. More Information
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#4 Logitech Laser Mouse
	Over the last few years I have had dozens of mouse’s, all pretty much rubbish! Last year I decided to go for a wireless one because the cable always was getting in the way or wasn’t long enough for where I was work. Since using a Logitech Laser mouse I have been so much more productive, it may be such a small thing but it really does make a difference. More Information
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#5 Flip Camera HD
	I got my first flip camera for free when I entered a blog contest as a favour to a friend. Last year when I was in NYC interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk I was having trouble with my video camera and I asked Gary what he used to video his web TV show and he told me he used his Flip. So like any good entrepreneur, I had a back up camera which was my flip camera and I got it out and used it to do the whole interview. Once I had finished I was able to straight away use the devise to upload to Youtube! More Information
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#6 Backpack With Laptop Sleeve
	I travel quite a lot and there’s nothing worse than having to carry an extra bag through an Airport, you already have enough stuff and I usually want to buy more. Having a sleeve in your backpack just seemed like a no-brainer to me! More Information
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#7 Digital Camera
	Another thing I use often is my digital camera, it usually gets the most action at seminars and events, taking pictures for blog posts. More Information
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#8 Mobile Phone With Internet and Email Access
	One thing I think we can all agree on is that we love email because it typically means money. The only down side is that checking email seems to be constantly on our mind and when we are around friends and family, they don’t seem to appreciate us constantly going off to our computers and checking. Having a mobile with email access is vital people! More Information
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#9 Alarm Clock and Phone Charger
	I know your probably thinking, but we live the internet lifestyle, why do we need an alarm clock anymore? We still need it, weather its for our early flights abroad or to get up in time to meet a client, talk to programmers or to make sure we are up in time for lunch. More Information
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#10 Printer
	I typically don’t print much but love to be able to see my work on paper, call me old school but it helps! Another obvious reason is printing of those e-tickets! More Information
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#11 Bin
	If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly writing lots and ideas down, my table easily get’s in a mess and I know when it’s a mess, I don’t work so well. Having a bin just makes it easy for us to keep clutter free. More Information
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#12 Microphone/Headset
	I like to work when it suits me, it’s one of the many perks of the job. However, my family don’t seem to appreciate me working late at night with loud music or talking to programmers on Skype which makes a head headset a no brainer! More Information
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#13 Desktop Backup
	Desktop backups are a must for everyone, we have all lost things in the past and wish we could get them back, this little box makes sure that doesn’t happen! More Information
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#14 Fire and Water Proof Safe
	I don’t ever think my house will catch fire or get flooded, however I would be dumb not to at least protect some of my most important things from it. Great for keeping backups, passwords, money and other important documents. More Information
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#15 Ergonomic Office Chair
	Considering we spend all our working hours behind a computer on a chair, I would say this is one of the more important items I have in my office. Having a good work chair allows you to work longer which allows you to make more money! More Information
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#16 Universal Plug Adapters
	As mentioned above, a lot of us entrepreneurs travel a lot and without universal plug adapters we wouldn’t be able to work while travelling, a vital piece of kit you should all have! More Information
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#17 Filing Box
	I know a lot of us don’t write much down or print much these days so we can get away with such a small amount of filing but it is important to do! Keeping good records is important and without one, we wouldn’t be able to do that. More Information
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#18 Good Lighting
	It may sound such a minor thing but it helps! A well lit work area does make a great difference to your productiveness as you can see more clearly and focus better. More Information
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#19 Surge Protector
	Another essential for all of us, we all have so many devises and pieces of equipment that charging is often on our mind, having a surge protector takes that worry away. More Information
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#20 Expandable Trolley Case
	Getting everything you need in a case is hard enough, trying to bring it half way round the world is another thing! Having a great trolley case makes travelling a breeze. More Information
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Blogging Overnight Success?

Hi Everyone

It is time to put the record straight.

The story of how I created IncomeDiary.com is well documented but I have been thinking recently that what is not so well known is all the things I tried and ‘failed’ at before IncomeDiary.com.

I was thinking this in particular because I have had a few emails from people that 1) Assume I am some sort of overnight success and 2) people who had become disillusioned with their lack of online success.

So in this post I am going to discuss some of my earlier online endeavors (and ‘failures’) and what I learned from them.

Of course my definition of “Failure” may well be different to most people. You see, I see failure as nothing more than a learning experience — and if you have always learned something, how can it really be failing?

If you Google “overnight success’ it will turn up some interesting quotes such as this one by Monty Hall:

Actually, I’m an overnight success. But it took twenty years

Or this one by Diana Rankin

Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success

The good news is it doesn’t have to take 20 years any longer – technology has sorted that out for many of us younger entrepreneurs, but the fact remains – all reasonable and sustainable Success is dependant of Work (often hard work) and diligent application.

If you are going to give up at at the first hurdle or when your first blog doesn’t turn out as you hoped then you may as well not start in the first place.

In this post I hope you will see that I am anything but an ‘overnight success” as I explain just a few of the online efforts I ‘failed’ at before launching IncomeDiary.com. You may also discover somethings about me that I am no longer that proud of.

eBay Business

Yes, my first online business was an Ebay one. A simple strategy – buy low and sell high and I sold pretty much anything I could get my hands on.

Ebay really started to go somewhere for me when I played an online fighting game called Runescape. (I am sure some of you have heard of it)

On Ebay I noticed there was a market for Runescape Gold (The better the player you were the more Gold you earned in the games — and the more Gold you had the more difficult it was to beat you – the better you could Arm / Protect yourself in the game) Because of this a market existed on Ebay for “Runescape Gold”

Not being modest — I was GOOD, so I started playing Runescape more in the evenings, winning lots of battles and earning more gold. Then in the morning I listed what I had won the night before, on eBay. Usually you would get around £40 per 1 million gold, usually breaking it up into smaller deals like 100,000 gold for £7. One guy I played with was quitting because he was going off to university and wanted the extra cash, so after some negotiations, he let me buy his account for $200. To most that would probably sound like a lot of money and a silly thing to do but when I tell you that he had around 400 million gold and the account was actually one of the best in the game you will now be thinking, WOW what a deal. I managed to in the end break down the gold into small portions and probably sell it for over £2000. (about $3200) Not a bad return for a $200 investment.

I decided to keep doing this with other people who were quitting the game for various reasons but after a while Runescape clamped down on this trade (as IP owner) and it was no longer allowed to sell Runescape Gold on Ebay.

Not so proud of it now — but that didn’t really stop me, indeed I got banned a total of 5 times before realising enough was enough.

After Runescape i sold all sorts of stuff, including wrist bands, remote control cars and Lacoste Polo shirts. After doing a few transactions here and there, I got a phone call from a friend who was selling on eBay, he told me he was getting out of the business and wanted to sell his stock. He had several hundred items, mainly Lacoste and Abrocrombie and Fitch. I paid him £2000 ($3200). I was foolish not to go through the stock before I bought it. I had presumed that because he was a family friend that it would be all great quality. Turned out around 30% was unsellable because it was factory seconds. Also most of it was silly sizes like extra larger and extra extra large but in the end this actually worked to my advantage because it seemed larger sized people went online to buy instead of going to shops.

The main downside of this business was that I had to constantly be packaging products and going to the post office, it was also more responsibly then I wanted as I had to make sure it got into the post right away. Often I would forget or leave it for days and end up sending two products for the price of one to make it up to the buyer.

Biggest Lesson Learned: Customers want it now and if that doesn’t work well with your work hours, then you will disappoint and they will leave negative feedback. I also found that there was a lot of things I could do to improve the result of auction, for example if I ended the auction at the busiest time of day in terms of Ebay traffic, I would likely make a lot more money from the sale then if I did it at say 10am.

ShoutGFX.com

Once I got out of the eBay business I decided that I should learn more about Web Design and found myself on a design forum called GameRenders. The forum had a great model, every time you posted on the forum you get a point and there was a market place where you could buy, sell and trade with your points. I loved the model and without knowing the meaning of GFX, I registered the domain ShoutGFX.com to go in direct competition with that forum and 100s of others.

I didn’t know much about web design, nothing about graphics, couldn’t even think about installing forum software but I managed to get my forum online and customized. I created friendships with the top users on the forum and other great designers and managed to convince them to join my forum and help build the community. In 6 short months, ShoutGFX had around 70,000 posts and 2,000 members. I remember I was running ShoutGFX.com when I first met Yanik Silver back in 2006.

Unfortunately because of my great success, came jealous competition that hacked my site and destroyed it. I knew the old owner of GameRenders and asked that he took a look, fix it and let me know how it was done. He let me know who the Hacker was (someone we both knew). It may have been something to do with the maturity of the audience but when I brought this up on the forums no one seemed to really care – so I tried to fix the site and carry on.

Later I discovered that two admins on my forum wanted to delete my site because they had just launched their own site and it would be easy to poach my users if my site was no longer online. In the end, I lost the site due to not having a decent backup.

Nasty — But I learned a lot. Mainly the experience made me more mature and of course I learned that what goes around, comes around.

Biggest Lesson Learned: Keep backups of your website, you never know when you will need it!

ShoutGFX Design We Were Working On Before We Got Hacked

Webdesigndev V.1

A web design site seemed a nature transition from a design forum, I already knew quite a lot about the niche and wanted to give a website a try. I was using a forum called Pixel2Life at the time where I found a young programmer aged 13. At first I agreed to pay him $30 to code my design and as we started talking I found out that he knew a lot about programming and we added really cool things such as a CMS to easily add content (basically like Wordpress but nowhere near as good), a custom Newsletter (not compliant with spam laws) and a bunch of other cool ideas I had.

When I launched the site I added Adsense to the sidebar of the site and above each tutorial, I saw that I was earning around $5 – $10 a day and was mildly impressed with myself but knew I had to do more so I could make more money to expand my business. I researched how others in my niche were making money and they were all using Adsense as well but the difference is, they placed images next to each Adsense text listing – in a similar way to how they also listed their Tutorials / main content. This made readers think the adverts were real content.

First Version of WebDesignDev.com

So I did the same as these other sites and in no time at all my earnings with Adsense jumped from $5 – $10 per day TO $50 per day

I should point out this ‘trick’ is no longer allowed by Google but it was at the time. I didn’t feel bad about it at the time because the advertisers were getting targeted traffic from me – It was just one of the Tricks that online entrepreneurs were using just a few years ago. That said, it does not make it right and I am glad that Google clamped down on it.

After that I still thought I could do better, I went to my good friend, eBay and bought around 2000 website templates for £5 which included resell writes so I could sell it on. I created an advert to drive traffic to the page on my site where I was selling the templates and managed to increase my daily earnings to over $200 with the help of advertising. Webdesigndev.com grew to over 100 tutorials and 200,000 monthly visitors in weeks and I was managing $1000 advertising deals – all at the age of 16.

It didn’t last long though, first came the bad news from my host, having a 13 year old program your site meant that he may know a lot about programming, but didn’t actually mean his code worked well. They told me it was badly programmed which caused huge issues with my server and finally they shut us down. After moving to a new host, I found I still had the same problem and shortly after that I got contacted by Adsense, telling me that the site was banned from the program. (poor quality traffic apparently). Then there was a decline of interest in the template pack so in the end I decided to shut down the site down and begin on my next project.

Biggest Lesson Learned: It is well worth the money hiring a professional. I decided to hire a 13 year old programmer who was cheap but lacked the skills to create a robust website that could handle a lot of traffic. In the end this ‘cheap option’ cost me a lot more then what a good programmer would have.

TalkDev.com

From building ShoutGFX I knew quite a bit about running a forum and promoting it. I decided to give it another try in a similar but more mature market. The site went well but never picked up like ShoutGFX and I decided to sell it on SitePoint for around $1500 a few months later.

Biggest Lesson Learned: It’s not always the best choice to spend your whole budget on building a site, promoting it can be far better use of funds. I spent $650 to buy the TalkDev.com domain from a Domainer – which may sound a lot of money but at the time I had big dreams for the site and if it worked out, the price would of been well worth it.

Retireat21.com

Retireat21 was born out of an idea I got at the Underground Online Seminar that Yanik Silver held in the UK in 2006

I had noticed that there weren’t very many young people in the Internet Marketing business – so I wanted to connect those who did and inspire those who were not yet involved in Internet Marketing.

First Version of Retireat21.com

My original idea for Retireat21 was some sort of social site and in fact at the beginning it went really well. Each user had a profile page, could leave comments, vote up and down young entrepreneurs and we also had a big contest. Along with that I added pages about creating your own website and business and a bunch of other cool options. Although we had a great start, we still ended up with the same issue as last time, bad coding (didn’t learn the first time).

The most exciting day was when I release my young entrepreneur rich list and received over 50,000 visitors in one day and I was mentioned in news papers around the world and was mentioned in AOL and Yahoo news along with 1000 of other sites. I even ended up appearing in a leading Brazilian Newspaper.

Over the years we have worked hard to restructure the site and in 2010 do plan to make the move to a new design and to use Wordpress for all of the site – not just the Young Entrepreneurs Blog

Biggest Lesson Learned: Content is king, once I learned that I started to get a sold following.

Webdesigndev V.2

With Retireat21 finally earning some money, I decided to go back and look at WebDesignDev.com again. This was also just around the time of my “near death” experience in Ghana. (Not sure how many of my IncomeDiary readers know about this – but another life-changing experience)

I always enjoyed WebDesignDev.com and knew it had great potential. So I decided to hire a designer and with in 1 hour had a design I liked and found a programmer to convert it from PSD to Wordpress. I relaunched it using old tutorials and it quickly made its way up to around 35,000 monthly visitors but because I couldn’t bring anything new to the site, struggled to bring it any further. Another main concern was monetization, I was banned from Adsense and couldn’t get more then $300 – $500 for advertising on the site.

Second Version of WebDesignDev.com

Biggest Lesson Learned: At the time of creating WebDesignDev V.2, I had all the same content on Retireat21 for at least a year and when I copied it and put it on the new site, WebDesignDev instantly out ranked Retireat21 in Google. I put down the success of WebDesignDev in the search engines to a great bit of software called: WORDPRESS!

IncomeDiary.com

With so many people asking me how I created Retireat21.com and WebDesignDev.com, I knew I had to create a great FREE guide. Add that to the demand for more interviews and lists in a broader niche then just young entrepreneurs, IncomeDiary was born.

To get the full scoop on how I created IncomeDiary and how you can create a similar blog, check out this post

Biggest Lesson Learned: Consistency is important for success! If you take your eye of the ball, your level of success will drop.

WebDesignDev V.3

Early in 2008 I went back to Webdesigndev.com with a different approach – this time, not to deliver step by step tutorials but to give inspiration and showcase some of the best web design on the net. I was also fortunate to find a young writer who was interested in the web design niche and willing to write for a revenue share. This made a big difference and we were able to bring the site from 30,000 visitors monthly to 160,000. As some of you know – I sold WebdesignDev.com last month for a nice $xx,xxx figure. Very pleased with that because just a year or so ago I was considering accepting an offer of $5000 for that site!

Biggest Lesson Learned: WebDesignDev.com got me by far the most traffic of any of my sites but when all was said and done it earned me the least. I just did not have the time to take WebdesignDev to the next level which is why I sold the site. For me I find it better to concentrate on the sites that make me the most money right now – rather than distracting myself with lower earning sites. That is the case for me right now — I am not necessarily suggesting that will be the case for you.

My “Unfair” Advantage

I was fortunate enough to start my online business very young. I now realise I started my business with very little in the way of overheads – after-all I was still living at home with my parents. A significant advantage for sure but then I was no A Grade Student and I really struggled because of my dyslexia – so in many ways starting an online business was more difficult for me.

But I did have an “Unfair Advantage” — but it is perhaps not an obvious one if you don’t know my whole story. You see I was fortunate that early on in my online career I met and hung out with some of the most successful people online such as: Yanik Silver, James Schramko, Ryan Lee and Alex Jeffreys.

So many people get disillusioned when their first blog or online business does not work out as they expected – and make the fatal mistake of giving up.

Look, if it really was that easy, then everyone would be doing it.

Personally I don’t consider it very difficult – but it is vital to no under-estimate the amount of effort required.

As I have said in previous blog posts recently you have to be prepared to invest in yourself, educate yourself if you ever hope to move from being a Wannabe Blogger to an A List Blogger

Give yourself an unfair advantage – get yourself a coach, a mentor or join a Mastermind. That has been the single biggest influence on my own online success

Finally

I was looking for a story that might inspire those of you who are considering giving up or who are disillusioned and I came across this one:

Abraham Lincoln’s Incredible Journey To Become The 16th President Of The United States!

I think President Lincoln lived one of the most motivational and inspirational lives ever.

Think you have had it hard – look at this “Failure” time-line

* He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1816
* His mother died. 1818
* Failed in business. 1831
* Was defeated for legislature. 1832
* Lost his job and couldn’t get into law school. 1832
* Declared bankruptcy, and spent the next 17 years of his life paying off the money
he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1833
* Was defeated for legislature again. 1834
* Was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken. 1835
* Had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed. 1836
* Was defeated in becoming the speaker of the state legislature. 1838
* Was defeated in becoming elector. 1840
* Was defeated for Congress 1843
* Was defeated for Congress. 1846
* Was defeated for Congress again. 1848
* Was rejected for the job of Land Officer in his home state. 1849
* Was defeated for Senate. 1854
* Was defeated for Vice-President — got less than 100 votes. 1856
* Was defeated for Senate for the third time. 1858
* Was elected President of the United States. 1860

I hope you enjoyed this post – I believe passionately in helping as many people as possible to succeed online.

As you can see, I did not always get it right – but you will also I hope note that I NEVER GAVE UP. Actually as I read it I actually impress myself – It makes me wonder just what could be possible to achieve in next 4 years – when I reach age 25.

I look forward to your comments.

To Our Success

Michael

PS: I just came across this great quote from that great Positive Thinker – Mr Jim Rohn. It seemed to fit in well with my strategy – hopefully it will inspire you also.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

I have three IMPORTANT updates that I wanted to let every one know about today.

1) Young Entrepreneurs Scholarship to Yanik Silvers Underground Seminar

Are you a Young Entrepreneur aged 13 – 23 or do you know a Young Entrepreneur aged 13 – 21?

I am very pleased to announce that my RetireAt21.com website has partnered with Yanik Silver to offer: Scholarship Attendance To The 2010 Underground Online Seminar for selected Young Entrepreneurs aged 13 – 23

A Scholarship includes Free admission to Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Seminar® 6 to be held at a top-secret location in Washington, DC on March 12-14, 2010. ($3,495 value) plus a host of other benefits – check out link below for more details

You can find full details of the Young Entrepreneurs Scholarship here

Yanik offered scholarship’s last year for the first time and at least 5 of the scholarship attendees were readers of mine. I would love to meet even more readers at this years event.

I was very pleased to see some very interesting and considered comments following my “Are You Frustrated By Internet Marketing” post last week.

It appears I struck a bit of a nerve. Of course getting comments is not unusual, but what impressed me was the quality of comments and indeed the ‘discussion’. I had not mentioned it before, but one of my goals for IncomeDiary.com in 2010 is to have more DISCUSSION and interaction between readers.

Andrew mentioned THE HYPE you find with Internet Marketing and there was much agreement about that point – especially with regards to just how much (or little) effort is required.

I was also thinking that a lot of my readers are aware of my own personal lifestyle choices with regards to Internet Marketing and traveling etc. I am now fortunate enough to be able to do a fair amount of travel, doing fun stuff etc while at the same time earning a very decent living. But what is perhaps not so clear is just now ‘hard’ or diligently I do actually work whenever I am in actually at work. Indeed I would go so far as to say that even when I am relaxing I am always thinking of what I see or experience in terms of Blog Posts, Business observations etc

A long post on one of my blogs (e.g. A Top List) can actually take several days to research and put together.

So How Much Work Is Required Per Week To Realistically Earn A Full Time Living As A Blogger?

Well, I think it actually depends on NICHES’s but I would say that most ‘full-time’ bloggers like me work at least 25 – 35 hrs per week. OK, there will be times when I work less than 10 hrs per week, but that is only because I have invested time and effort into future posts in previous weeks. There will also be weeks when I put in 50 hrs plus, usually before I go of on a trip somewhere.

In my own spirit of Removing The HYPE, I will be spending more time in future posts discussing the work element.

My good friend Bernadette Doyle is an Internet Marketer that I really look up to and she runs a 7 Figure Business while working just 3 days per week. In Bernadette’s case this is because of necessity – she is mother to two Young Children (and even Nannies need days off). If I have it correct in addition to her 3 work days I believe Bernadette schedules two days at weekend to be with her Children Full Time (Bernadette works from home, so she sees her Children every day, but the weekend is dedicated Children time) Additionally she has one day a week dedicated to “Me Time” – when she goes to Spa, Dancing etc. The remaining day is a floating day I believe that allows her flexibility to catch up on things etc.

Actually Bernadette’s example is one that I am trying to emulate.

Overall, I think it would be better that Marketeers made this WORK thing much clearer to people, where more realistic about what kind of effort is required. Afterall:

There is no such thing as a Free Lunch

One other comment in that post that got my attention was from Felix

Felix makes the case for delivering value first – and then attempting to sell a product. Something I agree 100% with.

Felix also made the point that ……….

If you are not willing to put in the work, your fairy tale bubbles will burst as soon as you stop hustling

Thank you Felix – that is exactly the point I was trying to make above

Additionally Felix says:

If a lot of value is being delivered for free, how much more will you receive if you buy.

Felix does say to take his comment with a pinch of salt so I am not 100% sure what point Felix was making here. If the point is that paying for something will no necessarily improve the return then I personally cannot agree.

Firstly, if you pay for something then in ‘theory’ you are being more serious about your business and more likely to take the required action to succeed long term.

But even more importantly in my opinion, I have not ever met any successful marketer or business person who does not invest in themselves on a regular basis – in terms of training etc.

I find a lot of wannabee Internet Marketers suffer from Poverty Consciousness – never buying a product (but often ‘borrowing’ someone elses product or looking for “freebies’ generally)

Of course, I am not for one second suggesting Felix is one of these people – far from it. What I am saying is that if you ever really hope to make it BIG online then you will have to invest in yourself in terms of buying courses, attending workshops, seminars etc.

I remember one particular very successful online marketer once explaining to me that he would invest $2000 in a Home Study Course that would provide him with just one good idea and be happy about it.

Of course, the important point here is to decide wisely on what products, courses, seminars to invest in — and in the coming weeks as mentioned previously that will be one of my focuses

3) Forced Continuity

My good buddy Ryan Lee made an interesting post on forced continuity over at his blog recently. As always, Ryan (himself the Continuity King) gives us lots to think about – but what I found most interesting was the actual wealth of comments the post got.

Do you know what Forced Continuity is?

Well, definitions do vary – but to me Forced Continuity is when a marketer often offers something free or low cost on a Trial Basis (Capturing your credit card details as they do it) that then continues to bill you each month thereafter at the higher cost and the reason it is FORCED is that the Marketer does not make this clear in their marketing, or if they do, then it is such small print as to be almost unnoticeable. What is more the process of canceling this ’subscription’ can be a nightmare afterwards. (Difficult to locate cancellation pages etc)

Now let me be clear – I am a great fan of Continuity – it is an excellent business model and one that has been used long before the Internet existed (I don’t remember, but my Father was just telling me about the Book Clubs that used to automatically send you a new book every month after an introductory offer). What I am not a fan of is deceit and scamming people.

Ryan is a great example of someone who does Continuity correctly. People will want to cancel subscriptions – but don’t make unhappy customers out of them by making it difficult to cancel etc.

I am already noticing a lot clearer offers when in comes to Continuity Recently – and this can only be a good thing

A word of personal advice – do not join any subscription service without first also being clear on how you going about canceling the subscription later if you wish.

I hope you enjoyed this post – I normally try to make my posts specific to one topic (and actually I usually recommend that) – Today is the exception with multiple topics.

I look forward to your comments as always

To Our Success

Michael

PS: You can find full details of the Young Entrepreneurs Scholarship here

Blind Internet Marketer Doing 7 Figures

Hi Everyone,

I an very excited to have a superb interview today to kick our interviews for 2010.

But first I have to admit, I have struggled a bit with this post – to come up with a Title that truly reflects the remarkable person that Matt Wadsworth is.

I mean, this is a guy who:

1) Is Blind and who is now doing 7 Figures after only being actively online for less than 2 years
2) An Internationally Acclaimed Muscician
3) Lives life to the FULL – example – Matt has just taken up Downhill Skiing!

I first met Matt at Yanik Silvers Underground Online Seminar last year. I was impressed, but frankly at that time, I did not fully appreciate just how impressed I should have been!

My Dad (Barry Dunlop) and I had the pleasure to hand out with Matt a couple of weeks ago (and enjoy a Steak at the Ruth Chris restaurant) when we were in Washington DC attending Yanik Silvers Mastermind Meeting. When I heard what Matt is doing now, I just knew we had to interview him for this site. I mean anyone who goes to 7 Figures (in a most unusual marketplace) in less than 2 years would get your attention, wouldn’t it?

Indeed, Yanik Silver is so impressed that Matt is one of his Underground Speakers at this years: Underground Online Seminar

There are lots of Gold Nuggets in this interview – but the one that really made me perk up and listen was when Matt said:

Never wait for anyone else to give you a solution

Enjoy the interview (Podcast and Transcript) — I look forward to your comments

To Our Success

Michael

PS: I am also grateful to Barry Dunlop for popping on the call last week when I was not available to do this interview with Matt. Thanks Matt, Thanks Dad.

Matt Wadsworth Interview

Barry Dunlop: Hi there, folks. This is Barry Dunlop at incomediary.com. Today I have a very special and unique individual on the call with me, possibly one of the most interesting Internet marketers I’ve ever come across in my life. The name of the gentleman is Matthew Wadsworth.

Matthew, is an internationally acclaimed lute player. You’d better Google “lute” like I had to in order to know what a lute is. But he’s at the top of the game. But not only that, he is at the top of that Internet Marketing game. In fact, Yanik Silver has got Matthew as one of his Underground people that’s going to be presenting at this year’s Underground Online Seminar in Washington, DC.

In addition Matthew also happens to be blind. So I have got a blind, internationally acclaimed lute player who’s at the top of the Internet marketing industry. A remarkable individual who it’s been my pleasure to get to know, especially over the last 12 months.

And I believe you’re on the line there, Matthew. Are you there, Matthew?

Matthew Wadsworth:  I am, indeed. Hey, Barry. How are you?

Barry: I’m very well, Matthew. Listen, I know you’re a busy guy, and I really appreciate you taking the time out to have a little chat with us. I know that people ask all the usual questions first, about your professional career and obviously about the fact that you’re blind. I understand you were blind from birth, is that correct?

Matthew: Yeah, that’s right. I’m 35, and I was born blind. So, in a way, I’ve never had to get used to anything else. I suppose one could see these things as an obstacle in life, but I would really attribute being blind to a lot of my success, both as a musician and in Internet marketing. And I guess we’ll come on to some of the reasons why, but I do think, if you have to make more of an effort and you have to struggle a bit more, and you’re prepared to go through those struggles, then that’s really one of the things that takes you far, in whatever you might put that to.

Barry: Spot on, Matthew. Absolutely. In fact, actually, I think it was Yanik Silver who said to me something like, “Well, I’m working on the basis, if Matthew gets up on the stage and says:

Look, this is me. I’m blind, and I’m making money online. Why aren’t you?

And I know from having spoken to you that the blind, that’s not really a big issue to you. It’s to us, the people who can see, that it’s a big issue, but to you, it was normal for you from day one. And because of that, you’ve obviously had to do things other people haven’t had to do. But in actual fact, you see that as a benefit, or as a plus. [laughs] Every time I speak to you, I used to think I was a positive guy till I met you,
Matthew. You’re a very positive individual.

Matthew: Oh. That’s very kind of you. I don’t see obstacles as a problem. I see them as challenges. And we all have challenges that we’ve got to, first of all, face, and then overcome.

And I think one of the amazing things about the world, bringing it back to the Internet marketing space, is that there are many, many ways to do things. I think people, they make things too complicated sometimes, and they won’t do something until they’ve got the perfect way, or what they think is the perfect way. And the fact is that there is no perfect way. It’s a question of just having the courage to get out there and do things.

I did a similar thing. We were chatting about this before we started recording, but I’ve been doing some skiing lately, and doing some downhill skiing. And I was rubbish. I mean, I’m falling over, going the wrong way, couldn’t turn. But I just kept doing it, kept trying and trying different ways. And I had someone skiing with me, and we tried different things: having someone ski behind me, someone ski beside me.

So I’ve never waited for someone to give me a solution because, as I was growing up, people were just always saying, “Oh, well, you’re blind. You can’t do this. You can’t do that.” I suppose I’ve always been strong minded, but I was like, “Hold on a minute. I will call the shots. I’ll tell you what I can and can’t do. Don’t impose that on me.” And I’ve sort of taken that with me all the way through life.
So, basically, I never listen to anybody unless they’re telling me I can do something which I didn’t think I could do. But if it’s the other way around, it’s like, “Well, sorry, but leave me alone.”

Barry: Matthew, well, you haven’t stolen, but this is one of the things I was going to talk about, the fact that when I heard that you were learning to ski, I thought, “This is a joke. Somebody’s trying to take advantage of Barry here.” But in actual fact, I know it’s a fact that you are learning to ski, and it’s really just a sign of my own ignorance that I didn’t think that that was something you could do.

But when I spoke to you, I love that, when you say you never wait for anyone else to give you a solution. So you’ve been experimenting with somebody beside you, somebody behind you, somebody in front. [laughs] I just think that’s so remarkable.

I will ask one question which I do know people will ask. You’re blind. You’re on the Internet. Just briefly explain, how can you read the page? Because I know how you do it. This is how technology’s moved on and how software works these days. But just briefly tell us how you’re able to make sense of what’s on a web page.

Matthew: I use a normal PC computer. And I have one particular piece of software. It’s known as a screen reader. Basically, it takes the information, which goes to the video card, which then sends the information to your screen. It takes that information and it turns it into speech, into an audio representation.

And so I don’t use the mouse. I move around with the tab and the arrow keys and keyboard shortcuts. And it’s an incredible thing. Probably, if I’m reading a document or an ebook or something, I can read about 200 pages an hour. And no one can understand what this thing says. It just says [makes garbled sounds]. But I get the information.

And in a way, the Internet has leveled the playing field. It’s opened so many doors and given me access to so many possibilities, and that’s what really kind of got me into doing business and using the Internet as the medium of delivery, if you like. I mean, business is business, and it’s been that way for hundreds of years. So the Internet is just a medium which we use.

I think what I see as an advantage, and I perhaps wouldn’t have seen this a couple of years ago when I started, it is that there are many things that I can’t do. There’s software programs I can’t access. There are websites I can’t access for doing research.

So, basically, what I do is I research processes and I understand that process and I get it very clear in my head, and then I’ve built up a team of people around me who can implement it for me. So I say, “Right, this is what we’re going to do. This is the aim. This is the end result. Here’s where we’re starting a problem. Here are all the pieces.” And then we put it together.

So, in a sense, that is outsourcing, but that’s a much?misunderstood term, because people say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got to outsource everything.” But you’ve really got to know what you want people to do. You can’t expect someone to build a business for you. You’ve got to have that inner vision and drive to see it through. And in order to have that, you’ve got to understand the process. It forced me to look at what I was good at. And I think everyone needs to do this. You mustn’t be trying to do everything.

So, basically, I can strike off things like graphic design. I mean, no chance. I can’t see it. So someone else is doing that. Someone building websites, I don’t want to do that. I outsource all the things that I either can’t do or I’m bad at or I don’t want to do, and then I concentrate on being creative, coming up with ideas, and forging joint venture relationships and all that stuff that I can do.

And this is what I do. I’ve got a few people who I coach now. And straight away, I sit down with them and say, “Right, what are you good at?” And if you’re good at something, and most people are, I say, “Well, how did you get good at thing? What did you do? If you were teaching someone how to do it, what would you teach them?” And then you kind of reverse engineer that process and just apply it to something different, like building a business.

Barry: Absolutely. That’s very impressive, Matthew. Actually, I think it’s something everybody should be doing. You were forced into doing it, in some respects, this outsourcing, as you described it, because you were blind. But of course, it’s a fact for everybody. You do what you’re good at, and you outsource the rest. Something which I happen to know, actually, Matthew, is that you’re a relatively newcomer, actually, to Internet marketing. Did you tell me it was something like late 2007 you first started online? Or maybe I think it was even 2008 before you got serious. So why don’t you sort of take us through the time line there and tell us, actually? Because I think this is something else that’s going to be interesting to people, the marketplace you went into, because I know it’s a very competitive marketplace you went into, and what kind of money you’ve been able to make and so on and so forth. That would be great.

Matthew: Sure. The reason I went into that market is because I’d reached a sort of point in my music career and I can’t remember how many CDs I had out at that time. It was definitely about four or five. Played all over the world and yet was still making 20,000, 25,000 UK Pounds a year, which is about what you can make as a musician, really.

And I saw it becoming more difficult to sell CD’s, and budgets were being cut with concert venues and, you know, I really predicted that well because now it’s quite a mess, really, the music industry. And I still do what I love, which is going around playing the lute and doing all sorts of other things. So my motivation was, “OK, I want to find a way of earning money, which I can manage from anywhere in the world, ” so as long as I’ve got a laptop, you know, I can keep on top of things. And you know, I saw that people were making money online and I never thought, really… I never thought of myself as running a business, but I just started looking at things and it kind of made sense.

And so it was in November of 2007, so just over two years ago, I went to the World Internet Summit in London. I’d already, prior to that, just a month before, I’d bought this course, it’s called the 20/20 Challenge, and I’m really happy to credit that course for getting me started. And I just followed it through, just get some PLR (Private label rights), then write material and put a website together. Find some JV partners and research a market. And I did it, just followed it, and I didn’t care if I made any money or not, I just wanted to see what I could do, what I was good at, how difficult it was. Didn’t care if I failed or not. And then I went to the World Internet Summit and I just thought, “This is so possible, it’s unbelievable, ” and again it really cemented it in my head that I was going to do whatever it took to make this happen. I could feel it.

And I’m fortunate that I’ve got an amazing girlfriend who’s very trusting and supportive and she was like, “Well, yeah, go for it. Nothing to lose.” And so that was then, that was sort of November 2007. And I invented a system for horse racing, and I will pre-qualify that by saying that I have no interest in horse racing itself. But I do have an interest in numbers. I’m pretty good with numbers and I was actually primarily wanting to go into the FOREX market, but it’s a pretty visual environment with the charts and panel sticks and all that kind of thing. So again, I just thought, right, “What am I good at? How can I use what I’ve got?”

And there were a couple of websites that were very accessible, full of statistics, and I’d already seen people kind of losing the horse racing and I looked at why that was and coming back to this thing of not waiting for someone to give you a solution, I just thought, “Well, I’ll try and invent my own system.” And so I did and then I got some people, six or seven beta testers, to try it out. And this is a strategy now that I’ve used over and over again in totally different markets. But firstly I approached the top authority site in the UK horse racing niche and I wrote an article for them and just built up the relationship
.
And then I said, “Look, you know, I’ve got this system. Can we get some people testing this?” So we got some of their members testing it out.
And then they interviewed me so we already kind of had a buzz going. This was in February 2008. And I launched the system, I brought it to the market in May 2008 and I gave them an exclusive, this authority site, for three weeks. And so I had nothing, I had no list. Yeah, I had my product that I’d created. And I just gave them this interview….I did an interview, gave them the exclusive and you know, did over $10, 000 in that first month. And then because I’d given them an exclusive, all the JV people, all the other system sellers heard about it, so they were kind of knocking on my door, saying, “Hey, can we promote your system? We’ve heard really good things about it.” So I don’t know how many clients I’ve got now. It’s probably over 150.

Barry Dunlop:  Wow.

Matthew: And a few months ago, I launched another system and that’s going amazingly.
And I automate these things, so I haven’t got someone… Or rather, my customers asked me if it could be automated, so I found someone who writes what are called ‘bots’, like robots, like a computer program that does everything for you.

And it’s… You know, I’ve just surveyed my list over and over again, asking them what they want, what they struggle with, and then I solve those problems, because it’s something I love to do. I mean, I’ve solved my own problems all my life and it’s really nice to do that for other people, and make some money out of it.

Barry Dunlop:  Yes. I think the angle there is you say never wait for anybody to give you a solution, but you go out and provide a solution to the marketplace.

Matthew:  Yeah, and I love doing that and the money doesn’t come first. It’s like, right, what problems can I solve? If I keep bringing value to the marketplace then, I mean, you have to try quite hard not to make money, if you’re really bringing something that people need or want. So then I’ve done that in other markets and it’s spread my risk and portfolio. And you asked how much money I’ve made and I’ve done OK. I’m kind of up to the seven figure a year mark now.

Barry Dunlop: Wow. Wow, wow.

Matthew: That’s dollars. That’s dollars.

Barry Dunlop: I’d take it, Matthew. I’d take it. When you say seven figures, that is amazing. Well done. I mean, I was going to suggest it was six figures, because I already knew last year you were heading high six figures, so that’s a remarkable achievement.

Matthew: Yeah, it’s… I mean, I’ve really learnt where the leverage points are and you know, obviously, trying to earn more money for certain things and learning that it’s OK to do that. And yeah, I’m quite shocked at how fast it’s gone. But I think of it, not just from a financial point of view, but it’s… I don’t know, just trying to do something good and I like helping other people out, providing that they want to help themselves.

Barry Dunlop: OK, well, well done. Well done. I want to… I know your time is precious, Matthew, so I just wanted to ask, because I know what a lot of people would be asking is, well, you know, probably like me, they’re a bit dumbstruck at the moment. They’re thinking, “Wow, this guy, he speaks such a lot of sense.” But imagine that there’s a first?timer, an absolute newbie, or a new person starting online for the first time. And it isn’t that long ago that you started. I mean, is there any particular strategies that you’d advise, or indeed, is there anything in particular you’d advise them not to do you know, that they could take away today maybe would help them on their journey?

Because one of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s a tremendous amount of frustration. In other words, people, they buy this course or they try this or they do the other thing, and somehow it doesn’t work out, so any rock solid things you can hang your sort of hat on there, Matthew?

Matthew: Well, I think a huge thing is mindset, and it’s something that people are starting to talk about a little bit in the IM game, and you’ve got to remember the Internet, and Internet marketing is a very young business.

And you know, it’s such a huge thing, just the way you think. And I’d attribute that to…I don’t know what percentage of where I’ve got in my journey. It’s always started with having this idea of believing that I can do it. And so I think a really big thing. I mean, if you can take this and understand it and apply it, then this is going to be really huge. It’s that you have to put the responsibility for what you want to do and what you want to achieve, you’ve got to put that responsibility on your own shoulders. So you have say to yourself, “Right, this what I want to do. I am going to make it happen. I am going to do whatever it takes to make this happen and it’s my responsibility. It’s not the responsibility of the course that I just paid $500 for.”

I mean, yes, you buy a course, it should deliver what it’s promised, but it’s up to you to make it happen and if you don’t know how it works, find someone, ask them. Never be afraid to ask, and ask good questions. And the other thing I would say is, I mean, I just do this all the time, you know, if you want to learn something, find someone who’s doing it and see if they’ll teach you or see if you can pay them or whatever. You know, if you wanted to learn skiing, you’d go and find a teacher, probably, and you might try it, and then, you think, well, I’ll go and learn some lessons. And why should that be different in a business?

And I mean, you know, people don’t often say this, but I will say it because I think it’s better to say the truth: you know, you read sales pages, and it’s, anyone can do this, and blah, blah, blah. Well, I don’t think anyone can do it. And I think, you know, in the western world and in the society we live, I think we have the opportunity to do it, you know, we’re free to do what we want and forge our own path, but can anyone do it, well, I’m not sure because it is hard. It takes a huge amount of determination and, you know, you’ve got to not give up. So I’m not saying, it’s nothing to do with education or having a kind of rocket science degree or anything like that, I mean, there’s so many different kinds of people making money online, but it’s definitely, you know, a certain type of person. It’s a bit like saying can anyone be an athlete or a musician? I mean, probably not. So yeah, I’m not trying to be negative in that, but you know, if you’re determined and you won’t give up and you’ve got a vision, then great, then that’s that, that’s what it takes.

Barry: OK. I think that is the key to it, actually. If you’ve got a vision and you won’t give up, it’s like a recipe, really. It’s really almost impossible to fail. The challenges, of course, are most people give up, which is why, of course, as you say, not everybody can, because if you’re somebody who’s going to give up, it’s like you’re learning to ski and you fall down and keep falling down, and you might eventually give up, but you’re never going to learn to ski without falling down. And you’re never going to learn to have any kind of business that’s successful without making some mistakes along the way as well.

Matthew: Yeah. I think, you know, at school we’re sort of taught that it’s wrong and very bad to fail. And, I mean, basically if you allow yourself to fail, then you can’t fail, because you’ve allowed yourself to do it. And, you know, you just keep going, do something, learn from it, carry on, and eventually you get there.

You know, it’s a bit like learning to cook. I mean, you might read the recipe and then try and it’s all burnt and horrible, but then you try again and then it’s a bit better, and eventually, you get there. I think people over complicate this whole thing, and it doesn’t need to be that way. Just focus a bit. Here’s my great advice, is focus on one thing.

Decide what you’re going to do and then forget whether it works or not, just do it, see it through. And, you know, that’s going to get you further than waiting to buy the right course and the right tools and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Barry: This is very, very impressive, Matthew. I am, and I know the people listening to this or reading the transcript will be equally impressed, because you’re living proof that if you focus and you really do do that, then, you know, just look what’s possible, you know, it’s a seven?figure income after 12 months or, sorry, just after two years. It’s an amazing achievement, and you’ve obviously, you know, you richly deserve it. I’m going to have to ask the question, because I’m a big fan of Mindset and I recognized how important that has been in my own life. I suspect with you, you’ve probably, you’ve just evolved into this mindset, but did you have any teachers? Did you have any mentors along the way, or anybody in particular that influenced you, a schoolteacher or a book you read or anything like that? Not that you, you know…

Matthew: Yeah, interesting.

Barry: Anything in particular you want to give credit to?

Matthew:  Yeah, probably lots of people. I mean, I think a lot of it has come, I hesitate to use the word naturally, you know. A lot of people follow Tony Robbins, that kind of stuff, and he is amazing, I haven’t read his stuff, to be honest, but I… Let’s see, I mean, my father definitely had a huge influence on me as I was growing up. And you know, like I said, the big people saying, well, he can’t do this, and he can’t do that, and before I could fight my own battles, he was like, well, yes he can, and you’re going to watch him do it. I learned that from a very young age, that people project their fears onto you. So if you’re trying to start a business and your partner says oh, don’t do that, you know, it’s dangerous, and someone will rip you off, and I’ve heard bad things about it. And I mean, it’s usually because people care about us, and they’re scared, and they don’t want any harm to come to us, you know. So yeah, definitely my dad, and then another great person is the headmaster of my secondary school who’s called Mike Evans. And you know, just these are all things you learn afterwards. He was such a brilliant leader and I, you know, remember so much of how he ran that school. It’s a multiracial school with every religion and race under the sun in Moss Side in Manchester. And it was just such an impressive operation. And I really learned at that school to communicate with people and to get the best out of people and realized that, you know, everyone’s different and everyone’s got qualities.

And then probably in the Internet marketing space, there’s been all sorts of people that I really have had the privilege to get to know, but I got to know them because I took action. And I didn’t ask them to give me anything, I kind of brought value to the table. And so, you know, definitely yeah, Matt Bacak, definitely Yanik Silver, Ryan Deiss, I mean, yeah, loads of people, really, just have been an inspiration.

Barry:  Wonderful. Indeed. I mean, well, I think you’re the inspiration today, Matthew, and I think it’s a tremendous lesson here. I mean, I’ve just been looking at the timer and we’ve actually done 25 minutes, which I think we allocated around 20 minutes. I mean, I would like to ask you a couple more quick questions, with your permission. First – do you have any predictions for the future of the Internet? How do you, you know, you’ve obviously benefited tremendously from technology yourself, if… A lot of people say to me, well, Barry, that’s already been done, you know, like somebody said to you, well, UK horse racing has already been done, but you found a different way to do UK horse racing and make money out of it. Do you have any predictions for the future or anything like that you’d want to make? I mean, Mindset is everything, so I imagine as long as Mindset’s fine, the future’s always fine.

Matthew: Yeah.

Barry: But do you have anything to add to that?

Matthew: Well, I think it will just become more and more mature, you know, formal. People will buy things online. And I just see the Internet as a medium. You know, before we had this, I mean, people still did business, you know, it’s not suddenly started in the last 10 years. So it’s just knowing how to use this fantastic tool that we’ve got and this thing that gets better and better all the time.
I mean, the markets I go into, it’s really very simple, I go into evergreen markets. So that’s the ones that are not going to go anywhere, you know, that I think will be around for a long time.

Barry: That’s a good tip, that’s a good tip.

Matthew: They kind of, you know, there is more effort to get into those markets, but I go for longevity, so I don’t mind if I have to work like a dog for 12 months to be in there for 10 years. So I go for evergreen markets, I go for things that can be automated and systemized, and I usually go for things that have an element of continuity to them, you know, like monthly memberships or software that I can charge monthly stuff for. So because I’m in the business to, you know, I don’t want to be working 15 hours a day, I wanted freedom, I wanted to be able to go around and still play the loops and do skiing and have a nice life, and now I’ve got that, yeah, I’m trying to kind of teach a lot of people how to do it and just, you know, bring some value to the marketplace.

I go for evergreen markets, I go for things that can be automated and systemized

I don’t actually have an IM product of my own, I mean, there are hands outstretched from, you know, all sorts of people saying that we’ll promote for you that I first want to find out what people want, and I’ll see if I’ve got something useful to bring to the table. I don’t just want to come in and crank something out and make money, I’d rather, you know, bring some value to the market.

Barry:  My prediction, I will make one, Matt, is when you bring something to the market, it will answer a lot of questions for a lot of people and it will be the must have product, because I know just in my… your brain things so differently to so many of us, you know, that it’s about, you know, evergreen, I love that, can be automated, I love that, has an element of continuity to it. These are just sound business practices, and there’s a tremendous amount to be learned there.

Thank you Matt — we really appreciate your time and your wisdom.

Matt’s Websites:
The Phenomenon Horse Race Betting System
Matt Wadsworth Marketing Blog
Matthew Wadsworth – Lutenist

Why I Attend Seminars

Hi Everyone

I get a lot of feedback and emails from my blogs. Most of it is very positive and encouraging – but occasionally there are some less positive comments. (I even had someone refer to me as a ‘retard’ last week) I accepted a long time ago, that I am not going to please everyone and not everyone will like me. Come to think of it, that’s a business rule that could have well been included in my recent list of 21 Rules For Business blog post.

Anyway, last week I sent out a promotional email for Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Seminar It is not unusual to have some un-subscribes after a mailing – but one in particular that I received last week got my attention. In the reason for un-subscribing they said:

Fed up with all these people trying to sell me things, I want to make money not buy things.

I was surprised and saddened – I mean how can anyone in business hope to make money without spending some money on their education?

As I thought a bit more about this email, something else occurred to me – that this comment was in fact a comment made out of Frustration. In fact this person is most likely trying very hard to be successful online but for whatever reason not having the breakthrough they hoped for. (Either that or else they are already so successful they don’t need to educate themselves anymore!)

I like the Wikipedia definition of frustration:

Frustration is an emotional response to circumstances where one is obstructed from arriving at a personal goal

I am not sure I can help this individual but I do know from the emails I get a fair number of my readers experience frustration.

I think too many people have been ’sold’ on the idea that making money is easy, requiring little investment and almost no hard work. Often the people being ’sold’ are desperate, in debt, working in jobs they don’t like and even quite depressed.

I am not going to give a lesson on handling frustration here but I will give you my personal strategy for handling those frustrating moments by asking myself on simple question:

What Have I learned From This Situation?

Even if you are BROKE, you have learned how to be Broke – and if you know how to be broke, then you should be able to reverse engineer so that you are not broke!

Another great question to ask is:

What Can I be Happy About Right Now?

Not an easy question to ask in really tragic situations but most times in business there is something that you can be happy about – even if it is only that you are taking ACTION about being Broke, or you have learned away to not do something.

I know that many of us don’t find it that easy, especially if we have had a lifetime of conditioning otherwise. Where we are right now in our lives is the sum total of all our decisions up to now. If we are to experience a better outcome then clearly we will have to make some new decisions.

What New Life Changing Decision Are You Going To Make Today?

Finally on this point, almost every major breakthrough in my life has been preceded by some moments of frustration – when you accept that frustration leads to breakthroughs then I find it is much easier to handle.

Why I Attend Seminars

For me personally, all the big breakthroughs have come at seminars – it is being around other like minded and ambitious people that makes the difference. If I had not attended seminars then I would never have been able to brainstorm with people like Yanik Silver, James Schramko, Ryan Lee and Alex Jeffreys. Being able to do that is Frankly worth far more than the price of admission to any seminar.

I appreciate for some of you it is a financial stretch – but if you can do it, I really believe that Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Seminar can be life changing, as it has been for me. Indeed it was attendance at last years event that allowed me personally to move up to being a 6 Figure Blogger. (Remember The Starbucks Effect I discussed in this POST)

I have had more Ah-ha Moments and breakthroughs from frustration at seminars than anywhere else.

Finally, on the subject of seminars, I have to say that not all Internet Marketing seminars are equal — indeed, there are some dreadful seminars (better described as “Pitch Fests” ) that often offer free or low cost admission that I plan to discuss in a future post. That said, even at some of these Pitch Fests I have made some awesome connections and got ideas for my business – ideas that I would not have got if I had stayed at home. When I do that post I will reveal my personal strategy for deciding what products to invest in for my education – and which ‘teachers’ to avoid.

I also plan to discuss mentoring, coaching and Mastermind Groups (another ’secret’ of my success) in a future post. If you have any questions related to that let me know.

Also, I would really love to hear what frustrates you about Internet Marketing or business in general? Or what your solutions are for handling frustration? Let me have your comments below.

To Our Success

Michael

PS: Just as an afterthought — I also know some of you get upset when people un-subscribe. Please don’t. What interests someone today may not interest them in 6 weeks or 6 months from now. Get over it

Hi Everyone

As some of you know I recently turned 21.

At age 21 it may be a little premature to look back on your life but I have been inspired by some of your comments and questions to relate 21 of the most important lessons in life and business I learned before my 21st Birthday. I should point out that this is not a complete list and it is not even in any particular order. Making a list like this, is like trying to make a list of your top songs or favorite films – all of them are important, but it is difficult to select the most important one. Lists like this are always Fluid and bound to change as I get more experience.

So what important life or business lessons have you learned?

Please Share – I think you be really cool is to hear your Business and Life Lessons in the comments below – no matter what your age or experience.

As I created this list I am also very aware just how much I have learned in the last 3 or 4 years. Many of you have followed me on this journey and I am very grateful for that. I am especially thankful to my many mentors and Mastermind Colleagues who have contributed to this knowledge and experience. Also the seminars and workshops I have attended. I won’t actually name NAMES, because if I do it would become something Like an Oscars Awards Ceremony Acceptance Speech – and I am bound to miss someone.

Thank you Teachers, Mentors, Friends and Readers – you have all encouraged me, inspired me and MOTIVATED me.

To all our Successes in 2010

Michael

21 Lessons in Life, Business, Everything – By Michael Dunlop

1: Nothing is for sure in life or business, just because something has worked today, it doesn’t mean it will work again tomorrow. This applies to marketing, selling, traffic, advertisers. There really are No Guarantees – the only Guarantee you can rely on when it all comes down to it, is yourself!

2: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – in particular with any Make Money Online method or monetizing your website strategy. So often, people have only one or two methods of monetizing a website such as banner advertising. But advertisers come and go and no month is ever the same. Diversify your income with different methods such as affiliate marketing, email marketing, email lists, banner ads, coaching, ebooks etc! And with affiliate marketing, promote multiple offers – you don’t want to end up with a very large percentage of your income coming from one source (as has happened to me)

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Some people go further on this strategy and have multiple websites in different niches. (In the theory that it is easier to have 10 sites averaging you $200 per month each than one site doing $2000). I have to say that for me personally that has not been so much the case, I have found it better to focus on a small number of sites but then within them to focus on numerous sub-niches and methods of generating revenue.

3: Customers may be wrong but telling them that, does not work. Successful business people are successful communicators and persuaders.

4: Package content in a different way – everyone has seen Problogger.net write posts on how to drive traffic, copying it and writing it slightly different won’t help your site because they will find his site 99.999% of the time instead of yours. You can package content as a video or as an audio or as great copy fir example. OR you can do what I do occasionally and package as Video, Audio, Web Copy and as PDF reports

5: Don’t rush anything. I use to try writing a blog post every day but it was pointless because you can never rush a good job. I once had someone who worked with me on WebDesignDev who would constantly use the term – “wack up a post” which basically meant put something quickly together so readers had something to come to the site for. However when we worked for 2 days or even longer on a really big post, we could get sometimes as much as 30x the amount of traffic.

6: The 4 hour work week doesn’t exist for me. When I heard the term 4 hour work week and internet lifestyle, I just like most of you, wanted to try it out. It will work well if your ambition is a modest income and you have low overheads – but to build a really successful business you have to work a lot harder than that. Mind you, credit to Tim Ferris for coming up with that idea — it is a great example of capturing a large number of peoples imaginations with a clever Book Title.

7: The early bird catch’s the worm, a saying you’re probably heard often before. Take for example someone who bought Business.com in 1997 was able to sell it for $7.5 million 2 years later. OK, perhaps you can’t do that everyday but don’t think this is an isolated case, opportunities are all around us. Take for example Twitter.com – the first few marketers who got on it were able to take advantage of it before new rules came into place to slow you down from adding people. When you see a opportunities, take it!

8: You will always get people who will rip you off. Over the past year I have been scammed, conned and ripped off a number of times. I could fight back and sometimes I do, but your time is often more valuable than the monies involved. These are small minded people who cannot think about building real businesses who ultimately in my opinion will become very sad and sorry individuals. I believe in Karma – what goes around, comes around.

9: Content is KING – It’s something we have heard of a lot but it’s so crucial! If I didn’t have great content, my blog would suck and there would be no reason for you to be here. One thing you will find is, if you create some great unique content, you don’t need to market your blog, people will find your site. Honestly, 10% of my traffic comes from me marketing my blog and actively seeking visitors, the rest comes just from word of mouth and passive sources because of my great content.

10: Consistency is important! The second you stop working at the rate you are, your readers will notice and will forget about you. I have to admit, this is one of the hardest things for me to get right. You want your readers to expect posts on certain days so they get in the routine of visiting your site as often as possible. (I’m still working on getting that right)

11: Anyone who has been in business for any length of time already knows this – But Employees Don’t Think Like You Do, They Don’t Have Your Work Ethic – and whats more, you should not expect that of them

Looking back on it now, I realise that I was fortunate to have a part-time job as an employee when I was attending college. I learned so much from that experience, in particular how many employees think, indeed how some of them consider that they are at ‘war’ with their employer and are always looking for ways to do less work, scam their employer. SHOCKING!

Now, of course with good management and the right compensation package employees can be motivated and indeed there is such a thing I believe as the ‘entrepreneurial employee’ – but alas I have not got that far yet.

12: Have a backup plan – A Plan B. Things will crop up and it’s best to be prepared. For me it’s when I am ill or am travelling and can’t publish a post. Having your posts set to pre-publish or asking a friend or family member to do them is great.

13: Newspapers are great publicity. When a local newspaper asked to interview me I didn’t expect much from it, but then I found myself the main story on the front and second pages. With around 50,000 people having access to this Newspaper was incredible exposure for my business.

14: Surround yourself with amazing EXCEPTIONAL people. The difference between me going to the pub with a few mates and drinking beer and going out with Yanik Silver’s mastermind group for dinner is HUGE! I’m not saying you shouldn’t have fun and go hang with mates, just the more time you spend with clever people, the more your business will progress.

+++ Most of the Mastermind Group – inc: Carrie Wilkerson, Yanik Silver, Bernadette Doyle, Tim Schmidt, Ryan Deiss, Andrew Lock, Mike Dillard, Gerald Romine, Craig Ballantyne, Barry Dunlop and Perry Belcher +++

15: What you focus on is what you get – really simple, when I work on IncomeDiary, I make a lot more money. When I neglect it and don’t do any updates my income will drop. If you want to make money, keep being persistant and work hard.

16: Always be learning – the difference it makes to my business when I go to a seminar, mastermind or read someone’s blog is HUGE! Just one idea I took away from Yanik Silvers Underground Online Seminar last year made me an extra $50,000 and the feedback I have had back from one of Mastermind Groups I attend could see this blog earn me as much as $1,000,000 in next 12 – 18 months

17: Perfection is overrated. So many business people, internet entrepreneurs, programmers etc.. want there work to be perfect before they launch it. Let me tell you something, that day will probably never come. If it’s around 70% perfect, then I will put it online and work at getting it 100% perfect over time.

Good Enough, Is Good Enough

18: No Short Cuts. Again a mistake I made a few years ago – trying all sorts of dubious methods to promote my websites on Blogs, Digg.com etc. Nothing works like good quality informative content. Content that your readers will refer to other readers!

19: Be Healthy – This may seem like a common sense sort of lesson but the reality is so many of us knowingly harm our body’s by smoking, drinking, eating badly and not exercising. I use to get ill quite often because I didn’t look after myself and had a crummy immune system and so I would have to take a lot of time of work to get better. Another thing is, when I did feel ill, I didn’t straight away try and cure myself, I would wait till it was really bad before I went to a Doctor or pharmacist. One thing I think about often is, there is no point of being rich if you haven’t got your health. So the bottom line is stay healthy.

20: Have an Exit Plan. Have you thought who will buy your business? Your Website? Do you have any potential buyers in mind. I recently sold my former website WebDesignDev.com for a sensible amount of money and an excellent earnings ratio compared to profit — that would not have happened if I had not known how to promote the site to potential buyers or how to position my sales offering.

21: Make it legal – contracts etc. OK, this is not a strong point for me – but it is something I am quickly learning. Put all agreements in writing. Even very simple agreements should be documented in an exchange of emails and confirmation from each party of what has been agreed.

BONUS LESSON

Collaboration Beats Competition

People often ask me why I give away so much valuable information for free? Or they ask me why I work so closely with other bloggers who might be considered my competition? My answer is simple – Collaboration Beats Competition. I am not saying that business is not competitive (it is) but I am saying that if you get away from that scarcity mentality, that worries about what your competition is doing and how you can beat them – a far more powerful creative energy appears. Actually I have had some of my best ideas while brainstorming with my ‘competition’

Final Thought For Bloggers and Entrepreneurs Everywhere

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

- Calvin Coolidge, Past President of the United States.