Hi all. I've been making my living online for the last three years and it has been sooooo hard. I've really, really struggled and if I started again this is what I'd do differently knowing what I've learned recently. Firstly I would be much, much more organised from the start. The biggest drain on my time has been trying to find files on my computer. A decent filing hierarchy is a must. I'll add to this and clarify what I mean later. I would have installed a help-desk from the start - answering support emails gets messy very quickly. I would have outsourced more. I now have two part-time members of staff (one of whom is my absolute saviour and my business couldn't run without him). Technical problems used to cost me HOURS every day. Not any more. Want to get ahead? Get a techie!! I would have concentrated my time on three main areas - List building/traffic, List management/relationship-building & product creation. INstead, what I spent the majority of my time on was research (also known as being distracted by every single offer out there), checking emails every five minutes (also known as a total waste of time) and product creation. Time MUST go into the three main areas - particularly traffic generation. I would have a plan for generating traffic and I would apply time to it consistently every day. My traffic has grown dramatically since I started doing this. (Obvious I know yet it took me two and a half years to realise it!!). I would concentrate on recruiting affiliates as my main source of traffic. Once recruited, I would then focus on giving them resources, checklists and tools to make sure they got the most from my products. If you give affiliates a step-by step plan (Send this broadcast today, send this free report out tomorrow, send this ezine article out three days later, send this offer out 2 days later... etc.), together with the right tools - articles, graphics, adverts, keywords, emails etc. there is much more chance they will get results. I would concentrate on the following products - a decent free report or Camtasia video to offer at the squeeze page, an opening offer of a recurring subscription product with a free or $1 trial and an upsell to a coaching program. There. That's what I'd do. As it happens, I've managed that now but it has taken me AGES and several buckets of blood, sweat and tears to get there. If I'd focused on the fundamentals from the start my progess would have been swifter so I encourage anyopne who is starting out to avoid the many distractions out there which suck your time and your life. Concentrate on the three main essential areas (traffic, product/offer creation & list management and put time in on each of them every day. With regard to traffic, concentrate on a few key strategies - be it ezine articles, press releases, twitter, forums, blog hopping, whatever. By focusing you get better at the strategies you've chosen and you find you get more done than if you try to use every available strategy. Phew. Sorry for the soap box. I'm recovering from an accident and so have lots of time on my hands at home. Rob
Here's the extra bit I was going to write about folders etc. Having templates for your free reports, sales letters, squeeze pages - in fact for every aspect of your system - are going to save you time. Something which I find really useful now is to have 'project files' (hard copies and then duplicates on my computer). I have so many things going round my head on multiple projects that I need somewhere to 'download' or my brain would explode. I used to just keep one big 'to do' list but it just got longer and longer (and longer) until it was obvious it would never end. Now I do it like this... I have one piece of paper at my desk called 'Today' I have another pieice of paper called 'this week' I have several project folders (which are really just places to put ideas for products etc whcih I may never actually get round to - it just gets them out of my head in a place I know I can find them). Finally, I have three folders titled: 'Traffic Generation', 'Relationship Building' and 'Product Creation' whcih I call my 'Essential' folders My system works like this: I work on my 'Today' list of tasks and try to avoid distractions. I schedule work into 20 minute blasts. Any more than that and I wander. After 20 mins I have a little break then get back to work. My 'Today' Tasks are made up from tasks taken from my 'This week' list. I update my 'Today' list every night so that I know exactly what I'm going to do tomorrow. My 'This week' tasks are updated at the end of the week by purging through the three 'essential' folders and project folders. I add to my three 'essential' lists and project lists whenever an idea pops into my head or whenever I hear about somrthing I should be doing. For example, if I go through my emails and find a really good traffic idea, I add it to my traffic list. I know where it is so I don't get distracted by it and I don't have to think about it. Then, at the end of the week I go through my folders and decide which of them I want to work on next week and add them to my 'This week' list. Phew, I hope that makes sense!! It is easy in practice! I had to do this because my mind is just a constant stream of ideas. Without this organisation I would truly get nothing done.
And these are the specific tasks I'm concentrating on... I am concentrating on 3 main areas and this has helped turn my business round. Time needs to be put into each area - preferably each day. That means having a pre-written schedule which you write down the night before and then work through the next day. (just focus on a few things - don't list too many things to do or you'll not get them done and it demoralises you. 1. Product - either your own or a good selling affiliate product (preferably one with recurring paymjents. If you haven't got products of your own go to clickbank marketplace and do a search for products which offer recurring payments. Interviews are a fantastic, quick and easy first product. Find an expert in any niche (search authors in clickbank or on Amazon), get yourself Skype and Pamela to record the call then approach a few experts. You will find many are only too happy to be interviewed and of course once you have spoken to them there is a good chance they will JV with you once you've produced the interview and had it transcribed. I would look to put together a series of interviews - it gives you potential for a membership product from scratch and I'm in the middle of two of these right now. Line up 12 interviews, record them and transcribe them (you could do the whole lot in under two weeks easily). Then set these up as a 6 month subscription product offering 2 interviews a month for 6 months. (Most people drop out of membership programs within 6 months so I would set a limit on the subscription period - it's an easier sale than an ongoing payment forever). Have a free offer and a squeeze page on your site. (one of the interviews could be your offer - or a free Camtasia vid or report). That's a great subscription product done and dusted in just a few weeks. Bingo. 2. List management/relationships - focus on your autoresponder series. It shouldn't be a series of sales messages - the people who sign up to your free offer are PEOPLE - not cash dispensers so they need to be treated well. LThey need to know, like and trust you. Send free stuff, reveal a bit about yourself and always respond to their requests and queries to try and remove buyer resistance and build the relationship. Spend time looking at each stage of your list system - opt-in pages, up selll p[ages, landing pages, free reports etc. etc. with a view to making it an enjoyable experience to be on your list. 3 - Traffic - The trick with this is consistency. That's why you can't possibly use all the traffic methods out there - unless you're outsourcing of course and I really encourage you to do that when you can. If I can be of more specific help PLEASE feel free to ask. I have lots of time at present and am happy to be of assistance and help you learn from the MANY mistakes I've made over the last three years.
Wow that is a lot of information in a first (or 3 posts). I think that your organization tips will help people not just in online marketing but in any task since organization is the key. Congrats on your success. Since you can afford to hire 2 other people you must be rolling in the money now!
Hello constant-clients, i am interested with your opinion about recruiting affiliate members to grow your business. but i have problem with how to start it, do you have any tutorial about this? also i think the best free to-do list manager is rememberthemilk.com
The best thing is to make a plan first regarding the organization of files and other stuff before starting actual work.
This is a very good post, so I'm going to touch on several of your areas! I too have been making a living online for over 8 years, although 4 years ago I went full-time working online, which allowed me to quit my day job and enjoy the freedom of being my own boss. I completely agree that knowing all that I know now, I would have done a lot of things differently. Organization, and a support system is an absolute must. You learn at the very beginning of your quest to building your business that you need to definitely create many folders and sub folders for your marketing, ad copy, statistics, things that work, etc. I would have outsourced more. I now have two part-time members of staff (one of whom is my absolute saviour and my business couldn't run without him). Technical problems used to cost me HOURS every day. Not any more. Want to get ahead? Get a techie!! Listbuilding/Traffic generation is definitely a very important step. One that tends to have your focus shifted quite often. When you first begin, you spend a HUGE amount of time learning and researching everything which then you suffer from information overload and are now at a halt. So you then have to learn how to juggle all of these programs that you keep jumping from until you begin to realize that what you are doing is actually causing you to go further from your original goal, which is to drive traffic to your programs. Also very good points. However, one thing that I want to point out to you that I have learned, is that you must NEVER rely on your affiliates to market your business and get the word out. You always want to make sure that you are generating enough traffic to build your business even without your affiliates, they are really just a bonus that comes with building a brand online. When your product or program is out there in front of thousands of eyeballs, affiliates will begin to realize this and join and promote to earn money as well. Giving your affiliates direction is very good also because you want to drive behavior. If you don't give them direction they really don't know which way to go, unless they are professional marketers, which in that case you want to pay special attention to those types of marketers as well. Very good post, Rob. I completely agree with all of what you have said. You've posted a lot of very essential tips for many people that are just starting out and really have no clue on what to do next.
Hey Londonhomes, great post and lots of details. Honestly speaking though, even though it took you a lot of blood and sweat to get where you are at now, I think you shouldn't regret the journey. If you look back where you are coming from, I am sure you just smile and say you have come a long way. We all wish we knew what we now know from the start but unfortunately that isn't the case. Just hope newbies reading your post will get the message and apply it to their business to shorten their learning curve.
Very good points, never regret what you've had to do to get to where you are. You have been rewarded by The Universe through hard work, dedication and effort. It's a long road and is one of the main reasons why many people just starting out get out as fast as they came in. It's really up to you, you must believe in your abilities, desire to make it happen and have sincere gratitude for receiving or are going to receive what you want in your life.