Tips for Creating the Ideal Business
The more and more I evolve as an entrepreneur, the more I learn about what I do and definitely DO NOT want from a business.
Keep in mind that there are a number of ways to make money, especially online. We really are lucky…don’t take what you know for granted. No matter how new you are to this online business “stuff”, you already know more than most of the people out there in the regular world. Most people don’t even think “internet” when they think “business”. They’re still focused on big companies that require huge budgets, have high overhead and are glorified J-O-Bs, rather than the time-freeing activities we’re all working on. (more…)
Let’s Talk About What YOU Want to Hear About
I’ll keep this post pretty short but I wanted to let you know about this cool little tool I just added to the site. You can see it on the right hand side, just under the optin form.
It’s called Skribit and it allows you, the blog visitor, to suggest topics you’d like to see written about here on the site. Or you can vote on suggestions that others have already added. Pretty cool, eh?
A couple of cool things about this. First, it’ll just make the site better all around, since using this is an easy way to let YOU drive the content. And of course, on my end, it’s just one more thing to help avoid writer’s block. Like I said, a win-win for everyone.
Why not give it a shot right now while you’re here? Just three quick steps:
- Click on the question show at the top of the Skribit box in the sidebar.
- Type in your suggestion/answer into the blank space (100 character limit)
- Click the “submit” button
Hey, you can even do it anonymously. 
Looking forward to your feedback.
Kenton
Simple Solutions For the Content Creation Roadblock Nearly All Online Business Owners Face
Ever find yourself with writers block when it comes to creating content (articles, blog posts, multimedia content, etc.)? If so, here are a few sites you might want to keep an eye on for idea generators for creating content. Remember, no STEALING people’s stuff…use these sites for idea creation, NOT your own personal swipe file. Don’t be a knucklehead! Okay, nuff said.
1. TrafficJam.com
The newly-released flipside of the Blogrush network (similar to how Adwords and Adsense are two sides of the same coin). Regardless of what you may think of the traffic you get (or don’t get) from the Blogrush network, TrafficJam looks like it has the makings of a pretty decent site for researching your market. One thing to keep in mind though is that the categories are pretty broad, so you may need to drill down into multiple categories to find different ideas that are relevant to your topic.
2. Article Directories
While some people argue how useful it is to submit to article directories, they can still be a good place to brainstorm ideas for new content. Of course, the idea is NOT to just go in here and pull someone’s article and use it on your site (even though that’s generally okay). Nor is the idea to rewrite their article in your own words to avoid linking back to their site (which is sketchy at best).
Instead, simply use the titles and general themes you see authors writing about as ideas for your own content. If you’re in the online business market and see an article covering "10 Tips for Getting Traffic From YouTube", maybe you can come up with your own list of however many tips you know of. Or write more detailed, individual articles on each of your tips. Or take the opposite stance and write about why you may not want to get traffic from YouTube (huh?). The list is nearly endless, just us a little imagination and you’ll come up with tons of great ideas. I’d recommend EzineArticles.com, Buzzle.com and ISnare.com. The others probably aren’t worth the time.
3. About.com (or other Mega-Content Sites)
If your target market is featured as one of the categories on About.com, this can be a fantastic way to brainstorm content ideas. For instance, I had an online store I was trying to create content for. One of the articles posted on About.com was something like "The Top 10 {topic} Gifts This Holiday Season". Great idea. I just wrote my own article similar to that, based on what had been selling well in my store and would make good gifts. That could have spawned other articles based on specific holidays or other occasions. Again, it’s just about finding the IDEA, not swiping someone’s entire article. I didn’t sell some of that stuff in my store anyway so that would have just been stupid.
4. Technorati.com / Google Blog Search
Want to know what other bloggers are writing about? Why not check out Technorati.com or Google’s Blog Search and look for other blogs in your market. Using either of those services, you can find related blogs in your market and get a feel for what the hot button issues are. For instance, if you’re in the online business market, you could use mine a an example. I just posted an article about "The 5 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade to the New Version of Camtasia Studio". Maybe you really agree, but have a different set of reasons. Maybe you think I’m nuts and that there’s no reason to upgrade. Maybe there’s another useful piece of software you could highlight the most important features of, either in an article or video.
5. Google Alerts
Want to know when Google finds new information about your market? Just setup a Google alert and get emailed anytime Google finds new pages referencing your keywords. This is great if there are specific terms, products, authors, etc. in your market that you’d like to follow. I have alerts setup for things like "camtasia" because I work with that program quite a bit, as well as for a few other software tools. If there are specific terms in your market that you need to keep tabs on, Google Alerts is that way to go.
6. Yahoo Answers / Google Answers
How about finding out what sort of questions people are already asking about your subject? How powerful would it be to be able to answer those questions with a quick video, special report or other content that gets people to your site? You can check out Yahoo Answers and do just that. If someone’s asking about it there, other people in your market or viewing your content online are probably wondering the same thing. And even if some of the questions are closed, they can still be good fodder for coming up with content ideas. The same goes for Google Answers…a good source for ideas. But it’s been closed for some time now, so you won’t find any new questions being asked there. Depending no how fast things change in your market, that might be a show-stopper for using this site.
7. YouTube, etc.
Checking out the top-viewed videos in your market on YouTube or other video sharing sites can give you some great ideas for what people are looking for and what’s of interest right now in your market. And of course, if you can’t find ANY videos in your market, that might be a warning sign that there’s just not that much interest. See what’s popular, who’s creating that content, and what else they’re up to.
8. Big-Boards.com / Forums
A lot of people bash on forums, but I think you’re absolutely NUTS if you’re not tapping in to these valuable research sources. You definitely want to find forums where people are talking about your topic (either forums you already know about, that you find on Google, or through a site like big-boards.com). Much like Yahoo Answers, you can get a good idea of what’s on people’s minds right here and now. Not only that, but you can provide useful answers and content for people. If you see the same question coming up over and over, why not create a free special report or other high-value content that answers that question? Then add that to your signature and offer it for free, or to build your optin list.
Bonus Tip: Use RSS feeds or email updates to stay on top of all these sites
You’re going to find a LOT of sources as you’re searching online. One of the easiest ways to keep tabs on all these great sources is to subscribe to each site’s RSS feed (hopefully they have one available…nearly any blogs do and many forums do too). For other sites, see if there’s a way to sign up for email updates. The point is to be able to get updates PUSHED to you, rather than you having to go out to each site periodically to see what’s new.
Coming Soon…
We’ll go over what to do with all these great ideas and how to keep everything organized in a future article so you can maximize the use of your content.
In the meantime, do you have any favorite research sites? Leave a comment below…
~Kenton Newby
Six “Einstein Woulda’ Done This” Reasons for Starting an Online Business
No intro on this article…let’s just get right to it. If you’re thinking about starting an online business or are wondering if this "Internet stuff" is the right path for you, here are some killer reasons why you should rest at ease and know you’ve chosen the right business.
1. Low Overhead
An online business is one of the few businesses with incredibly low overhead. You don’t need to hire a huge number of employees, you don’t need to rent office space or stock inventory. Instead, your online business can run nice and lean, with only web hosting and a few other expenses that are absolutely required. Anything more is optional.
2. Run From Anywhere in the World
As long as you have an Internet connection, you can operate your business from anywhere in the world. There are some huge advantages of this, not the least of which is the freedom of location that this type of business gives you. Why build a business that forces you to be stuck in one location or that makes it difficult to move to a new area because you’d have to start from scratch finding new customers all over again? You won’t be dealing with any of these issues as you build your online business.
3. Allows You to Leverage Your Skills, Talents and Interests
This relates mostly to information products, but affiliate marketing and other online business strategies can come into play here too. When building your online business, you can focus on markets that you’re interested or have experience and use that know-how to create tons of great content. That can include your own information products, articles, videos, podcasts, special reports and so on. The whole web is based on content and if you’re able to tap into something you enjoy and create great content around that topic, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
4. Earn Additional Income or Full-Time Income
Of course, this is what we’re all looking for, right? A way to earn additional income or even a full-time income via the Internet…to get out of the Rat Race and so on. Having an online business is clearly one of the best strategies for reaching this goal, for many of the reasons mentioned above. And by building an online business that brings in additional income, you’re able to hedge yourself against uncertain financial changes, market trends and other curve balls life tends to throw our way from time to time.
5. Can Be Started Part-Time
This is one of the best things about an online business, especially for the "Average Joe"…it can be started part-time. In fact, it SHOULD be started part-time. And once it’s up and running, it really shouldn’t be a full-time effort. Otherwise, that’s just another JOB. An online business doesn’t require you to "man the fort" for certain hours during the day, to answer phones, or to be instantly accessible. Sure, you need to provide customer support for your buyers, reply to emails, take care of the occasional return and so on. But online, there’s not the same expectation that you’ll be instantly accessible as in the case of an offline business (where you might be "leashed" to a cell phone…UGH!). This allows you to batch your support tasks to take care of them all at once or outsource those tasks altogether. Product creation and content creation can also be done relatively quickly and during times that are most convenient and productive for you. This is perfect if you’re still working a job and have limited time to devote to your business.
6. Plenty of Income Strategies to Choose From
Online business is such a broad term and it’s important to realize that there are several income models that make up the whole "online business" arena. Here are just a few off the top of my head:
- You can create information products based on your own knowledge
(or info you learn through a little bit of research) - You can recommend other people’s products and earn a referral fee as an affiliate
- You can create content sites and add ways for those sites to make money
(affiliate offers, contextual advertising, paid ads, etc) - You can create a paid membership site or other recurring income stream
- You can offer coaching or consulting to your target market
For any of these options, I suggest creating a blog to serve as the hub for your products, the basis for your content site, or the place where you add content to go along with your affiliate offers. There are tons of resources available for learning how to get a blog up and running and you can even use free services like WordPress.com or Blogger.com. But if you’re serious about building a REAL business, you’ll want to have that blog on your own domain, not hosted on one of these free services.
If you’d like to learn the fastest, easiest way to get your blog setup on your own domain, watch me take you through the process step-by-step in my Business Blog Mastery video tutorial. In fact, if you order by Sunday, 6PM EST (GMT -5), you can get it during a weekend special I’m starting a day early…just $27 vs. the usual $55.00. Here’s the link:
Click Here to Order "Business Blog Mastery" CD-ROM
And while we’re at it…if you’re interested getting a crash course in online business strategies, how to get started and why this is, without a doubt, the best business to start, you’ll want to check out my brand new Online Business Overview Audio CD. On that CD, I go over a lot of the information above in more detail (and then some) and give you my own personal insights into which online business models are most effective and REALLY worth pursuing. Check out the back of the CD for details using the link below.
I’m offering an introductory special on that audio CD also. Regular price will be $35.00 after the special, but you can get it for a measly 15 bucks if you order by
Sunday, 6pm EST (GMT -5). Here’s the link:
~Kenton Newby
Special Offer: Coaching Program
I just got an awesome testimonial from one of my coaching clients who I’ve been working with behind the scenes for awhile now. He’s currently involved in real estate investing and a few other business ventures and was looking for a way to tap into the MASSIVE opportunity a lot of us take for granted here on the Internet.
In just a few short weeks, he already has several webinars scheduled to promote his real estate business, has a blog for that business up and running, and has picked up so much info that he was able to snag his own client and set her up with a blog using the same strategies we discussed for setting up his own site. So I guess we can add "blog installation and setup" to the list too. I’m amazed at how fast he’s gotten things up and running but that’s what you want in a coaching client – someone who can grab the ball and run with it and take ACTION.
You can read his testimonial at the bottom of this page: Coaching Program
I have to tell you, that’s the kind of feedback I live for. It makes my day when I can really help someone get over a hurdle that’s holding them back in their business or brainstorm new strategies that allow them to enjoy the freedom we’re all looking for. That’s the whole point of this "online business" thing, right?
If you’d like to experience the same type of one-on-one coaching, I invite you to check out that link and carefully read the short message I’ve written there. Oh, and don’t worry…no 10-page sales letter nonsense. Just a quick 1-pager on who this program is for and who really shouldn’t even bother signing up.
WARNING: There are only 10 spots available at the current price. After that, the price is going up (at least double, likely more but to-be-determined). But anyone who invests in one of these 10 remaining spots can enjoy having that rate "locked in" as long as you remain a coaching client.
Check Out These Awesome New Features From AWeber
I just happened across a blog post over on the AWeber blog announcing some cool new additions to AWeber’s Blog Broadcast feature.
It looks like now you’ll be able to schedule when those broadcasts are sent out (as opposed to them going out whenever AWeber detects a new addition to your feed).
You can also have them only go out once there are a certain number of posts, on certain days, certain times of day, and so on.
They do a better job of explaining it than I could so why not just check out they’re 1-minute video explaining the new options? (Just follow the link above)
Enjoy!
What Would It Take?
I was part of a coaching group here locally for awhile about a year ago. I found some old notes I had taken and one thing in particular that I found is something I’ve always tried to keep in mind since learning it back then.
It has to do with “powerful thinking” for lack of a better way to put it. No, I’m not going to go get all Tony Robins on you, but I think this was a really useful way of thinking about those problems, goals or other situations that always seem to come our way.
When faced with such a challenge, ask yourself one simple question:
What Would It Take?
Want to have a list of 10,000 subscribers? What would it take? Then keep asking yourself that question until you can get down to some actionable steps you can take to help you reach that goal.
Using the list of 10,000 subscribers as an example, what would it take?:
- That would take roughly 833 new members added to your list each month (about 27 per day)
- What would it take to get 27 signups per day? A viral special report that people can distribute? A low-cost report they can sell and earn money from while you get the optin? Daily blog comments on high-traffic sites related to your blog (you DO have a blog don’t you?)? An interview between you and someone that already has a large list where you collect the optins?
Need to make $5000 a month to quit your job? What would it take?
- 3 products @ $55 each and selling roughly 1 of each per day. Okay, so what would that take?
- Deciding on a market where you could offer 3 such products at that price and testing the market
- Creating the products,sales pages, blog
- Promoting those products, building traffic, increasing conversions, adding backend offers, and so on
- etc.
- 200 newsletter subscribers @ $25/month each (or hey, why not 25 subscribers @ $200/month)
- Market selection
- Content creation…content with enough value to warrant the $25 (or$200) fee
- List building (because more than likely only a percentage of people on the list will sign up)
- etc.
Okay, you probably get it by now.
But notice the question is “What Would it Take” not “Can This Be Done”.
It’s assumptive in it’s wording – that whatever you’re considering actually CAN be done and that it’s just a matter of figuring out the pieces of the puzzle.
And notice that it’s not “What Would I Need to Do”…you might need to rely on others to help you with some of the things you come up with.
If you have a goal you’re shooting for and you know where you are right now, the answers to the “What Would it Take” exercise help you bridge the gap between point A and point B.
So when you stop and think about it, “What Would it Take” is a very powerful question.
The Most Popular Posts in the Last 90 Days
I always find it interesting to know what others find interesting. 
So here’s a look at some of the most popular posts available here in my little neck of the woods. I excluded stuff like the "Weekly Roundup" posts and others that were just good info, but not articles per se. Anyway, here’s the list in case you missed one of these:
- Just amazing…and another reason to have a blog
- Can You Really Make Money Showing People "How To"?
- Another Way to Stop Wasting Time on Mundane Tasks
- The Most Bang for Your Buck Tasks
- Another Great Reason to Have Your Own Products
I’m using the Popularity Contest Plugin by Alex King which allows you to set how posts are ranked in terms of popularity. Then it gives you a ton of stats in the backend about the posts on your site.
You can pull similar data from your log files (like AWStats) or from Google Analytics but those methods don”t allow you to assign weights to different types of posts. For example, it might carry more weight if a post was reached via a direct link specifically to that post versus it just being one of the 10 posts on your homepage. Interesting stuff…check it out.
P.S. – A quick tip of the hat to Terry Dean for posting a similar tip on his blog awhile back…prompted me to grab that plugin and take a look at my own stats. Should be even more interesting once it’s been running for awhile. Thanks Terry.
Whoo Hoo – I Made It
I made it into the latest Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship this week! And as an Editor’s Pick no less. (Thanks Amy)
You should definitely head over and check out some of the other articles. Lots of good stuff posted, including articles from some folks you’ve probably heard of.
Here’s the link:
http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/carnival-of-business-and-entrepreneurship-2/
The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Starting Their Online Business
Starting an online business can be a fun, nerve-racking, exciting, frustrating, profitable experience. And yes, some days, you’ll feel ALL of those things! But when people first get started with their online business, there are some common mistakes you see them make over and over and OVER again…trust me, I’ve been there too. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes you should avoid as you get your online business going.
Thinking they don’t know anything someone else would be willing to pay for
You know, it’s a shame that most of us don’t have the confidence that we should. And I think that’s what this mistake boils down to…a lack of confidence. I’d be willing to bet that there’s something just about EVERYONE knows that someone else would be willing to pay for. Will it be a $1000 product? Well, maybe not. But one of the goals is to get out of the mode of trading hours for dollars. So if your idea, know-how or product only ends up being a $47 product instead, no big deal. That’s just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
Setting prices too low
Some people are way too price sensitive and end up transferring their ideas about price to their customers. As longs as you can honestly say that you’re able to provide $x amount of value with a certain product, you should be totally comfortable charging (and being paid) that amount. Also, keep in mind that the larger the transaction size, the fewer transactions you need in order to hit your target goals. So if you can do just a little bit extra or add just one more thing to your product to give it a bump in value…do it, then RAISE YOUR PRICES.
Not aggressively testing and tracking
This ties in with the last item somewhat and with just about everything you do to market your business online. If you’re not testing and tracking your results, you have no baseline to compare to and no measure for how much you’re improving (or getting worse) over time. Simple things like split testing Adwords ads or headlines can lead to huge leaps in performance and take close to ZERO time to setup. So why not setup a quick test for one of your sites today?
Moving from one strategy to the next
There’s no lack of ideas for making money online or starting an online business, that’s for sure. But you can never get good at them all if you’re doing everything at the same time. Sure, there’s something to be said for having infoproduts in a market, being an affiliate for other products in that market, having content sites in that market and so forth. But you can’t work on your products, affiliate offers and content sites all at once. Get one thing working, then roll out the rest. But don’t bounce from one "latest, greatest idea" to the next just because you think the grass will be greener on the other side.
Buying product after product with ZERO implementation
This ties in with the last one because if you bounce from one thing to the next, it almost certainly leads to wanting more information about your newfound moneymaker of the week. And in the end, you end up with a shelf full of products and a lighter wallet. Again, the key is FOCUS.
Spending too much time studying, in forums, on blogs, etc.
I was only guilty of this one for a couple of months and then I realized how futile it was. You simply can’t spend all your time reading posts in forums, bouncing from blog to blog, or doing other so-called "research". That’s why I only post to this blog a couple of times a week and hopefully, you’re just getting an email notification when it’s updated rather than popping back by just because. Get out there and work, don’t spend hours on some IM forum – which is probably feeding you doubt, negativity and confusion more than answers. Granted, you can find good info and the occasional good deal, but keep it to a minimum. Get an egg timer or something and keep the forum stuff under control.
Taking someone’s opinion, test results or other opinions as fact
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say "such and such" doesn’t work, or "x" is a bad market. Unless you test it for yourself, you’re never really going to know. Just because something didn’t work for one person doesn’t mean YOUR results will be the same. I went to college and was an engineering student. I was horrible at it…but I finished. But would I discourage someone from pursuing the same degree? Nope. Different strokes and all that. Same holds true for info you get from forums and elsewhere. Trust but verify.
Not building a list
I’m definitely guilty of this one. If you’re going to be working in a particular market, do yourself a favor and head over to AWeber right now and start building a list. There’s no reason not to and that’s where a lot of the value in a business is stored. Imagine having a list of 5000 people that have visited your site. You find out about a really great, free service that they could benefit from – maybe a new website or something. So you send it to them…no pitch, just a good recommendation for something they can all use. Then let’s say you’re providing them with good content periodically, again information they can use. If you do happen to come across an affiliate offer or some other type of thing that can make you money (but it still USEFUL to your list), why not send it to them. You want to build a responsive group of online partners in your market rather than just a bunch of names on a list. That’s the key.
Staying on lists where they only get pitched
Directly related to building a list, if you’re on a list where you’re continuously gettin pitched, time to pull the plug. I do this at least once a year, sometimes more often, and IMMEDIATELY if I start getting too many hyped up emails from any particular person. The best ones, the ones I model and the ones I’d never unsubscribe from send an enormous amount of free, "just thought you should know" type info when compared to the number of offers I get. I’d have to take a look to know for sure, but I’d bet it’s something like 3-to-1 or 5-to-1. As they say, success leaves clues.
My Biggest Internet Marketing Pet Peeve
This is something that’s been bothering me for awhile and I just deleted YET ANOTHER email…so I’m going to take a minute to rant, then move on.
Often times, when you buy internet marketing products or software, it’s a good idea to keep yourself on the author’s email list. Maybe there are lifetime updates available for the product, updates for the software, bonuses given out over time, etc. Either way, it’s pretty common and a lot of times, it just makes sense to stay on the list.
What bugs the hell out of me is that more often than not, these lists are only used to send promotional emails. You often get more promotional stuff than updates or (God forbid) USEFUL CONTENT! So you’re forced to either
- Get off the list and miss out on the updates or
- Stay on the list and have your email inbox junked up with more crap
It’s not that I mind getting promotional emails. If it’s a good product and I haven’t heard about it, I probably WANT to know about it, if for no other reason than to see how it’s being marketed. Heck, I may even decide to buy it. But at the same time, I don’t want to have my name on a list for one reason (updates), only to have it used for something else (affiliate promotions/JVs).
At the very least, list owners should provide the occasional CONTENT-only email, maybe set up a blog that they post to from time to time that actually contains some good info. Maybe some extra tips for using the info in their course/ebook or best practices for using their software.
We all get enough email as it is without having to sort through a deluge of promotional stuff from people who otherwise provide very little value. This is an excellent lesson for me to learn on this side of the fence before building up a huge email list and I encourage other marketers to keep this in mind as well.
