The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business
“How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
By Jim and Dallas Edwards
This is NOT a free Ebook!
If you are interested in making money with this book see page 3!
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
How the dictionary defines “efficiency”
Ef-fi-cien-cy (n) def. Accomplishment of
or ability to accomplish a job with a
minimum expenditure of time and effort
How we define “efficiency”
Ef-fi-cien-cy – get it done easier, better,
faster, and cheaper so you can make
more money, go play and have fun with
life!
FACT: The online world measures change in days and hours – not months
and years like the offline world. Your ability to operate your Internet
business efficiently spells the difference between success and failure, glory
and defeat, riches and poverty!
This book is dedicated to everyone who ever wished for
more time,
more money,
a better life,
less stress.
We wrote this with you in mind!
For Pat, Terri, Beth and Alex –
Thanks for the help, love and encouragement!
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You can Make Money with this Book!
FACT: Nobody sells an ebook better than someone who already owns it!
You know the strong selling points of the book and can endorse it without hesitation.
You can earn generous 50% commissions just by recommending the book to people!
If you have a website, an ezine or a customer list that would benefit from reading “The
Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business” – let them know about it!
We’ll pay you 50% for every sale you make and our affiliate program pays out twice
a month!
For Tips, Tricks and Tools for selling tons of this and other best selling ebooks, log on
to !http://www.getmoredonefaster.com/affiliateinfo.shtml
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!http://www.getmoredonefaster.com/affiliateinfo.shtml
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Table of Contents
You can Make Money with this Book! ........................................................................... 3
Table of Contents............................................................................................................ 4
Author Biographies......................................................................................................... 6
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 7
What is a “Lazy Man”...................................................................................................... 8
Lazy = Efficient.............................................................................................................. 11
What a Cattle Rancher “Cowboy” can teach you about your “new fangled” Internet
business! ....................................................................................................................... 15
The Curse of the Dairy Farmer! ................................................................................... 25
Email – “Grab the Tiger by the Tail”............................................................................ 27
Efficient people you see every day – who they are and what they do .................... 30
Chimps Herding Cattle ................................................................................................. 33
“The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success” ........................................................... 35
Key #1 - “Define the Target” – Clearly describe what you want to accomplish.. 36
Key # 2 - “Count the Cost” - Clearly define exactly what tools, resources and
personnel you will need to reach the target. ............................................................. 39
Key # 3 - “Create a checklist” - List off every single element of your project. .... 41
Key # 4 - “Create a Treasure Map” – List all the elements of your project in
order of completion..................................................................................................... 43
Key # 5 - “One at a time” – Do things in order, calmly and completely............... 46
Key # 6 - “Self-Discipline” – Once you have the map sit down and “Just Do It!”48
Key # 7 - “How Henry Ford did it!” – Use the assembly line approach to get
things done faster. ....................................................................................................... 50
Key # 8 - “Set Deadlines” – Create a timetable to produce incredibly predictable
results. .......................................................................................................................... 51
Key # 9 - “Check the list -- check your work” – Manage your project steps,
check your work… then move on. ............................................................................. 53
Key # 10 - “The Big Picture” – Look at your project as an outsider to see if you
left anything out! ......................................................................................................... 54
Key # 11 - “Dress Rehearsal” – Put anything new you implement or change
through a dry run *before* rolling it out. ................................................................ 55
Key # 12 - “Watch your own back” – Anticipate problems before they happen
and prepare for them.................................................................................................. 56
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Key # 13 - “Learn from past experiences” – Duplicate past success and avoid
repeating mistakes! ..................................................................................................... 58
Key # 14 - “Multiple Results from a single effort” – Focus on activities that create
positive results over and over without additional effort! ........................................ 59
Key # 15 – “Get into the ‘Mind’ of your audience” – See things from your
customer’s perspective................................................................................................ 61
Efficiency “Killers” - Common problems we all face and what to do about them!. 63
Small Details that eat up 70%+ of your time ........................................................... 63
8 Hours to do a 15 Second Job................................................................................... 63
Keep the options simple and the price fair to all parties! ....................................... 64
Should you do it yourself or delegate to others? ...................................................... 65
When should you come out with “Version 2.0” (if at all)?...................................... 67
When is it time to “pull the plug” and walk away? ................................................. 68
Prepare for Success! ................................................................................................... 69
Efficiency Tips from Today’s Online Superstars ....................................................... 70
Jimmy D. Brown – “Mr. Online Efficiency” ............................................................ 72
Yanik Silver – “King of Copywriting”...................................................................... 78
Jay Conrad Levinson – Mr. “Guerrilla Marketing” ............................................... 81
Jonathan Mizel – “The Online Marketing Letter”.................................................. 86
Larry Chase – “Ultimate ezine Publisher”............................................................... 91
David Garfinkel – “Advertising Headlines that Make you Rich”.......................... 95
Kevin Donlin – The “Follow Up Marketing” King................................................ 104
Neil Shearing – Follow the “Internet Success Blueprint” ..................................... 108
Rick Beneteau – Free Ezine Publicity “Machine”!................................................ 110
Joe Vitale – Outrageous Copywriting Genius ........................................................ 112
John Harricharan - “Attention and Intention”...................................................... 114
Jon Keel – “Instant Website Traffic!” .................................................................... 117
Gene Ramos – “Going the extra mile”.................................................................... 121
Bonus #1 – the “Magic” Autoresponder Message that saves me 1 to 3 hours a day
(or more) in unnecessary emailing............................................................................ 126
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Author Biographies
Jim Edwards
Jim Edwards is a dynamic and entertaining speaker who has
developed, marketed and operated outrageously profitable online
businesses for both himself and his clients worldwide since 1997.
Jim writes TheNetReporter.com, a syndicated newspaper column
helping “non-technical” people use the Internet for both fun and
massive profits! Jim is a frequent guest speaker nationally at
conferences and seminars on such subjects as search engine and directory traffic
generation, “shoestring online marketing” and more.
He is the author and co-creator of numerous highly successful e-books and “infoproducts”, including: “Selling Your Home Alone”, “The TEN Dirty Little Secrets of
Mortgage Financing”, “How to Write and Publish Your Own Outrageously Profitable
eBook… in as little as 7 Days”, and “33 Days to Online Profits”.
Jim lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife, Terri, two daughters and four dogs. He
enjoys writing, walking, softball and listening to Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson.
Dallas Edwards
Dallas Edwards has spent a lifetime watching and analyzing how
people do things – it’s his nature. From designing better ways to
herd cattle growing up on an Idaho ranch to simplifying complex
claims management systems for the National Flood Insurance
Program, Dallas always looks for better ways to accomplish more in
less time. For the last 35 years Dallas has worked helping large and
small companies get their acts together, stop wasting time and
effort, and find creative solutions to their problems.
Dallas’ offline books include “What Will Your Auto D.I.C.E. Roll”; “The 364 Day
Year”, a novel; and the popular ebook, “26 Key Typing Tutorial”, an interactive typing
tutorial using subconscious mind programming techniques to teach typing skills in less
than 2 weeks (http://www.26keytypingtutorial.com)
Among his other claims to fame, Dallas spent 2 years navigating alligator infested waters
in Central America while serving in the Peace Corps. Dallas currently resides in the
Washington, D.C. area. where he enjoys reading, walking, teaching his granddaughter to
play tennis and operating his consulting business.
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Introduction
This is not a “time management” book!
We have no interest in teaching you how to sort your mail over a trash can or organize
your files and rearrange your desk in one weekend…. you either do that stuff or you
don’t – we can’t change your mind.
This ebook is about becoming a “lazy achiever” - efficiently getting more done
online in less time so you can make more money, get a life, and have more fun!
It’s about using your mind, the web, email and simple techniques and tools to get rid of
all the time wasting activities that suck up your day, waste your mental energy and worst
of all… don’t make you any money!
This book was born out of Jim’s frustration over earning a 6 figure income but having to
work 14-18 hours a day 7 days a week in order to do it!
Some of the principles may seem simple, but before you put this book down and say to
yourself “It can’t be this simple!” -- you should understand that simple, universal
principles are the ones that can change your life for the better… the fastest!
If you ever get hung up mentally about some bit of advice we give you, take it or leave it.
Nobody can convince you of anything. But before you let your ego shut your mind down
to the possibilities of these simple changes improving your life, you need to ask yourself
one question…
“Am I already doing everything these successful people tell me to do?”
If your honest answer is “no”, then let this ebook become your guiding light or beacon of
hope as you travel down the path to more free time, less frustration and expanded
financial and personal satisfaction with your online business.
Become a “Lazy Achiever”!
The Authors
Jim & Dallas Edwards
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
What is a “Lazy Man”
Have you ever heard the expression, “Work expands to fill the time allotted”?
This is a real fact of life that has come to light after over 50 years of studying work
habits. Basically it means that most people, by their nature, will use all the time available
to complete a job, such as taking 15 minutes or three days to pack a suitcase depending
on when the train leaves.
So how do the Title and Sub-title of this book relate to this expression? How in the world
can “lazy” equate to getting things done easier, faster, better and cheaper while having
more fun?
The dictionary has several definitions of “lazy” - a few of which make no sense - but here
are some that should look quite familiar.
“Lazy” – 1.Adverse towards exercise (whoa that sounds familiar) 2. indolent 3. slow
moving 4. meandering 5. sluggish (until 2nd cup of coffee) 6. slothful 7. idle
Ever heard the saying “Lazy as a low down dog”, or how about “Too lazy to breathe if he
didn’t have someone to do it for him!”?
Ok, ok – you get the picture.☺
Being “Lazy” has gotten some bad press – until now!
How can we claim that a lazy man’s guide will help you do things easier, better, faster,
cheaper and all the while having more fun? Quite simply because we include one more
idea or definition for the phrase “lazy person”.
We’re about to reveal to you a secret most people never realize, yet once you grasp it a
whole new world will almost instantly open up for you. This is definitely one of those
“somebody flipped on the light switch” types of secrets.
Ready?
A lazy person who achieves any level of personal, business and financial success has
gotten REALLY good at one thing – doing things efficiently!
In other words, any lazy person who achieves major results in their lives has become
highly efficient in everything they do. They make every effort count.
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You think I’m joking – but I’m dead serious!
An efficient person is someone who instantly reacts and gets things done “right now”.
They possess an approach to getting everything done in a fraction of the time ordinary
people take because the thought of putting in one single bit of extra time, effort, money or
mental energy than they have to totally turns them off.
Highly effective “lazy people” know exactly what they want and they are bound and
determined not to put in any more effort than they must to reach a goal – but reach it they
do and most of the time much faster than people who are “hard workers”!
I know plenty of people who pride themselves on putting in 18 or 20-hour days and brag
about how they used to pull those "all nighters" back in college.
Personally, I would feel ashamed to admit to anyone that I took 18 or 20 hours to do a 2
or 3-hour job!
I recall reading about a famous auto company executive during his peak years. One of his
senior vice presidents bragged to him one day about the long hours he constantly put in
on the job seven days a week month after month.
Instead of receiving praise from the executive, this person received a real butt chewing
for being so inefficient and disorganized that he couldn't plan out at least two weeks a
year for vacation to recharge his batteries and do everyone a favor… including his long
suffering family.
Think about this point if you happen to fall into the “workaholic class” in conducting
your online business.
Do you want a life… and does your family wish for one too?
If you want to claim back your time, your life and your sanity from the never-ending
stream of activity and “wheel spinning” that seems to eat up every day after unproductive
day…
Become a “lazy achiever”!
Think about people you may know or read about who are ultra-successful. I’m not talking
about those people who work 18 hours a day 7 days a week, are always stressed and have
the “appearance” of success. Those people have no balance and usually have terrible
home lives. They don’t know their spouses and their kids run wild through the
neighborhood terrorizing the innocent.
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I’m talking about those people who make more money, have more free time, and have
total balance in their lives. They don’t do anything without a clear end result in mind.
They are the ultimate “lazy achievers”. Everything they do, say and even their thoughts
have a purpose that achieves results.
I know people who make $500,000 to over $5,000,000 a year who other people look at
and wonder how they do it. They say things like “How does she make so much money?
She doesn’t DO anything!” or “He is about the laziest sucker I know, he’s got it all
figured out.”, or some variation on the same theme.
People who make those statements are only partially right. What they should really say is
“He doesn’t do any more than necessary to make all that money.”
It’s not that “lazy achievers” skimp on effort, “short-change” people on service or deliver
inferior quality products. Not at all! They actually deliver the best products and services
at the right price because doing so creates the least work in the long run.
Terrific, well-executed products and services have very low return rates and require the
least technical support – a lazy person’s dream!
These lazy achievers understand the definition of efficiency:
Ef-fi-cien-cy (n) def. Accomplishment of
or ability to accomplish a job with a
minimum expenditure of time and effort
That minimum expenditure of time and effort is what sets all super “lazy” achievers apart
from the rest of the pack that either sit on their duffs doing nothing or spin their wheels
18 hours a day accomplishing 4 hours worth of work and expecting praise for “working
hard”!
Every “lazy achiever” understands…
Page 10
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
Lazy = Efficient
There are two types of people we want to help with this book…
If you run a part-time business where you can only spend two hours in the evening after
working all day at your regular job… we want to help you milk every last drop of results
out of that two hours.
If you spend eight to eighteen hours a day on a full time Internet business we want to help
you counter those trends which cost you too much in terms of time, money, work and
mental wear and tear.
“So who died and made me the boss?” to quote an old saying. Nobody, really!
I don't bring a PhD in industrial studies or human psychology as my qualifications. No
one cried or said come back when I left college with a diploma in hand. I think they felt
glad to see me go. The only thing I can bring to this book for improving efficiency and
eliminating extra work in whatever you do, comes from sixty years of living, observing
and learning from a lot of people on how to get things done a whole lot easier.
I follow one Latin proverb, "Festina Lente" or “hasten slowly”.
I lived on a farm / cattle ranch for the first 21 years of my life and the neighbors probably
thought the Edwards family was one of the laziest bunches in the entire county. They
never saw us out sweating for 12 hours in the hot afternoon sun working on the haystack,
digging ditches or any other manual labor. In their eyes, they always saw us down at the
water hole never doing any “hard work”.
In reality, we found it much more convenient and efficient to work from 6 a.m. to noon
and get a lot more done in twenty degree cooler weather instead of pulling an “all-dayer”
and getting far less done. We liked to get all of our work out of the way quickly so we
could spend long hours sitting in the shade of a large tree on the creek bank drinking
soda, eating candy bars and reading Uncle Scrooge comic books.
We'll use that same approach in this book to help you eliminate problems and obstacles
that cause you to work harder and longer than you should have to.
To start, I want to outline extracts from a memo on efficiency I wrote 20 years ago. This
happened at the same computer company where I developed the “on the spot” typing
method for a group of people who didn't know how to type, but needed this skill for a
new processing program, and only had two weeks to get it!
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See if you can detect an early "ergonomics" flavor in this memo.
I include this memo right off the bat as an attention getting device and to show you that
how you physically use your computer and set up your workspace drastically impacts
your efficiency right off the bat.
In fact, setting up an efficient workspace is the first step in online productivity!
The memo has been compressed to 1/5 the size of the original so as not to bore you or
include unnecessary details.
To: xxxxxxx
From: Dallas Edwards
Subject: Document Keying Activities
Date 7-24-81
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I observed several employees keying semimonthly and bi-weekly documents into the system. This relates to your request for
a review of possible ways to reduce the time required for keying x amount of
thousands of documents into the system.
After three days observation and talking with the people who key documents into
the system, the following general conclusions were reached about the present
physical layout and its impact on work efficiency/productivity.
The physical placement of the CRT keyboard slows down operator productivity.
The desk and sideboard arrangement also impede completion of each work item in
a timely fashion.
The placement of the work items and reference pages in a flat position hinders the
completion rate for each item.
The keying elements of each document consist mostly of numbers so that operators
needn't be especially skilled in touch-typing.
Conclusion: in this case it isn’t the computers or the work itself that is impeding
progress, it is the physical setup of each operator that is slowing them down.
(WE DIDN'T INCLUDE THIS FOR EYE CANDY. READ IT CAREFULLY
AND SEE IF IT MIGHT APPLY TO YOUR GENERAL WORKSPACE)
Page 12
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Place the keyboard at typing table level, several inches below standard desktop
height, (26 inches as opposed to thirty + inches). This will increase operator
comfort for sustained periods and improve hourly output.
Place the work documents to the operator's left at a 75° angle. This permits easier
viewing and leaves both hands free for keyboard operation.
Place reference documents, codes etc, to the operator's right in single pages,
preferably in plastic covers. This allows flipping readily to the correct page.
Arrange a mass production layout so that completed documents can be placed in a
receiving tray after completion with the left hand. This enables the operator to
continue to work on the next document with minimum loss of time and motion.
Operators also need to develop a mental routine for greater concentration in what is
primarily a repetitive “mass production” chore. Concentration and consistent
effort, not extreme keying speed, are the solutions to improving work output.
Time for some honesty with yourself
Now take another look at this 20-year-old dinosaur and see if you detect any bad work
habits on your own desk.
Does your keyboard possibly rest on top of a regular desk surface?
Do you work with a typing stance similar to that of my six-year-old grand daughter when
she sits in a restaurant booth without a booster seat?
Do you pick back and forth among a disorganized stack of material while typing on your
computer?
Do you suddenly realize that another task should precede what you’ve already half
completed and end up wasting that step entirely as a result?
Do you work without a plan and just wing it on instinct or the old “stump fumble and
grope” method?
If so, then you need a big dose of personal improvement medicine, or "Efficiency Tonic".
Page 13
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
Let's say it straight –the world and its inhabitants operate as one big inefficient globe,
with an honest overall grade on this performance down in the D+ to C- range on most
days.
My co-author on this book, Jim Edwards, a.k.a. my son, used to practice his life at the
other end of the scale from me and my wife. But eventually, old age and time brought
him around to our way of thinking on getting things done.
So when I suggested writing this book might help a lot of people, he enthusiastically
joined in with me - much like a reformed smoker or drinker (whom you know usually
make the most zealous advocates for reforming old habits). ☺
I separate the world into two types of people when it comes to efficient work habits:
•
The “clean” desk types
•
The dirty desk types.
Rather simplistic perhaps, like good and evil, love and hate or war and peace.
I exemplify the person you couldn’t stand in the third grade, i.e. teacher's pet, always
finished all their work and helped other kids while the teacher held them up as the model
for everyone else.
So how did I get to the point of getting so much done so fast?
Simple.
I saw and learned from other people while growing up – I didn’t realize it, but I was
“modeling” the excellence I saw in other people! A technique promoted and encouraged
by just about every self-improvement guru worth his or her salt!
You see, I got my street smarts on the farm and from growing up in a large family…
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
What a Cattle Rancher “Cowboy” can teach
you about your “new fangled” Internet
business!
The jobs I will now describe from my farm days, our craft business and from my 16 years
of insurance claims handling, all contain elements of “The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to
Online Success” to produce almost magical levels of efficiency in your Internet business
activities.
These “keys” are actually the secret to transforming yourself from a “wheel spinner” to a
“lazy achiever”.
Then I will list some everyday (what some might consider boring) jobs where people
must employ high levels of efficiency and expertise to accomplish them. You can learn a
lot just by watching people in ways you’ve never thought of before.
But before we get into that, let’s preview “The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success”
so you can see how they all come into play with the stories and interview you’re about to
read.
Key #1 - “Define the Target” – Clearly define what do you want to accomplish.
Key # 2 - “Count the Cost” - Clearly define exactly what tools, resources and personnel
you will need to accomplish the entire objective.
Principle # 3 - “Create a checklist” - List all the elements of your project.
Key # 4 - “Create a Treasure Map” – List all the elements of your project in the order
and sequence you will complete them.
Key # 5 - “One at a time” – Do things in order -- calmly and completely.
Key # 6 - “Self-Discipline” – Once you have the map, you must have the self-discipline
to sit down and “Just Do It!”
Key # 7 - “How Henry Ford did it!” – Using the assembly line approach to get things
done faster.
Key # 8 - “Set Deadlines” – Create a timetable to produce incredibly predictable results.
Key # 9 - “Check the list -- check your work” – Manage your project in steps,
complete a step, check your work then move on to the next.
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Key # 10 - “The Big Picture” – Look at your project as an outsider to see if you left
anything out!
Key # 11 - “Dress Rehearsal” – Put anything new you implement or change in your
business through a dry run *before* rolling it out.
Key # 12 - “Watch your own back” – Anticipate problems before they happen and
prepare for them.
Key # 13 - “Learn from past experiences” – Learn from the past -- good and bad -- so
you duplicate past success and avoid repeating the same mistakes!
Key # 14 - “Multiple Results from a single effort” – How to multiply your efforts with
activities that bring results over and over!
Key #15 – “Get into the *Mind* of your audience” – Truly understand the wants,
needs and desires of your customers – don’t guess!
As you read, look for each “Key” in the real world stories and examples I relate.
Then I’ll let Jim take over when we cover each Key in detail with specific tips and
techniques for oiling up your online business. Finally, we’ll hear from some of the
brightest minds online as to how they earn considerable full time livings working smarter
– not harder!
Once upon a time…
I started working on the farm in the irrigated desert country of Idaho at an early age (4
years old). You know, cheeks of tan and so forth -- but not barefooted ☺.
You needed to learn to work hard but also smart in order to survive the desert sun.
The first very efficient person I noticed also served as my father, Denver Edwards. He
got thrown out of the third grade at age 14 after putting in eight years of school… a
couple of months at a time during the winter when he quit working in the fields.
Denver Edwards worked as hard as any man you ever saw but also “worked smart” as
they say down at the work management academy. He didn't believe in wasting motion or
effort, he couldn't afford to with all he needed to finish each day.
For example, milking cows involves the control and custody of the milk animal, usually
confined with chains on the rear legs and the head fastened in a stanchion in a barn. Then
the farmer uses the strength and touch in his two hands to extract the milk from the four
teats on the udder of the cow without making her mad or excited.
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If she gets upset, Bossy will refuse to give down her milk and you face the same situation
as that well known phrase in today's society, "Our website is down -- we can't process
your order".
To do this mundane job, you must first analyze what you want to do (i.e., get the milk)
and how you will do it (not use cold hands) so as not to “crash” your server (a mad cow)
in the process.
Though one of the least glamorous jobs on the farm, a screw up here would mess up
everything else you had to get done that day since you ended up dealing with Bossy all
morning rather than just 15 minutes. The same applies with your online business…
What mundane jobs do you complete everyday that could get done faster, better and
more profitably if you created a system that employed one or more of the 15
efficiency keys?
Think about this as you read the book!
Another fun chore on the farm involves barbed wire fence building.
If you remember the lonely cowboy riding along a rusty 3 wire fence in the desert and
stopping to repair a broken wire now and then with that trusted snipping tool, forget it!
John Wayne movies bear no resemblance to building a 5 wire enclosure one-quarter mile
long on four sides of forty acres.
Believe it or not – building a barbed wire fence on the open range involves virtually every
question you would ask yourself in planning, starting and building any Internet project.
Here’s what I mean…
•
What kinds of materials do I need?
o Fence: twenty ¼ mile reels of barbed wire, 500 fence posts, 2,500staples, etc.
o Internet: hosting, autoresponder, virtual ebook cover, domain name, etc.
•
What will they cost?
o Fence: how much per foot, how much for staples…
o Internet: how much for hosting each month, cost of bandwidth…
•
What kind of help will I need to get the job done and what will I do myself?
o Fence: laborers, pack mule, tractor, neighbors pitching in…
o Internet: webmaster, graphic artist, copy writer…
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•
What problems can arise as I work?
o Fence: storm, defective materials, loose / stampeding cattle, sickness…
o Internet: crashed server, corrupt data, software compatibility…
•
What approach should I take to avoid harm to others and their equipment?
o Fence: take proper safety precautions with dangerous materials…
o Internet: properly scan all files for, among other things, viruses…
•
When do I need it done and how long will it take to finish?
o Fence: a fence will take about a week under optimal conditions…
o Internet: a one page website can go up in a few days…
•
What do I do while the old fence goes down and the cattle you want to contain
can now roam freely.
o Fence: move cows into another pasture…
o Internet: when uploading or switching servers back up all data in a safe
location…
See how the principles are exactly the same?!
Well talk more specifically about planning as the book progresses.
But for now, let’s keep going with this barbed wire fence example…
Here’s how you actually build a barbed wire fence… this is an actual “blueprint” for
doing it!
First you must measure and mark the spots for some five hundred posts to hold five miles
of barbed wire in five strands.
Next you must dig all five hundred post holes exactly as marked by the string and then
set the posts into your two foot deep hole and tamp the dirt solidly around each one.
After reaching the far anchor post you stretch the wire as tightly as possible without
breaking it and wrap it around the second anchor post.
Then take the next roll of wire and attach it to the anchor post one fifth of the distance to
the ground and repeat the steps for the first wire.
Note: You must start from the top of the post instead of the bottom or the wires at the
bottom will sag if you fix them last.
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Doing things out of order ends up causing no end of grief! For example: Imagine trying
to format an email for broadcast before your final edit – talk about a waste of time effort
and energy!
Building a good barbed wire fence sounds a whole lot like setting up a website to me!
You must plan out everything regarding materials, procedures and sequence of tasks just
like building a business website and installing it online.
Side Note: The number of people who can now build websites far outnumbers the people
who can build a good barbed wire fence! Some of the fences we built fifty years ago still
stand with only some barbed wire replacement.
A well planned and executed website can exist profitably for years with very little
modification – if you set it up correctly from the start. Just look at Yanik Silver’s
!Instant Sales Letters or Marlon Sander’s !Amazing Formula. These sites have
been up for years and make lots of money with very little modification… because they
are quality sites selling excellent products.
Another task which my father did involved taking an old fashioned mowing scythe (the
type the Grim Reaper uses to reclaim souls in any B horror movie) and cut the weeds
which grew up along that nice new barbed wire fence around forty acres.
To mow a quarter mile of ditch bank with this scythe required skilled economy of motion
and precise movements. If a highly conditioned athlete took one of those scythes and
made the wild swinging motions seen in "slasher" movies, he wouldn't last fifteen minutes!
This activity required a very precise scooping forward motion and an upward final stroke
similar to a topspin shot in tennis. Expert instruction from *his* father combined with
years of practice created success at this task.
I won't bore you with the method of stacking alfalfa into haystacks in the old-fashioned
loose hay method. Suffice it to say that this required a skill and planning to complete the
job on time without impaling yourself or someone else with a pitchfork.
Baled hay presented quite a different challenge…
Stacking these rectangular blocks into a twenty foot high pile also involved a fair amount
of planning to first tie down then continue building layers.
Just like an expert website copywriter, the veteran hay stacker commanded extra attention
and a higher compensation for his expertise in keeping these 100 ton piles from falling
over after just a few months.
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I also want to touch on another labor-intensive task involving my wife and me over a
fifteen year period. It contained every element of organization and efficiency which we'll
discuss as they apply to your particular online business.
Our business involved making craft show products.
Now we’ve all been to craft shows and marveled at the beautiful hand-made products and
wished we could do such things and work at such a creative and relaxed home-based
business.
Forget it folks!
It doesn't even begin to approach the mystique you see from the front side of the craft
booth. Rather it shields you from a lifestyle every bit as hard as the ditch digger or the
sweatshop laborer portrayed in 19th century novels.
We made padded picture frames and photo albums and little brag book albums, and sold
them at craft shows all along the Eastern Seaboard.
Running this business closely parallels your Internet activities.
It involved:
•
Planning and projecting how much we would spend that year for supplies
•
Calculating necessary materials
•
Projecting travel costs
•
Planning for new and replacement equipment purchases
•
Budgeting for craft show entry fees.
In operating an online business you have to know:
•
How many sites you are going to build this year
•
How many ezine ads to run
•
Your pay-per-click search engine budget
•
How many ezine articles to write
•
How much website traffic to trade
•
How many follow up emails to send to your list and when
•
How many affiliates to recruit on a weekly basis
•
MUCH more!
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Over the life span of the business we made 25,000 padded frames and photo albums and
brag books.
Each item contained ten pieces of fabric, mat board and other things which all pulled
together into a finished frame or album.
So the twenty five thousand items used 250,000 separate pieces that we needed to
coordinate over the years.
We made the frames in mass production using the economy of scale principle where the
time for completing each item lessened -- the assembly line technique really.
The main hint in succeeding at this type of job -- which also involves the same types of
problems in promoting and operating your Internet business -- stick to it! Don't get
distracted by other things, jobs, social commitments, and friends.
Examples:
•
Wait until you finish your ebook completely before formatting the text… or you'll
cause no end of work and trouble for yourself!
•
If you need to scan 30 graphics for your website, scan them all in one sitting.
Don’t scan one here and one there over the course of a week… you waste too
much time starting and stopping.
•
If all the graphics on your website need to be formatted a certain way in
PhotoShop – format them all at the same time, in one sitting.
In other words, don't try to throw in step number 7 when you haven’t finished the first
six.
Now I want to touch on a subject which very closely resembles your Internet business in
most every category you want to mention.
I refer to property and casualty insurance.
The white hat guys bring money into the insurance company… we generally refer to
them as the Underwriting Department. Those are the people with crystal balls who sit
back and figure how much they want to charge you for getting insurance. You don't care
how they do it… until something happens and then you want your company to start
performing yesterday. Sound familiar?
Now switch over to the people who wear the black hats in the insurance company… I
mean the CLAIM Department and no one else. Now you may think they sit around with
voodoo dolls poking holes into little figures of people who dare to file a claim, but
actually they worry much more and suffer because of people who file claims.
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Running a high volume claims desk requires the utmost in organization and decision
making while moving along thousands of pieces of paper. As soon as one file closes,
another or maybe two or three wait to take its place.
Does this sound anything like your e-mail inbox once your business takes off
running?
Did you think you were the only person in town where the sheer volume of daily
correspondence drags you straight to the bottom? You ain't seen nothing until you
worked a claim desk!
Every piece of paper that comes to a file requires a decision on how to handle and
dispose of it as soon as possible. The creed of the claim examiner, "what can I do now to
close this file"?
Ask yourself this question about those dozen emails in your in-box right now -- “What
can I do right now to close this email and move it to the ‘finished’ box?”
I progressed through all the steps in the claim department of a large company and finally
wound up managing 35 people who handled 70,000 auto and property claims per year in
13 Western States. I kept 13 insurance commissioners at bay whenever some insured
complained about the maltreatment handed out by our company on a claim. This required
writing long and detailed letters explaining our position. By the way I never lost once
with all those commissioners, so use this principle in your own business: stay “right” in
what you do and the problems or complaints will take care of themselves.
That old cliché about “right making might” says more than you might think.
From my observations over the years, about ninety per cent of the people couldn’t hack it
in the claims department. They simply couldn't handle the volume of files and paper
along with making decisions all the time and trying to figure how to accord the proper
amount of attention to each file.
I remember one time the company hired a military officer as an outside street adjuster
after he finished his tour as a captain commanding a company in Viet Nam.
This person did a fantastic job as an outside adjuster handling 25 to 30 claims a month in
personal contact with people outside the office. He got great settlements and this in turn
got him transferred to an inside examining job where he must handle hundreds of open
files with the requisite thousands of pieces of paper drowning him.
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He could organize two dozen files in thirty days where 3 or 4 pieces of paper might
comprise the entire file, but he couldn't hack this new onslaught or mail and paperwork.
He quit within two months after coming inside.
Three months later we got a letter from him from Viet Nam where he went after enlisting
in the army again.
So don't let the terror of your Internet business drive you to some desperate act such as
the former army captain. The people who made the grade in this business learned early
how to organize and classify every piece of paper which came along on their files.
The 75 or 100 files which the mail department might deliver to you each morning could
either make or break you just like several hundred e mail messages waiting on your
computer.
How do you process this pile of problems in the shortest most efficient time?
First you go though all the messages and “stack” them into the following categories?
1. Those with routine mail where you can look and put your initials on the paper and send
the file to storage. Go through all such files first and clear out some of the stack so you
get room to work. This equates to deleting or moving as many emails as possible out of
your in-box and into other folders or the trash can.
2.The next category of files involves situations which require a routine response to keep
things moving along the claim trail, such as telling an adjuster to hold firm on his last
settlement offer until the other side comes around. With your email these would be short,
sweet 1-2 sentence answers or copying and pasting from a “form letters” file.
3. The third category will include files which require an instant response and detailed
instructions to other people for further handling. This would equate to emails you have to
actually consider your answers and respond carefully.
4. The fourth category or DEFCON 5 includes that rare category requiring a response
“yesterday”! You drop all other activity and concentrate on this first and foremost.
Using this type of classification system will let the successful claim examiner handle any
and all problems in a daily routine designed to consume as little Maalox as possible. Just
think about the claim motto, "What can I do to close this file" and translate it into "What
can I do to get this job done now?" or …
"How can I handle this email now and get it out of my in-box for good?".
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Jim will answer that question shortly with his recipe "Email – Grab the Tiger by the
Tail”, but first let me give one last example of the farming world where two types of
people stand as the examples of “having a life” versus “no life at all”.
Here’s what I mean…
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The Curse of the Dairy Farmer!
Do you feel tied to your computer 24 hours a day… does it never let you alone? #
How about the cell phone which keeps ringing wherever you go? Remember when
people couldn't get at you?
Well my friend, you aren’t the first person ever tied to their work… but you can escape
and start living something closer to the online dream you once imagined!
Keep reading…
Let’s take a look at two types of people -- the dairy farmer and the stock cattle rancher -for a profile on how your online business can possess you… or allow a pretty nice life if
you adopt some efficiency with your daily tasks.
A dairy farmer with a couple hundred cows to milk two or even three times a day falls
under the solitary confinement class in a maximum-security prison. Those cows require
the owner’s time 24 hours a day with a few hours off for sleep in the midnight to dawn
timeframe… maybe!
You can't just put a dairy cow on hold for the weekend or for a week off during the
summer. You must milk them on a daily basis or you will ruin an item of business which
makes quite a few hundred dollars of income each year.
Now try to get someone to come and milk your cows for a week or two while you take
off to the hills for hunting or fishing or the ballet or opera in the big city. Milking
someone else's cows falls in the category of dousing yourself with a flammable liquid and
lighting up a smoke!
I didn't mind working all day in the fields for someone and then going home at night, but
if they wanted me to milk their cows for a week I usually came down with a fatal disease
which lasted as long as they wanted help. I knew people who didn't get a day off for years
when they hitched their stars to a group of "bossy cows".
Does your Internet business feel like you’re operating a dairy farm online? Do you feel
tied to the hundreds of emails you *must* answer on a daily basis or everyone will ask
for a refund on their purchase?
Does the “remote control” business you operate feel as though the only thing it controls is
you!?!
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Well have no fear… take your cue from the stock cattle rancher.
The stock rancher, with his pretty herd of Herefords or Black Angus stock cattle, poses
quite a different story. These cattle also require daily attention in the form of feed and
water, but you don't need to watch over them the way you do a dairy herd.
You can feed them at a gentleman's hour in mid morning or in late afternoon and they
munch on their hay, grain and supplements like cattle of leisure. In the summer time they
feast on irrigated blue grass pasture and you simply make sure that the salt lick stays full
along with the water supply.
You can easily find someone to watch a herd of stock cows while you attend the ballet,
opera or theater in the big city… or maybe even that hot-shot college football
championship game.
A stock cow can fall into a ditch turn over on her back and die, or maybe even eat a piece
of bailing wire with clump of grass in the pasture. The wire might work its way into her
heart and she dies, but the same thing would happen whether you were there or not!
Consider it the cost of doing business. You can afford to lose one now and then… the
same way you can lose a sale or two if you decide to get a life and adopt the “lazy
achiever’s” philosophy.
It won't kill you in the long run and the mental relief from time off will more than
compensate for the lost sale or two.
So put yourself in the position of the stock rancher versus the dairy farmer in everything
you do with your online business. The 15 Keys we’ll get to shortly, along with the tips
and tools from the expert case studies, will give you the roadmap to do just that!
Now the first step is to take a look at Jim's rules for turning your E-Mail from “dairy”
cows into “stock” cows. The baling wire can still get a cow now and then or lose a sale,
but the overall gain of time and sanity more than offsets any potential loss of one or two
sales.
First we’ll talk about your daily email load, then in Bonus#1, we’ll give you a tool that
can improve your business life faster than you can imagine. We’ll show you the autoresponder message we came up with that cut his tech-support emails down by 96%!
This one change we’ll reveal in Bonus #1 instantly converted Jim from a dairy farmer to
a cattle rancher… and probably saved his sanity! We’ll also explain how you can either
adapt his auto-responder message or come up with one custom-fitted to the needs of your
particular business.
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Email – “Grab the Tiger by the Tail”
Hi, Jim Edwards here with some advice about handling the avalanche of email that, if not
already jamming your in-box, will shortly clog your email pipe as your online business
grows.
FACT: Most people never realize (or admit) how much time gets wasted with email.
I used to pride myself on my efficiency and ability to get things done quickly, but not too
long ago I couldn’t focus or get anything done. I was always tired and never seemed to
have any time off.
I asked my father to help me analyze my activities to see why I couldn’t get anything
accomplished. We sat outside on the back porch of my new house (something I’d only
been able to do twice in the past 4 months because I was “busy”) with a cold soda and a
legal pad and started thinking the whole thing through. It reminded me that sometimes
the best way to brainstorm a solution is with a “low-tech” pad of paper and pen away
from the computer.
Within twenty minutes we solved the problem and, frankly, the results shocked me! We
realized I was spending three to five hours a day dealing with email and spending 90% of
that time spread out over the course of the day, making it virtually impossible to focus on
anything else for more than about five minutes at a time.
No wonder I couldn’t get anything done! I have been spending my life clicking the “send
/ receive” button. Now it may seem extreme, but this time waster affects more people
everyday.
To combat this loss of time, focus and energy we implemented the following set of
guidelines. If you spend more than thirty minutes a day dealing with email, these rules
just might save your sanity!
Set a schedule for email activities on a daily and weekly
basis.
My schedule for business days includes: 8-9 a.m.; 11:30 – 12:00 noon; 4:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Saturdays 8- 9 a.m.; 11:30-12:00 noon.
Sundays / Holidays off.
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Even these limited hours means I spend more than one full workday dealing with email
each week, but that’s much better than the three to four unfocused days I had been
spending.
Simple Steps – Powerful Results
First, sort your email as you would regular mail.
Delete as many messages as possible based on the “sender” and “subject line”. If you
don’t know who sent the mail, or if the email doesn’t interest you – DELETE it!
Second, take immediate action on emails requiring less than 30 seconds to resolve.
Answer yes / no / “cut and paste” a form letter response / file the message in a folder.
Third, refer the message to someone else to take action.
Finally, handle those emails requiring an individual response.
NOTE: Delete or file every email message after taking action on it. Don’t move on to the
next message until you have done so.
Your email “in box” should be completely empty at day’s end! File or act upon any
remaining messages. Transfer unfinished items rolling over to the next day onto your “to
do” list and get them out of your “in box” – no exceptions!
Turn yourself into one of those “clean desk” types!
Skeptical?
Don’t think a strategy for managing your email is critical or it’s too simple to work?
Consider this: if you receive one hundred email messages a day and spend 30 seconds
evaluating each, you can waste 50 minutes.
In a 250 day work year (50 weeks x 5 days) that comes to 208.3 hours (5 full work
weeks) spent on email messages – most of them worthless!
This simple strategy can gain you as much as 5 extra work weeks a year. Now if that isn’t
efficient… nothing is!
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I must admit that the first day I tried to implement these rules I felt like a recovering drug
addict. I cheated several times, but I also got a project done in four hours I had been
unable to complete for the previous thirty days.
Talk about a new lease on life!
But this was just the start!
Refer to Bonus#1 to find out how a simple autoresponder message cut out 96% of Jim’s
customer support email traffic and freed up an additional 1, 2, even 3 hours a day he had
previously been spending answering emails.
This one tool is truly priceless when you consider the amount of time it frees up and the
instant increase in customer satisfaction it creates.
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Efficient people you see every day –
who they are and what they do
My description of the rugged, heroic farm and ranching people sounds great in theory,
but few people will ever see them in action. Let’s take a look at efficient people you have
seen, but probably never noticed just how efficiently they get their jobs done.
Remember I told you the best way to learn is by watching others? Well sometimes an
even better way to learn is by watching others who have nothing to do with your
business. Their actions can help you inject new ideas into your online business instead of
doing things the way everyone else does.
Short order cooks in a high volume/take out operation.
There is a Chinese restaurant near my wife’s office that truly blows me away. The food is
great, the prices are low and the cook makes a microwave oven look slow. We go there
often, as much for the food as to watch in amazement at the cook’s skill.
Try to watch one sometime and see how they accomplish something with every single
motion. The wait staff pins orders on a revolving roller in the more conventional
restaurant/pancake houses or punches it in on a screen in some of the more familiar fast
food franchises.
Either way the chef or cook must instantly react to a new situation requiring additional
input on his/her stove (think of it as his computer) while maintaining the orders already in
progress and making way for more orders in the next few seconds.
They must keep the stove surface clear (email in-box) for the varied orders while clearing
out the cooked items for delivery to the customers (product delivery), all the while
cleaning up used portions of the stove surface for the next orders.
A disorganized person wouldn't last five minutes in this job. They constantly work to
keep the system from crashing the way you do online. I recommend for some interesting
reading on efficiency, that you get out a copy of Arthur Hailey's book, "Hotel", and read
the chapter on a full-scale banquet. The description employs all the principles of
efficiency in a complicated operation in a practical, easy-to-understand format.
Reading this chapter might make your operation on the Internet seem a whole lot less
complicated than you might think.
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Furniture or appliance movers.
Watch a single person or a group of heavy object movers in action. They don't waste any
time or motion in each action they take. Every step accomplishes something and they
can't afford to make a mistake or it can cost them big time in terms of injuries.
Two guys recently delivered a new washer and dryer to our house and took away the old
ones. They made a total of two trips up and down the stairs and moved one of the four
objects on each trip. The average person might have made four trips, but judging by the
truck full of appliances they had to deliver that day, each trip counted.
Use their approach in your business. Make each step and movement count and, if
possible, make it count more than once!
A good grocery check out clerk…
… as compared to the one you get when you pick the wrong line in the store.
Watch how they sweep the items in a smooth motion across the scanner in the minimum
amount of movement before depositing them in a bag.
They constantly make decisions on what to do next in finishing the task before them,
namely pricing and positioning the pile of items in the bags before placing them into your
cart, then accepting payment and recording it for the stores business.
Dishwashers and bus boys.
I bring more than a fair amount of personal experience to this game at the princely wage
of $1.00 per hour in the student union building at my old alma mater. If you ever winced
at the sight of your kitchen full of dishes after a party and wondered how to get through
the mess before morning, then you don't even realize what a real mess looks like when
made by thousands of people eating just one meal.
As a bus boy you needed to make the rounds of tables and separate the dirty dishes,
utensils, papers, napkins with lipstick stuck into coffee cups, empty the solid waste into
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containers along with liquids and then bring the whole array to the dumb waiters which
took them to the dish room in the basement.
To do this job efficiently required looking at your project and breaking it down into
components where you did a single job one at a time.
Once the dishes made it to the kitchen a whole different set of processes took over. There
you assembled loads of cups, saucers etc for the various trays and filled them as quickly
as possible before placing them onto the endless rack through the sterile shower.
Another skilled worker took the completed and washed racks of dishes and placed them
on a conveyor line where they would go for transport back to the kitchen above the dish
room.
You worked efficiently according to a disciplined plan – because the alternative was to
look like the Lucy tv program where she and Ethyl get backed up on a candy box line!
Think of your Internet business as a dish room where it just keeps coming at you -- never
stopping. You can develop a way to handle and even get some nice breaks and leisure
time, but only through efficient organization. Really take a look at your activities and see
how you can break them down into cups, saucers, plates and paper napkins before placing
them onto the dish washer cleaning line.
It might surprise you where you'll see barricades or backups in something you think you
know very well.
All 15 keys that apply to doing any job efficiently also applied to this seemingly
mundane, low-end activity of bussing tables and washing dishes.
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Chimps Herding Cattle
One last point on thinking “outside the box” before we get to “The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys
to Online Success” in operating your online business.
You remember the glamorous movies of herding cattle on horses and the romantic trail
drives where riders whoop and yell and wave ropes and whips at the cattle? This may
work wonders with semi-wild cows on the old Chisholm Trail, but domestic cattle living
in fenced pastures and corrals sometimes get a different surly attitude, much like children
who don't like someone bossing them around.
Sometimes they refuse to move and you can yell and scream on your horse and they just
look at you as if to say “You dumb SOB, go away.”
Solution number one in getting them to move around in a corral and go through the
correct gate usually does not involve getting the fancy, $1,000 cutting horse who can
dodge and weave with the best of them while the rider sits in the saddle with both hands
free letting the horse do the work. This solution rates too complicated and unnecessarily
expensive for everyday farm life
Instead you take a 2 cent willow switch and smack Ms. Cow on the nose! That will get
her moving faster than any horse! Sometimes a “low-tech” solution works much better
than a more expensive, “high-tech” solution!
Keep this principle in mind the next time you are tempted to spend $500 on a piece of
software when a free “shareware” program could accomplish the same thing – usually
faster!
Now if the cattle roam around freely in a pasture and you want them to go into a corral, if
they don't want to move then nothing short of a bulldozer will get them to go somewhere.
Faced with this very problem one day, I thought outside the box and took advantage of
cattle's curious nature and herd instinct. By ignoring them and getting down on all fours
and yelling like an irate chimp I got their curiosity and took off like the Pied Piper with
the herd bawling and bucking behind me. I led them straight into the corral on the high
lope.
I’m sad to report I also almost lost my father that day. He was laughing so hard at this
different approach to cowdogging that he almost fell off his horse! ☺ However it worked!
So I advise you to look at any problem in the same way. Just because no one ever tried to
solve a problem a certain way doesn't mean it won't work. In your Internet business, often
the solution to your problems does NOT involve spending more money on technology or
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complicated software. Sometimes the solution is a simple and sudden inspiration
provided by your own internal creativity. By the way, please do not try my method of
cattle herding at home -- leave it to the professionals. ☺
Ok, let’s get to those “Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success” we’ve been harping on
for the last 34 pages…
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“The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success”
Before you do anything else print this page and post it above your computer.
For the next 21 days you should read this list before you start your day… even before
turning on your computer!
The Lazy Man’s “Commandments”
for Online Efficiency
#1 - “Define the Target”
# 9 - “Check the list -- check
your work”
# 2 - “Count the Cost”
# 10 - “The Big Picture”
# 3 - “Create a checklist”
# 11 - “Dress Rehearsal”
# 4 - “Create a Map”
# 12 - “Watch your own back”
# 5 - “One at a time”
# 13 - “Learn from past experiences”
# 6 - “Self-Discipline”
# 7 - “How Henry Ford did it!”
# 8 - “Set Deadlines”
# 14 - “Multiple Results from a single
effort”
#15 – “Get into the *Mind* of your
audience”
“The Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success” offers specific tips, tricks, and
techniques along with examples of running your online business. They are intended to
teach you simple things you can do to achieve maximum results.
Just one of these principles can literally change your life by freeing up time, increasing
profitability and just plain making life easier!
Don’t skip over any of these principles lightly… each one holds the key to unlocking a
different treasure chest of time-savings, increased productivity, reduced effort and
profitability. Apply them to your existing projects and adopt them for any future
activities.
Enjoy and profit!
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Key #1 - “Define the Target”
– Clearly describe what you want to accomplish.
Have you ever asked yourself what you want to accomplish in your business, task,
activity or job?
Sure you have – but did you ask yourself in a way that actually helped you get the job
done? Probably not as often as you should!
All of us have vague things we want to accomplish. You want more money, you want
more traffic to your website, you want more sales online. But have you defined
EXACTLY what you want… what you’re specifically shooting for?
Whether writing an ebook, launching a new website, or planning the promotion and
expansion of an ezine, a clearly defined target is vital to success. It gives your conscious
and subconscious minds something specific to shoot for.
Before starting or continuing with any online project, make sure you have the answers to
these questions:
1. What exactly do you want to accomplish?
a. If expanding your ezine, how many new subscribers a day do you want?
b. If launching a new site, how many sales per day do are you committed to
making?
c. If you are writing an ebook:
i. How many pages will it be?
ii. How many sales do you want?
iii. Who do you want to endorse it?
d. If planning for next year’s business, how much money do you want to
personally net as income?
e. If expanding your affiliate program, how many affiliates do you want
producing how much business on a daily or weekly basis?
Get Specific and write it down!!
Write as specifically as you can what you are going to do.
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For even more impact and to “burn” the target into your subconscious mind, try to get all
5 senses involved in setting up your target. Write out a “sensory rich” and specific
paragraph about how it will feel, how it will taste, how it will look, smell and sound like.
Very similar to goal setting, defining your target in advance is half the battle. Most
people have no clue what they are trying to accomplish – that’s why the results they get
in their lives are, at best, mixed and mediocre.
Take 5 minutes right now and define the target for any current primary project you are
working on or plan to start.
(Example) Target: I want to create an ezine / opt-in subscriber list of at
least 20,000 or more people interested in ebook publishing topics,
including: marketing, writing, and promoting ebooks.
(Example) Sensory Rich Description: I can feel the power and security
of having 20,000 people in my opt-in list with a specific interest in ebook
publishing topics. I will serve them daily by searching out and providing
expert guidance, interviews, tools, tips and techniques to help them
succeed. By providing this outstanding level of service I will receive the
inevitable rewards of prestige and money that come with meeting such a
large number of people’s needs.
I see myself sitting at my computer publishing an ezine that is the best of
its kind online. I feel the incredible feelings of making more money than I
ever dared to dream possible by providing outstanding value to my
subscribers in the form of a regular ezine and periodic endorsed mailings.
I taste the sweetness of success and hear my wife’s happy praises about
how happy she is with the state of our lives. I also hear my own internal
voice expressing gratitude at how fortunate we are to have such a
wonderful and responsive subscriber base.
Now isn’t that a heck of a lot more compelling target than just saying “I want to expand
my ezine!?!”
Now it’s your turn. Define your online business target right now.
Your Target: _______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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Now create a sensory rich description of what it will feel like to reach the target.
Sensory Rich Description: ____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Regardless of what you want to accomplish, this first principle will set you up to
efficiently reach you target faster and with less effort than any other. If you learned just
this one principle and then burned this book, you would still excel past 95% of all the
other people in this world.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, all highly efficient people do this!
Always know EXACTLY what target you are shooting for and make sure your current
thoughts and actions are 100% directed at tracking, pursuing and hitting your target.
This first principle requires the most attention to build a solid basis for the next fourteen.
Taking extra time here will pay dividends in the long run. Think of it as marking out the
foundation measurements for your new house before pouring the foundation. After the
concrete hardens it takes a lot of time and trouble to change your mind and start over with
a new set of blueprints.
The same holds true with an online project. The Internet makes it really easy to spend 16
hours a day spinning your wheels, but without a clearly defined, sensory specific target,
that’s all you’ll do – spin your wheels!
Now let’s take your target and start efficiently putting it into action by gathering the
necessary tools …
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Key # 2 - “Count the Cost”
- Clearly define exactly what tools, resources and personnel you
will need to reach the target.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, one of the oldest and most popular books in the
world encourages this efficiency principle:
Luke 14:27-29 "Suppose one of you wants to build a
tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to
see if he has enough money to complete it?”
No matter what type of online business you operate - What do you need in terms of
tools, personnel, hours spent per day, week, month etc. in order to hit your targets and
accomplish your online business goals?
Think of this like a gold prospector would when setting off for Sacramento from San
Francisco in 1849. He wanted to find gold and get rich… and so do you. But you both
must realistically calculate what you will need and how much it will cost.
The prospector needed:
1. a pick
2. shovel
3. gold pan
4. gun
5. ammunition
6. clothes
7. a mule
8. directions to the gold field
9. a “grubstake” of money to survive until gold was found
10. … and most importantly -- insight into the dangers facing a new miner in the
camps!
Make a wrong move and you might get shot (or worse) if you made mistakes in
traversing a very touchy field operation. Miners got testy, greedy, lonely and just plain
ornery if things didn't go their way.
Also, consider this: Though skilled and prepared gold seekers made the most money, the
people who supplied all the essential items for the miner made much more money than
the average gold seeker.
Think of your business and what you will need to develop, install and operate it on the
Internet on a daily basis.
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For example, a successful online “ebook” business needs these minimal requirements:
1. A reliable web host with enough bandwidth to meet traffic needs
2. Sales copy that works or “converts” visitors
3. A product people want and need
4. A “virtual” cover
5. An auto-responder with list broadcast capability
6. Credit card / merchant account services
7. Software to create the product
8. A shopping cart system
9. An affiliate system
10. Endorsements and / or testimonials
11. Bonuses for making a purchase
12. Knowledge and preparation about the correct marketing activities
13. Joint venture / relationship building activities
14. Traffic purchases / advertising (Pay per click search engines; ezine ads, etc.)
15. … at least 50 more things!
After you decide what tools and equipment you will need and how much they will cost
(both up front and monthly), you need to decide whether you will do the work yourself or
whether you will hire someone.
Also consider how much capital you will need, a.k.a. a grubstake for the miner, until your
gold/cash flow starts flowing into your checking account. Success doesn’t come
overnight and simply put, how much money, time, help and tools must you get to see you
through until you strike the mother lode?
Most people totally skip this second principle and that’s why they fail. They either run
out of money, or they miss some important element, or they simply run off half-cocked
and get shot (figuratively speaking) like a clumsy miner fumbling through the gold fields.
The old saying, “Failing to plan means planning to fail” holds very true. Once you’ve
defined your target you MUST sit down and determine exactly what you will need and
how much it will cost before proceeding.
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Key # 3 - “Create a checklist”
- List off every single element of your project.
List all the elements of your project from start to finish -- I mean really list them from
number 1 through number 100.
In fact, if you really do this, your final list will probably include more than a hundred
elements!
Think of it as building a car.
The brochure you get from the dealer shows a pretty picture of your dream vehicle and
probably gives a few statistics on performance and some features which out rank other
competitor's models.
But that doesn't even scratch the surface for the total work that went into the basic design
of the car, the tooling and building of machines at the factory and the sequence of
assembly as the car came down the line.
Again think of your business as submitting a proposal for someone who is going to hire
you to do a job for them. They will pick your ideas to pieces along with those of your
competitors.
Don’t worry about putting these items in order, just brainstorm all the parts and get them
down on paper or into your word processor.
Once you think your list includes every possible point and contingency then get someone
else to check it over, preferably not a friend. You need someone with no axe to grind who
doesn't think or care if he / she makes you mad.
It will amaze you how much more you can add. So don't underestimate the details of
what you want to launch on the Internet, or you'll find plenty of people who will let you
know what you forgot… quite often through returns of your product.
Here’s an example of a brainstormed list of the items and tasks necessary to sell just one
electronic product (an ebook) from a one page website:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Brainstorm a list of at least 100 titles
Name the book and outline it’s contents
Save that list for later use on the affiliate tools page
Choose at least 4 headlines that can be used on the sales page as sub-headlines
Choose one headline to test as the main headline
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6. Research at least 5 different sources for the product idea
7. Send product off for review and testimonials
8. Order the virtual cover or package for the product
9. Create the website itself
10. Write the sales copy
11. Write the follow-up autoresponder sequence
12. Install the autoresponder on the site
13. Test the autoresponder
14. View the website on the three major browsers (IE, Netscape and AOL)
15. View the website on a dial up modem to see how long the viewer’s wait
16. Write and post the actual order form for the product
17. Test the product on various versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader
18. Test the product on Mac vs. PC
19. Set up the affiliate tool box
20. Test various ads in ezines
21. Write at least 4 articles for distribution to various ezines
22. Proof the website copy
23. Test the teaser email used to draw visitors to the site on your “house” list
24. Install the virtual cover on the site
25. Integrate the order form with the payment processor
26. Recruit affiliates
27. Buy pay-per click traffic
28. Create an FAQ email and set it up on autoresponder for automated tech support
29. Test affiliate program tracking feature
30. Recruit joint venture partners
31. Post to discussion groups
32. Start following up and working the back end from sign ups and sales
33. Constantly watch for new products to offer your list
34. Update the product to keep it fresh
And about 100+ more activities that need to take place! Can you see why it seems
nothing ever gets done? It is so easy just to sit around and wonder what to do next, or get
so involved in one part of the project that you lose sight of the “big picture”.
Once you’ve listed all the elements you can think of for your project, we’ll move on to
the next key to efficiency…
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Key # 4 - “Create a Treasure Map”
– List all the elements of your project in order of completion
In what order should you plan and execute the elements of your business project?
Don't finish the car body completely and then try to install the engine… it doesn't work!
Don’t sign up for credit card processing only to find out that it’s incompatible with your
affiliate software (or vice versa).
Don’t lay out the money for a shopping cart software program only to find it doesn’t
support your credit card processor’s gateway.
In the previous point you listed all the pieces needed to build your “car”, but how do you
put it together?
Remember those model airplane kits you got as a kid and tried to put them together. The
people who drew up the directions knew what they meant, but quite often couldn't
translate it into simple terms for the kit buyer.
Think of yourself as offering a model kit with directions and hoping that the people who
buy it can understand and follow them.
Do you cringe when buying a new piece of office furniture or living room piece which
contains the three most feared words in the English Language, "Some Assembly
Required".
Before you start any project, no matter how simple it may seem, imagine you are going to
have to turn around and teach someone or lead someone down the path you will follow.
Sketch out the steps in your project by the number (almost literally “paint by numbers”)
and see if it works. Talk it out with your wife or husband or boyfriend/girlfriend.
It might amaze you how someone else can listen to your detailed timeline/task outline
and point out to you that you forgot to include “tightening the nuts” on the wheels of your
new car.
In my typing book -- where I teach people who can’t type how to get up to 20-30 words
per minute in 2 weeks or less -- I mentioned that my employers kept a chart on the wall
of this multi-million dollar data-entry project. (http://www.26keytypingtutorial.com)
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They had it all laid out, listing day by day what they would get done by the fast
approaching deadline. However, someone forgot all about the fact that they needed 50+
people who could type! Imagine spending millions of dollars to develop a system and
then realizing after most of the money had been spent that they’d neglected such an
important detail.
That’s quite similar to rolling a $100,000 Lamborghini off the assembly line and causing
$20,000 in damage because you forgot to tighten the $10 lug nuts.
If you think of your sequential list of tasks for your business as building a railroad track,
then you'll get the right approach. Remember you can't build a hundred miles of track and
leave out one thirty foot piece of rail along the way unless you want to see the train
derail… or your business crash.
So once you’ve made a list of all the people, tools and things you’ll need to make a go at
your online project, go back over your list and make sure everything is in the proper
order before proceeding any further.
It’s really simple to do. Just start evaluating each item on the list and decide, based on
your experience or the trusted advice of others, what comes first, what comes next and so
on.
With this “map” you will accomplish two things:
1. You will greatly reduce the time it takes to accomplish your tasks and reach your
target. You will most certainly get them done faster this way than you could any
other.
2. You will also greatly reduce or entirely eliminate unnecessary steps to reaching
your target since you won’t have to backtrack constantly or waste valuable mental
energy trying to think of what to do next.
As an example, lets organize the ebook list from principle #3 into what I would consider
the proper order. (Note, this doesn’t include all the necessary steps, but it does serve as a
roadmap.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Research at least 5 different sources for the product idea
Brainstorm a list of at least 100 titles
Save that list for later use on the affiliate tools page
Choose at least 4 headlines that can be used on the sales page as sub-headlines
Choose one headline to test as the main headline
Create the website itself
Write the sales copy
Proof the website copy
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9. Name the book and outline it’s contents (interesting that we write the sales copy
before we write the product! For more on creating your own ebook go to
!7DayeBook)
10. Test the product on various versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader (ver. 3.0, 4.0, 5.0)
11. Test the product on Mac vs. PC
12. Order the virtual cover or package for the product
13. Send product off for review and testimonials
14. Write the follow-up autoresponder sequence
15. Install the autoresponder on the site
16. Test the autoresponder
17. Install the virtual cover on the site
18. View the website on the three major browsers (IE, Netscape and AOL)
19. View the website on a dial up modem to see how long the viewers must wait
20. Write and post the actual order form for the product
21. Integrate the order form with the payment processor
22. Set up the affiliate tool box
23. Test affiliate program tracking feature
24. Finalize the ebook
25. Test the teaser email used to draw visitors to the site on your “house” list
26. Announce the product to your list
27. Buy pay-per click traffic
28. Test various ads in ezines
29. Create an FAQ email and set it up on autoresponder for automated tech support
30. Recruit joint venture partners
31. Write at least 4 articles for distribution to various ezines
32. Recruit affiliates
33. Post to discussion groups
34. Start following up and working the back end for sales
35. Constantly watch for new products to offer your list
36. Update the product to keep it fresh
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Creating a “map” is critical for reaching your target
as fast and error free as possible.
Once you’ve got the map, it’s time to start working your way down the trail to the
treasure chest…
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Key # 5 - “One at a time”
– Do things in order, calmly and completely.
Once you have a roadmap for any particular project (large or small), you need to pass
each point in sequential order to make the fastest trip.
Multi-tasking = Inefficiency
Organized efficient gurus of the world cringe when they see people trying to “multitask”. Don't even try to do two different jobs at the same time -- even if they’re related.
You'll only cause yourself grief in lost production time and wind up making a mess of
both jobs. Finish one task first completely and then go onto the next.
The mistakes you'll make and time you’ll waste “multi-tasking” or “shot-gunning” your
activities will far outweigh any slim chance of getting something done as fast as possible.
Remember the two types of gunfighters in the old west?
One liked to draw and blaze away with a hail of bullets in the general direction of his
enemy, hoping for a lucky hit with one of those old pistols. The other gunfighter liked to
take his time -- you might be too young to remember Hugh O’Brien in "The Shootist".
He calmly stood his ground in the large saloon and finally got off one shot and killed the
“Fancy Dan” gunslinger who got off three shots.
I personally prefer the method used by James Coburn in a western movie…
A gun fighter who wanted to make a reputation called him out into the street. Coburn got
tired of these challenges so this time he walked out to his horse, drew out the rifle from
its scabbard and fired over the saddle and dropped the other guy who stood about fifty
yards down the street. No muss – no fuss!
Take this methodical approach with your online business and work your way through the
order of tasks you’ve set out for yourself.
On the farm we would equate this rule to not trying to milk a cow by hand and let her calf
nurse at the same time. This usually caused the cow to kick you and the milk bucket over
and no one got any milk.
If you want to drive south from New York to Miami, you can’t drive through Atlanta
before you pass through Washington, D.C. – it’s physically impossible! (Unless you want
to drive about 1,300 miles out of your way first.)
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You can’t work a jack-hammer and perform brain-surgery at the same time.
You can’t write effective sales copy for your website and answer your email at the same
time.
You can’t compose 5 follow-up messages for your auto-responder sequence while
answering the phone or checking voice mail.
You can’t edit your ebook and submit your website to the search engines at the same
time.
Pass each milestone on your map by taking things and doing them in proper order.
Here’s the “lazy man’s” key to getting things done…
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Key # 6 - “Self-Discipline”
– Once you have the map sit down and “Just Do It!”
Self-discipline: the “lazy man’s” key to finishing anything.
What!?
You mean I paid good money for this book to tell me how to get more done faster, easier
and better and you can only come up with this well-worn cliché?
Believe me, I got tired of hearing teachers in grade school harp on discipline and how we
needed to get it and practice it our whole lives if we wanted to blah blah etc. I know, I
heard it all my life too but believe it or not, it is the “lazy man’s” key to getting things
done.
How do you get self-discipline? I’m not 100% sure. Each person comes with a built in
regulator which lets you work hard and diligently… or fool around and find every excuse
in the world for not keeping at a task.
One way to keep at a task and “just do it” is to have a powerful reason for getting each
part of the job done correctly and efficiently. I’m not talking about some lame reason like
“I have to” or “It’s my job”. I’m talking about a really good compelling reason like, “This
task is part of my master plan. Finishing this correctly means I’m one step closer to
achieving my goal of financial independence.”
That kind of focused purpose creates disciplined effort. Consciously telling yourself why
you are doing something will help create the habit of discipline.
Now when it comes to your Internet business development treat this “for real” and to
quote another cliché, “work it like a real job”! Consciously try not to get distracted and
find any excuse to quit and do something else.
The early bird gets the worm and self-discipline gets the job done -- there's no way
around it no matter how hard you try!
If you must start slowly on this newly found religion, give yourself rewards for sticking
to something or say “I won't quit until I finish this much”. Make a timetable just like the
quit smoking or drinking programs… one step at a time.
Admit to yourself -- "I am a time waster of the highest level and I want to stop!”
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Try it once, you might like it and can even stretch out your disciplined work periods by
five minutes each time until you develop a habit of just doing a job and getting it done.
Don't worry about turning into a workaholic just yet. ☺
Just change your ways enough to efficiently create your business online and then keep it
running with a minimum of effort and energy – become a “lazy achiever”!
You can go back to those slovenly ways in between counting your money. ☺
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Key # 7 - “How Henry Ford did it!”
– Use the assembly line approach to get things done faster.
FACT: The assembly line approach has proven the most efficient and fastest way to
produce virtually anything!
Henry Ford got the right idea when he started pumping out the “Tin Lizzies” for only a
few hundred dollars and literally put America on wheels. Don't grouse about the
industrial age exploitation of the oppressed workers… simply make your personal
assembly line as efficient as possible and quit oppressing yourself in your work.
Once you’ve laid out all the elements of a job from start to finish, figure which things
require only a single one time action and those which need repeat action at periodic
times.
Think out this balancing act before the business starts so you won't stand at the dike with
four fingers and eight water leaks.
Here are some examples to help make this “assembly-line” principle clear:
If you need to format the graphics for your shopping cart a certain way, format all the
graphics at one time. Don’t upload each product and format the pictures each time. Open
your software program (such as PhotoShop) and format all the pictures in a batch. You’ll
waste a lot of time opening and closing programs to do one simple operation.
If you want to submit multiple articles to ezine announcement sites, get several articles
ready first. Format them all the same way at the same time in your text editor, then post
them to your website, then go to each site and announce all of them. You can get 5
articles ready and submitted just about as fast as you can submit 1.
If you are going to submit your ebook site to online bookstores, get all of your
information together then submit to 20 ebook stores one right after the other. Don’t stop
or you’ll get out of the “groove”. Once you’ve got everything together it only makes
sense to keep going and do 20 submissions instead of 1 or 2.
If you are going to search the web for potential joint venture partners, keep searching
until you find 20. Don’t stop to send each one a letter as you find them. Find 20, compile
the necessary information about each one as you go, then send each a letter proposing a
business deal in rapid-fire fashion.
Take a moment really look at your activities. You’ll see places where you can do
something 10 or 20 times in a row almost as fast as doing it once.
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Key # 8 - “Set Deadlines”
– Create a timetable to produce incredibly predictable results.
Make a timetable for each task, its estimated completion date and stick to it.
Don't make it so complicated you can't understand it and certainly don’t make it so
unreasonable that your subconscious mind looks at you and says “No way we can do
that!”. You must have a realistic, written timeframe for completing anything.
By the way, having a deadline will also help you out in the self-discipline department
because it will light a fire under you as each deadline approaches.
Many more books and projects get talked about than ever get completed! If you want to
operate efficiently, think of that piece of paper with the ticking clock and calendar as the
force driving you to set up and run each aspect of your Internet business… so you can
start raking in some money.
Side note: After a little while you will even find self-discipline, the assembly line and the
your timetable working together for you!
I offer a personal reflection on timetables and how they can keep you moving even when
you feel discouraged every minute of the day.
My senior year in college I finally got tagged with the foreign language requirement to
graduate, no excuses and no way around it.
If I didn't pass two semesters of some language then the previous effort would go down
the drain along with all the college money.
I possess the fluency in a foreign language of a one legged frog in a broad jumping
contest, so this posed a real problem for “Mr. Organized” for the first time in his
academic life. No short cuts would save me this time.
I chose Latin as my punishment and enrolled in a class with seven other students, every
one of them a foreign language major and all seniors just taking this class for laughs.
So I made a timetable the first day of class. Nine months later on June 3rd I would
graduate if I passed eight credits of Latin. Each afternoon I devoted 3 hours to Latin and
about the same amount of time to the other 12 credits combined. Nothing ever came easy
but with discipline and the timetable and the incentive of graduating and the specter of
failing to graduate, I got through the ordeal and actually got an A on the last exam of the
year.
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Then I sold my Latin book for ten cents and bought a cherry coke at the student union.
Take the same approach if you run into a rough spot in your Internet business. Make a
timetable which you will meet no matter what the consequences and stick to it. It
may surprise you how often this will work when you think nothing can solve the
problem.
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Key # 9 - “Check the list -- check your work”
– Manage your project steps, check your work… then move on.
Check and proof your work against each task on your roadmap before proceeding to the
next step.
This may take you back to grade school when the teacher said “Check your work before
passing it forward” to the next person for correcting in class.
Remember how that person got a sinister thrill out of marking your mistakes with a big
red crayon and handing them back?
That same person now lives out in “Internet land” and will just as readily jump on you
today if you make a mistake and don’t check your work before putting it up for sale.
They delight in asking for a refund after discovering some nit-picky item as an excuse to
return it.
One of the most common items requiring attention involves "Printer's Devils" or typos.
They lie everywhere and you won't or can't see them after a certain point because your
eye and mind combine to skip over them. I can find typos in my work a week later after
going over it several times. No one can do it perfectly, because you can usually find
several typos in any book even after the copy editor finishes this all-important step.
But you can take steps to minimize mistakes.
So make sure you act as your own “copy editor” and quality control manager as you go
along. As you cross the items off the checklist use this opportunity to make sure
everything has been done as perfectly as possible. Even better, get others to help you with
a fresh set of eyes and different perspective to root out errors and oversights before
paying customers can find them.
Remember to literally build quality control steps such as proof-reading, download testing,
delivery systems testing and more into your roadmap so you can avoid having to go back
and fix it later. Building this "stitch in time" approach into any process will save a pile of
grief and wasted time and effort later on.
“Lazy Achievers” don’t like to repeat steps or have to go back and fix things later. Do it
right the first time so you can go play while the business makes you money!
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Key # 10 - “The Big Picture”
– Look at your project as an outsider to see
if you left anything out!
Review the finished project in more detail than you did during the individual quality
checks. Did you leave out anything?
Did one of the tires not get the proper number of lug nuts?
This may sound simple and I’m sure you know that nothing missed your attention..
Wrong! Right now you will miss a major step if you take that attitude.
Why do you think builders dread that final inspection by the housing inspector to get the
occupancy permit signed for the new owner? If they miss something important it might
involve tearing out a lot of walls or going into the foundation to correct a code
violation…. and of course the new homebuyer will certainly insist that this mistake come
out of the builder’s pocket since they should know better.
Now think!
Did you forget to include some basic function that will prevent the customer from reading
about, ordering, or downloading your product? Will this oversight send him/her onto
someone else whose web site works perfectly?
Don’t bury your head in the sand here. You want to find out now before the lost sales
start adding up. Don't wait for someone to tell you that they see smoke pouring out of
your web site, go look for any sparks smoldering beforehand. This isn’t being negative…
this is all about heading problems off at the pass.
Ask yourself:
What did I leave out?
What have I not tested?
What could go wrong with the website and how can I prevent it?
How / where could someone get confused about product delivery?
How could someone get confused about our offer?
What questions will people have and how can I automatically answer them in advance?
Getting the “big picture” on any project will massively improve results and significantly
reduce your workload at the same time!
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Key # 11 - “Dress Rehearsal”
– Put anything new you implement or change through a dry run
*before* rolling it out.
You must run a test check on the mechanics of your business before letting it out to the
public. Any time you change something about your business, test it before rolling it out.
If you’ve ever “upgraded” your version of Windows, you know that Microsoft could use
a great big dose of this principle.
This includes everything from previewing simple changes to a web page to changing
links in an ebook and replacing files in a zip file. Any time you change something in your
business make sure you test it AND make sure you can change back to the old way if the
new one doesn’t work out.
I wish I had a dollar for every webmaster who didn’t back up files, made a change to a
web page and then spent an entire day recreating lost work because the replacement file
was corrupt and the old file was gone forever.
Uploading a new web script?
Changing a web page?
Switching ISP”s?
Changing affiliate programs?
Adjusting a link in your ebook?
Making a change to a subscription form?
Replacing / upgrading your auto-responder?
TEST…. TEST…. TEST before you go live. Failure to do so might cause you to lose
several hours, a day or worse cleaning up the mess from “one small change.”
From the greatest Broadway play to lowest quality high school production, nobody
performs before an audience without a lot of rehearsal. Top music stars will rehearse
again and again on a single song they know by heart but need to keep fresh and updated
in the execution.
Any time you make a change you take your business’s life in your hands if you don’t
make a complete test run to roust out the mistakes and “gremlins” that almost certainly
lie in wait.
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Key # 12 - “Watch your own back”
– Anticipate problems before they happen and prepare for them.
Trying to anticipate problems before they happen may sound pessimistic but sometimes
skepticism pays off… especially when your income is on the line.
A farmer works hard to get a crop planted. Once he’s done he must then worry about
drought, fire, windstorms, predators, low prices etc.
Stop and think what wolves can start prowling around your project.
Note: Don’t go to the other extreme and get to the point of “paralysis from analysis”.
I liked the attitude of Wilford Brimley in the John Grisham movie, “The Firm”. He
worked as director of security for a law firm and when someone chided him for going
overboard on a problem, he said that he got paid to be suspicious when he had absolutely
no reason to be suspicious.
Adopt that attitude toward your business and think out of the box once in awhile.
Periodically ask yourself this question to head off problems before they arise:
“What could go wrong with my business and what steps could I take right now to
completely prevent it or drastically minimize the impact if it happens?”
Here are several suggestions that certainly fall into the “ounce of prevention beats a
pound of cure” category:
•
Have a backup website hosting account available in case your primary host goes
down indefinitely.
o You can have your website moved and back online in 48 hours if you are
ready. A very scary example is the World Trade Center disaster (9/11/01)
in which not only an incredible amount of human life was lost, but a
number of web servers were either destroyed or had their communications
links cut indefinitely.
•
Have a backup shopping cart available in case your primary cart goes down.
o This one preparation once saved me $20,000 in lost sales because the
shopping cart we used crashed in the middle of the promotion. We lost
very little time because I was ready with a backup cart and switched out in
less than 15 minutes. The original cart didn’t come back online for almost
2 days. No backup would have cost us $1,000’s in lost sales while we
searched for a solution!
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•
Always maintain a backup of your entire website business and any databases on
CD-ROM and store them in a safe location – not your basement.
o I have backups of every website, ebook, script and software program I’ve
ever bought or written on CD in a safety deposit box at my bank. On
several occasions this secure archive has saved me.
•
Viruses – viruses – viruses: Always scan for viruses
o Let’s face it – a virus can wipe out your business a couple of ways:
$
If you pass along a virus to a customer you will most likely lose
that customer!
$
You can lose hours and weeks of hard work in an instant if a virus
gets into your system.
o You must be totally concerned with viruses and take every precaution you
can not to catch one or pass one on to others – your business survival
could very well depend on it!
•
Save all opt-in requests for your newsletters and auto-responders.
o When some disgruntled individual tries to report you to your ISP as a
spammer because they forgot they signed up to your email list, you have
proof they did sign up. This will save major headaches as your business
grows.
Anticipating problems is not negative thinking, on the contrary it rates a very efficient
business activity that can save you hours of rework and wasted effort.
Every “lazy achiever” is prepared for contingencies.
Instead of spending hours and days panicking if something goes wrong, they simply flip a
switch or send an email to solve their problem… because they prepared ahead of time!
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Key # 13 - “Learn from past experiences”
– Duplicate past success and avoid repeating mistakes!
The old saying “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” holds very
true in your online business. This truly represents a double-edged sword. The people who
really make it with their online businesses learn from what works and what doesn’t… and
then only do the things that work!
Better yet, learn from the past experiences of others through their ebooks, newsletters and
personal coaching so you can more efficiently and quickly reach your online goals.
A mistake that costs you a lot of money is usually (not always) the most effective teacher
you can have. I once lost 2,000 opt-in subscribers by using a bargain autoresponder that
ended up crashing in the middle of a promotion. I really learned the hard way that
spending a little extra to get a good autoresponder is a lot smarter than saving $50 and
losing out on income from 2,000 people I can never get back on that list.
Mistakes are usually easy to fix and they show you areas of your business that need
improvement. If you make a mistake once, call it the learning experience it truly is,
benefit from it and move on. If you make it twice, then you truly are making a mistake
(no pun intended). If you keep making the same mistake expecting a different result you
may well fit the clinical definition of insanity. #
One thing you should do at every opportunity is pay attention to what does work in your
business and try to do more of those things. Sitting around stewing on your past mistakes
is a sure way to stop your forward progress.
If writing a quality article for an ezine brings you visitors, go write 10 more articles and
post them anywhere and everywhere someone will let you.
If buying listings in pay-per-click search engines makes you money, then go sign up with
10 different pay-per-click engines… don’t just stick with Overture (GoTo).
If surfing the web to find potential JV partners makes you money, then set a goal of
finding one new JV partner each week (or maybe even one per day!).
If buying ezine ads makes you a lot of money, then go buy ads in as many similar,
productive ezines as you can find.
For the ultimate in online efficiency, minimize your mistakes, learn from them and
maximize your successes by repeating them as often as possible.
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Key # 14 - “Multiple Results from a single effort”
– Focus on activities that create positive results over and over
without additional effort!
Someone once said “I’d rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 men than 100% of my
own!” Well the same holds true with technology tools available in the online world.
Once you design an effective autoresponder sequence, you can profit from it over and
over without ever having to write it or look at it again.
Once you write an ezine article and post it, you can get visitors from those articles for
months and sometimes even years after they’ve been written and posted.
Once you have great placement in a directory like Yahoo! you can pretty much count on
quality traffic for months (unless they change their rules which they do about once a
year).
Once you have hundreds of websites signed up to your affiliate program you can count
on a certain amount of traffic and sales as long as you keep your affiliates happy.
Once you have a list of opt-in subscribers you can skyrocket your income by introducing
them to new products and services (your own and other people’s).
If you’ve written an article in the past for ebook authors, can you adapt that article to a
new audience such as website owners or business opportunity seekers?
One of the most efficient things you can do online is get multiple results from a single
effort. “Lazy achievers” like to get the most bang for their buck, so getting more than one
or repeated results from a single effort is something they always look to do.
The next time you design a graphic, set up a web page, send an email letter, write an
article, answer a question or do anything else, ask yourself this question:
“How can I use what I am doing right now over and over again to either
avoid future effort, make more money or get some other result?”
You will be truly amazed at the answers you come up with for getting maximum and
repeated results from a single effort.
The most immediate thing you can do to exercise this principle is to start keeping the
answers to all the questions you deal with on a daily basis. Copy those answers into your
text editor and save them.
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The next time someone asks the same or a similar question just copy and paste from your
text editor instead of composing an answer from scratch.
Talk about “laziness” in action! Instead of spending 10 minutes composing an answer
you can take 10 seconds to copy and paste from your “form letter”.
NOTE: The expert interviews reveal excellent examples of this principle in action!
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Key # 15 – “Get into the ‘Mind’ of your audience”
– See things from your customer’s perspective.
“Never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.”
Not only must you account for just about every contingency, mistake, disaster and
success when planning any aspect of your online business, you must also get inside the
mind of your customer or many new surprises can catch you off guard.
Here’s a story to illustrate this principle in better detail than any soap-box speech. The
names have not been changed so as to incriminate the guilty ☺
My best friend Don was the class clown in high school. He wanted to leave behind a
practical joke that people would mention 40 years later at the class reunions. He chose as
his victim our sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Chiquita Mitty (I couldn’t make that
name up if I tried!). Mrs. Mitty was famous for crying in front of the class so Don wanted
to do something that would really set her off.
Don decided to bring his pet bullsnake to class wrapped inside his shirt and then let it
jump out at her during a lecture. Sure it would earn him a trip to the principal’s office and
the inevitable lecture about respect blah blah blah, but hey, the laugh would be worth it!
The day arrived and Don sat with this huge snake coiled in his shirt while the rest of the
class wondered if we would all be brought up on manslaughter charges since we knew
about it ahead of time.
As she walked by his desk, the snake stuck his head out from between the buttons of
Don’s shirt and reared back with its best cobra imitation. Instead of going into shock Mrs.
Mitty calmly said “Don, you shouldn’t bring your pets to class” and went right on down
the aisle talking about some poem. Don dropped his shoulders in total defeat. Now we
still mention that prank 40 years later, but just not for the reasons Don intended.
So what happened? Why didn’t Mrs. Mitty go into cardiac arrest and start crying like
Niagara Falls as we all had hoped?
Quite simply Don, in his careful planning, had forgotten the most important part of the
equation – his audience.
He forgot that Mrs. Mitty assumed another identity at the end of each day, namely that of
Mrs. Fred Mitty, farmer’s wife! The coyotes, jackrabbits and other vermin roamed all
over her homestead so seeing a snake rated right up there with watching a crow fly
overhead – no big deal. Don missed his one chance in a million at an all-time prank
because he forgot to thoroughly research and analyze his audience.
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So what the heck does Don’s mishap have to do with an online business? Simple.
Imagine spending months writing an ebook or creating a product or software package you
just know everyone will want to buy. You feel with every fiber in your body that this new
“thing” is going to revolutionize the online world and you will attain millionaire status.
You invest your life’s savings, you neglect your family for months and finally the day
comes to release it to the public and you find out… nobody wants it!
Believe it or not, it happens all the time!
Instead of analyzing the market’s size, needs and wants before investing their time, labor,
money and large chunk of their lives, many people charge right out and create a product,
write an ebook or pay big bucks in development costs only to see that nobody but they
were interested in it.
Nothing rates more inefficient than wasting months of your life (as well as your money)
on something you expect to set the world on fire only to find that nobody cares about it
but you!
A “lazy achiever” would never do this!
The “Get inside the mind of your audience” principle means giving people what they
want, not what you think, guess or hope they want. It means understanding them better
than they understand themselves and anticipating their needs and meeting those needs –
sometimes before they even realize they have them.
When was the last time you researched your customers to see what they were looking
for?
How much of your business is based on assumptions about your target audience, but you
don’t have any hard facts to back you up on those assumptions?
When was the last time you asked your customers and potential customers what they like,
dislike and ultimately want from you?
The members of your audience are the ones who ultimately pay your bills by purchasing
your goods and services, the most efficient thing you can do in your online business is to
understand, monitor and fulfill their wants and needs as they change over time.
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Efficiency “Killers” - Common problems we
all face and what to do about them!
Now let's turn to a few common practical problems everyone faces in efficiently
managing your online business. Whether you’ve been in business online for a few years
or just started last Tuesday, some -- if not all -- the problems listed will certainly sound
familiar to you.
Small Details that eat up 70%+ of your time
Too often it seems that you spend 30% of your effort on the first 95% of a project and
then spend the last 70% of your energy, time and money on the remaining 5%.
Your time gets sucked up installing scripts, debugging the shopping cart, or trying to get
the header on your web page to be 1 pixel shorter or taller! Teeny stuff drives you nuts
trying to finish up and move on with your business.
How can you change this very bad imbalance?
Better planning in the initial stages of the project offers one approach. I know it sounds
great in theory on my high horse, but most of the time these time-suckers pop up because
of poor planning or last-minute additions that weren’t part of the original project
“blueprint”.
You may find that our suggestions on making a timetable and cross checking each part of
the project before going onto the next stage helps even out this one sided situation.
Talk your way through the entire project as if relating it to a disinterested bystander and
ask the question, "How can the last little bit of my project / business contain the biggest
hurdle?" If you can come up with an answer then you can forestall this problem later.
For example: let’s say you need a pop-up window script that only pops at a certain time
or more importantly, doesn’t pop under certain circumstances. Take the time in your
planning stage to find a script that works, instead of waiting until the last minute and
spending 8 hours trying to work the bugs out of the script and missing your launch
window.
8 Hours to do a 15 Second Job
When was the last time you took almost a full day to figure something out and, once you
figured it out, it only took you 15 seconds to do it right the next time? For me it was just a
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couple of days ago. This problem is especially evident in the online world because of all
the little programs, snippets of code, shopping carts to program and the avalanche of
other small technical details that take so long to get done the first time.
Sometimes you can literally take hours to finally complete a 15 second job. The best lazy
man’s advice we can offer here is twofold:
1. Take really good notes as to how you installed the script, configured the cart or
otherwise solved the problem so you can avoid past mistakes in the future…
and…
2. Remember that the knowledge you gain from turning frustration into success by
solving a tricky issue can usually form the basis of a “repair” manual or “how-to”
book! Some of the most successful ebooks and info-products in history have
been about solving people’s problems.
A steep learning curve may not have a more efficient alternative other than to suck it
up and drive through to the other side – the first time. Just make sure you make the
most of the education and turn any lemons you find into lazy man’s automated
lemonade stand that saves you time and makes you money on an ongoing basis.
Any time you encounter a problem that takes a long time to solve, but ends up having
a fast solution, you need to get excited. Chances are other people will have this
problem and may just pay you to either solve it for them or teach them how to do it.
In summary, sometimes you can't or won't know how to avoid the 8 hour “15 second
job” and must accept it with the territory… but at least you can make the most of it if
you’re paying attention!
Keep the options simple and the price fair to all parties!
Henry Ford offered his “Model T” in any color you wanted… as long as it was black! He
made your choice simple and if you didn't like it go somewhere else and find a better
product for the same price. Good luck!
Now we can get every kind of model in every kind of color with every type of option on
it from the car companies. Someone figured once that a company could put one hundred
thousand cars of a particular brand through the assembly line and never make two
identical cars.
You can't afford to do that in your business and neither could a lot of the car companies.
Over thirty five hundred car companies dotted the landscape in the 20th century and now
just a few major ones remain. In fact, a major car company just announced it will close
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several factories, layoff thousands of workers and discontinue 4 highly recognized
models. Maybe Henry Ford knew something about options after all!
So how complicated do you want to get in your projects in order to make a little more
money. Will the extra effort produce a proportional amount of money in return? The law
of diminishing returns kicks in sometimes and says you should quit trying – and a “lazy
achiever” never creates extra work they won’t get paid for!
How much extra service or options should you offer?
For example, if you sell custom resale rights for your ebook, make sure you charge a
MUCH HIGHER price than your regular rights… or forget it. If you are going to provide
a lot of options or extra service, make sure you charge a lot more for it so you’ll get paid
fairly to perform the service and only those people who really want what you offer will
buy. You’ll both win!
A gas station near where we live sells full service gasoline for about 75 cents more per
gallon that self-service. I blinked when I saw the prices and they told me not to worry,
because plenty of people wanted the service and would pay fifteen dollars extra for a tank
of gas in order to not get their clothes filthy.
The same with e-classes! We charge $1,500 for an eclass that offers plus or minus the
exact information as our ebooks, but the personalized attention, coaching and mentoring
definitely rates the additional $1,471 people pay over and above the $29 ebook.
So check your business and see if the market exists for the discriminating and
sophisticated customers who will buy enough of the "premium" gas to make it
worthwhile to offer this special product or service in your business. If not, skip the extra
bells and whistles and push the basic model for as long as you can!
Should you do it yourself or delegate to others?
“If you want it done right you have to do it yourself!” – a popular phrase never spoken by
a true “lazy achiever”!
This statement rages throughout all business and it has certainly caused heartburn for
many an online business owner. The sad fact is that you can only grow so far if you
depend solely on yourself. Utilizing other people, services and tools will take you to your
goals much faster. It’s the same difference between going on vacation to the beach and
taking a jetliner instead of riding your bike.
You’ll get there using both methods, one just gets you to your destination a whole lot
faster… and you can usually take a nap on the jet and don’t break a sweat either!
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The successful executive knows how to delegate and get the most out of people. They
give people authority, but also attach responsibility to their actions. One of my managers
once told me that he didn't care what I did in his absence, even to the point of exceeding
my authority if I thought this would take care of a problem. He would ok the authority
afterwards. Just make sure I acted correctly! That will make you think about your actions.
The simplest way to determine whether you should delegate is to simply look at any and
every activity in your business and ask yourself, “Is my time, energy and / or money
better invested in other things?” If the answer is “yes” then you need to delegate this
activity to either a person, service or automation tool that can perform the task for you.
The most efficient online marketers -- those “lazy achievers” -- concentrate almost
exclusively on only 3 activities:
1. Selling to their customers
2. Finding and / or developing new products for their customers
3. Finding new customers
Everything else is delegated.
Here’s the $64,000 Question on “Delegation”…
What do you do if the person or thing you delegate to drops the ball?
I grew up in a society where your word acted as your bond and everyone took it at face
value. Unfortunately that changed in our society and dependability slipped somewhat on
the scale.
You can set checkpoint follow-ups on work projects by others to see if they come
through, but how much can you check on a large volume? It may take a bunch of
problems before you know someone didn't hold up their part of the bargain. So if the
complaints start coming in how much further should you depend on them and trust their
performance?
If problems do appear once you have decided to delegate, the simplest solution is to ask
yourself whether this is a developing pattern or simply an isolated instance where no one
can do it right every single time.
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It probably won't work to write up a formal job description like they do in many company
settings where you set goals and allowable error ratios in performance. You basically
need to come to terms with your “gut feeling” as to whether keeping this sub contractor
will cost you more in the long run than dumping them.
This brings up the next problem in finding and keeping good outside help…
If someone shows a constant pattern of foul-ups without any sign of getting better, how
do you treat it? Do you drop them and get someone else, or if they’re entrenched in your
business do you just grin and bear it like a bad marriage where fear of the unknown
outweighs the known evils.
Do you dump them and try for something better?
Ultimately only you can decide. We can offer a simple rule for evaluating whether to
keep or ditch just about any person, tool or service you may currently employ. Ask
yourself this simple question, “Will my business be better off without this person, tool or
service?” and BE HONEST with yourself!
If the answer is “yes” then take appropriate action immediately to either replace or
remove this entity from your business.
Follow the suggestion made by the advice columnist who says to the person with a
problem relationship, "Are you better off with or without him/her"?
When you can answer that question about your outside help the problem usually solves
itself.
When should you come out with “Version 2.0” (if at all)?
Despite what Mr. Gates says, the next version of your product is often released just to fix
the problems you found in the previous version. Despite all the best planning in the
world, sometimes a product goes out the door with a mistake or two in it.
Which leads us to the logical question…
When you discover a problem before anyone else does what should you do? Fix it or
leave it alone and hope for the best?
Here you must make a firm decision and live with the consequences. Don't second guess
yourself and waste time.
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Either act or leave it alone. Fix it or ignore it, but don’t debate about it for weeks
afterward.
I found that quite often if you discover something first and bring it to everyone's attention
and promise action to correct the problem, it takes the steam out of everyone. We all
make mistakes and don't get upset when someone else makes one and tells you about it.
The least efficient thing you can do is try to cover up a mistake. Once people discover
you’re trying to cover it up they tend to get angry and want their money back.
So if you can't let it ride, then post a notice telling of the problem and how long it will
take to correct it and beg everyone's indulgence until then. That will solve the problem
most times. If you can live with the problem then let it go and take the occasional hit
from someone.
The most efficient thing you can do is start planning your changes, updates and
modifications now instead of getting forced into that situation under duress.
A “lazy achiever” changes things on their own terms, not someone else’s.
When is it time to “pull the plug” and walk away?
“Beating a dead horse won’t make him walk one step further.”
The least efficient thing you can do with your business is continue to pour time, effort,
energy and money into a project that isn’t going to make you money. By doing so you
cheat yourself and your customers out of more productive and useful pursuits that would
benefit everyone much more.
When should you look at your beloved project and decide whether it should continue or
just die a natural death?
Should you leave it alone to fend for itself or take direct action to close it down with a
"Going Out Of Business" sign?
You can answer this question and no one else can, but I must say that an online business
doesn’t always have to go straight out of business. If you can reduce your expenses on a
business down to a bare minimum for say web hosting and order processing then it may
be worth keeping it alive but not spending much time on it. Not every website business is
a winner, in fact many won’t do much of anything.
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One of the web’s most successful entrepreneurs readily admits only about 1 in 7 of his
projects is a big winner making tens-or-thousands of dollars… but he still makes a trickle
of money off the other 6.
To evaluate whether you should totally eliminate the business, ask yourself these
questions:
1. Would everyone get along better without it and you don’t need the hassle? – then
dump it.
2.
Does it conflict with a new business of yours or provide an eyesore because of
outdated material? - then dump it.
3. Does it provide a continuity of business and act as a powerful reference like the
signs which proclaim “Established in 1834” – then it might be worth keeping.
4. Can you promote it for free by letting it ride the coattails of your own or other
people’s businesses by using it as an upsell or a premium giveaway? – then you
should probably keep it going.
Literally sit down with a piece of paper, put a line down the middle and start listing out
the pros and cons of revamping the business, putting it on life-support, or pulling the plug
completely.
Prepare for Success!
The most efficient thing you can do in your business is prepare yourself for success.
Make sure your web-hosting server, your affiliate tracking software, your credit card
processing and everything else can handle spikes in traffic.
Mae West once said that "Too much of a good thing is simply wonderful", but that
doesn't apply to an overloaded server which can't handle too much of your good thing
orders. You might not recover from this overdose of unfulfilled success in time to reap
the rewards.
I learned this one the hard way using a hosting service which claimed it could handle the
load I predicted, but then went out like a 25 cent light bulb when I needed them most.
Conservatively speaking we lost about $5,000 in sales because we didn’t plan to succeed.
“Plan for the best – prepare for the worst” should guide you past this last efficiency killer.
Make sure when your plans come together through your flawless application of “The
Lazy Man’s 15 Keys to Online Success” that you’ve prepared to reap the rewards by
using the proper tools… instead of sputtering to a stop 100 yards short of the finish line
because you ran out of gas.
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Efficiency Tips from Today’s Online
Superstars
“Nothing teaches like the voice of experience.”
Someone who has “been there – done that” can usually teach you more in the space of a
few minutes than any book – no matter how good the book.
We wanted to bring you tips from people who are efficiently operating online businesses
generating $100,000’s a year, often operating with only one or two people in their
operation.
Now if generating that kind of money with only one or two people isn’t efficient…
nothing is!
As we wrote this book, I can’t tell you how many areas of my online business have
benefited on every level, from the tools I use to the attitudes I take about everything that
happens. Probably the most important change I’ve made as a result of writing the book
has been developing the habit of finding multiple uses for a single effort.
Before we get into the actual interviews, let me tell you how we asked for the interview. I
think it will give you good insight into why we have such a broad range of answers that
can help your online business on so many levels.
The basic criteria for who we chose to interview was simple – they had to operate a
successful online business and they had to have been online long enough for the “school
of hard knocks” to educate them thoroughly. Other than that we left the field wide open.
For the sake of space, I include only the portion of the email that detailed what we
wanted in the interview.
As part of the book, I am interviewing “superstars” online who make a full
time (very good full time) income using the Internet in their business.
Part of the book’s appeal is the secret’s revealed aspect. Something like
this….
“Internet Superstars reveal their proven tips for saving time online so they can
sleep late, go to the beach, and squeeze every last dollar out of every single
effort they make!”
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A large part of this book is about short, quick, small, *easy* adjustments
people can make in their businesses or the way they do things that will make
a major and *immediate* impact on their online business….
You know – some of those little 15-second things you do that took hours and
weeks of trial and error to figure out!
Here’s what I need from you –
Take 10 minutes and just brainstorm the things you do that save you time and
help you get more done faster.
It could be anything:
–
how you market
–
how you answer your email
–
how you set up your websites
–
specific tools you use (or maybe even have created) to save time, get
things done faster etc.
–
*anything* that immediately comes to mind… usually something you
struggled with and then one day a new way to do it dawned on you
and you’ve never had to deal with that challenge the same way since!
Send me back your answers … even if it is just a paragraph or a few
sentences.
As you can see we gave them a lot of leeway in how to answer our interview request.
Some people offered specific advice and tools, while others talked more about mind set
and the choices you make daily that affect how efficiently you operate online. Among
them these experts generate $100,000’s in online sales every single month!
Listen to what these experts have to say about operating more smoothly and efficiently
online -- and more importantly -- do what they tell you!
Special Note about WEB Links: Whenever you see this symbol ! click
the link and you can visit the website if you are connected to the Internet.
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Jimmy D. Brown – “Mr. Online Efficiency”
Going from an "unknown" to a so-called "guru" in less than a year really took a toll on
me. I went from receiving 10-15 emails per day to an overwhelming 300-500 emails per
day.
In the early months I managed only a few dozen affiliates and now have many thousand
resellers in my program. As a newcomer I had ONE product. Twelve months later I had
15 products (75% original products).
No one knew who I was back then, and now everyone wants to hear my story in an
interview of one kind or another - like this one :o)
Advice on operating efficiently online:
Success is a wonderful thing - and I am enjoying my moment in the sun. But, with your
growing success, you also have added responsibilities and pressures. I was overwhelmed
and struggled to keep up. I realized that I had to make some changes or I just wouldn't be
able to handle all of the new challenges that my meteoric rise brought with it.
I developed a very simple three-step system that I use everyday to stay on top of things.
It's nothing fancy, just some quick and easy things that I do to make things easier, and to
save that valuable time none of us have enough of.
1. Automate. The first thing I do is to fully automate or semi automate as much of my
business as I can. The more tasks that I can use tools and services to complete for me, or
at least make as simple as possible, then the better off I am. Here are a few things that
would fall into this category...
•
All of my order processing is automated. Taking the orders and providing the
download information to customers is done completely on a remote system. I use
! Clickbank to handle all of my order processing. They accept credit card
orders on my behalf, process the order, send the customer to my download center
and forward me a check twice a month. Very rarely do I step in to handle any of
the order processing. They do about 90% of the work for me. Not bad for a small
one-time setup fee and a small per transaction charge.
•
My affiliate program tracking and commissions are likewise automated. Again,
!Clickbank handles this for me. They track all of the sales, handle the
customer service and pay my affiliates twice monthly. It ties in perfectly with my
order processing.
•
I use ! Optin Lightning to automatically manage my opt-in mailing lists. The
subscribe and unsubscribe functions of my various lists are all done automatically
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through Brian Garvin's tremendous tool. With one click I can send out my
mailings to thousands. I just click the button and walk away. It's done by itself.
•
•
I also have autoresponders setup for all of my frequently requested information so
users can simply send an email and the information is automatically sent out to
them. I try to get as much of the stuff that happens regularly set up on some kind
of automated system. Some of the information that I have setup on
autoresponders would include...
o
A sample issue of my ezine. This is for those who would like to see a
sample copy before purchasing advertising with me, who are considering
free membership or are interested in seeing a copy for whatever reason.
o
Additional information about my reseller program. I have back issues of
my affiliate training reports, information on customizing affiliate eBooks,
special instructions and so forth setup on autoresponder as well. While
this information COULD be included at my Affiliate Support Center at my
website, I want to carefully track how many affiliates are actively
participating in certain areas so I make decisions like: who to work with
more personally in specialized training (those who are making an effort to
promote), what training is working, etc.
o
Surveys, Questionnaires and Forms. I have both the forms and responses
(such as "thank you for participating," "here's your free gift for answering
our suvey," etc.) set up to automatically be sent when the autoresponder is
triggered.
o
Special Offers. I use autoresponders a lot for tracking and follow up.
Instead of directing the lead directly to my website, I instruct them to
request the information via email - which triggers an autoresponder
message with the information they requested, along with periodic follow
up messages. For Example: When I released Profits Vault 2.0, I wanted
to see how many existing members would upgrade. So, I sent a mailing to
them about the upgrade and an email link for more details. I was quickly
able to determine the number of upgrading members without any fancy
scripts or extra work. Another time I put together a very pricey offer and
wanted to see how many of my existing contacts would be interested in an
offer in that price range. Autoresponders helped me out there - and I was
able to target a specific group for many additional offers after the initial
one.
I have a folder with specialized "mini" training tips. Through the past twelve
months, I have found that there are "semi-frequently" asked questions that I
receive. These are the questions that come in not on a regular basis, but from time
to time. For example: How can I upload a file to my website? What are the
exact steps for unzipping a .zip file? I installed your software, but it reads, "Out
of Memory" - what's up? Sometimes my responses to these questions are quite
lengthy in explanation (especially on the step-by-step ones!) While I don't mind
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offering the assistance, it is quite time consuming if I have to repeat it often. So,
anytime I respond to an inquiry of this nature, I make a copy of the response and
place it in my "mini" training tips folder. Then, when the question or problem
arises again in the future, I simply copy the original response and send it out to
the new person requesting the help. You'd never believe how "amazed" people
are when they receive that kind of response just a few minutes after they've
emailed me. I get a lot of extra "thanks for the support - you've got a customer for
life" comments after helping in this way.
•
My own personal list of recommendations. One of the easiest ways to earn a
quick commission is to make a referral to an affiliate program. The more
successful I have become, the more well known I have become, and the broader
contact range I have developed, the more I get asked for my opinion on various
eCommerce related questions... Where can I find the best host for my website?
What autoresponder system do you use? Where can I find an eBook compiler that
will...? How do you track your ads? I get questions like this on a daily basis.
And, I have an entire list of my own personal recommendations. These are the
tools, resources and services that I personally use (not a list of junk!). And, of
course, they are my own personal AFFILIATE links to the various products and
services. So, when I recommend them, if the requestor uses them - I receive a
commission for the referral. I have a handy list of referrals available for just
about anything relating to doing business online. It's ready to "copy" and "paste"
when someone requests my opinion.
•
I backup a copy of ALL emails that I send. I store a copy of all of my emails that
I send in a "Sent Email" folder in my email software. Periodically, I backup the
copies onto a CD. Why do I keep these emails? For many reasons such as...
o
For proof: To validate my claim that I did respond to someone's inquiry,
that I did send a response, that I did send their order information, etc.
You'd be amazed at how many times I need to offer proof to someone who
claims I never sent an email to them. Just a quick search and the proof is
available.
o
For remembrance: I make special deals and offers all the time. I give
special provisions and rights to certain people in exchange for something
of benefit to me. These copies of all of our emails help me to keep track
of what was said and wasn't said in our conversations. Again, a simple
search automatically finds what I am looking for.
o
For training: What can I learn from my responses? Are there trends?
Are there frequently asked questions that might spark a product idea?
Where am I spending all of my time in answering emails: affiliates, paying
customers, leads - am I wasting my time in any area? There is a lot to
learn from the communications in those backed-up emails. Periodically,
I'll do some "statistical" work by sifting through the emails from the past
several months.
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•
I keep a copy of all critical emails sent to me. You'd better do it. Trust me, you'll
need it at some point. I backup copies of every "critical" email that I receive. A
few "critical" areas are: ALL optin requests (if someone requests information
from me, then I keep a copy of it - this is my proof against a SPAM complaint
when I follow up) If someone has a problem that I have successfully resolved,
then I keep a copy of all of our communication. On the rare occasion that
someone threatens or falsely accuses me, a copy is made in case of future need.
Any email that has significance or importance is filed away for quick and easy
access should the need ever arise. NOTE: I actually had someone accuse me
once of illegal activity based upon what I had "supposedly" written them in an
email. Fortunately, I had a copy of the email, produced it and the case was
immediately dismissed.
•
I have a folder with important ideas, great ezines, resources, offers etc. to use for
future reference. I have a "great ideas" folder that I keep an email that "turns the
light bulb on." I am constantly developing new products and services and a lot of
these ideas are great jump starters to my writing. And there are also offers that I
"might" be interested in pursuing, so I include these as well in case I decide to
take a closer look.
2. “Filtrate” The second thing that I do is filter emails. Answering emails is my biggest
time consumer. At one time it got to be such a hassle that I was spending more time
answering emails than anything else. Something had to change as I just couldn't spend 5
hours a day on emails -- that would leave no time for running my business!
So I established email filters to handle as much of the work as I can. (This would include
the use of autoresponders to automatically send out requested information) Then, the
filters automatically place the incoming email into their appropriate folder - most of
which I never need to see or read. This saves me an ENORMOUS (I can't stress that
enough) amount of time each day.
After the filters narrow down the list of emails to a manageable size, I go to work on a
simple six-step system of responding to the emails...
1. If it is SPAM, I immediately delete it. It doesn't get read. It doesn't pass go. It
doesn't collect the $200. It lands on the "Go To Jail" spot and is forever gone
from my sight. I don't waste any time reading unsolicited commercial email.
2. If it is an "easy to answer" email, then I answer it. There are many emails that
come in that only require a short response. I.E. Where is the members login
site? How many reprint rights licenses are available? How can I register the
ebook software? These are just the basic emails that take less than 15 seconds to
answer. I respond immediately to them, which clears up a lot of the "inbox"
space.
3. If it *really* is URGENT, then I respond immediately. There are a few emails
each day that take precedent - those that - in my opinion - really are URGENT. If
someone paid me $297.00 for one of my products and then had trouble accessing
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it, this would get my immediate attention. There are usually on 2-3 of these each
day.
4. If it is from a non-paying contact, I postpone it. Next, we find those emails that
do require a bit of time and thought to respond. If it is from someone who is NOT
a paying customer (someone who has spent money with me), then I put it on the
"backburner" so to speak. I don't mean any disrespect to those folks, nor do I
consider their email unimportant. But, I do feel like those who have PAID me
should get first priority in my responses. I owe them that courtesy.
5. If it is from a paying customer, affiliate or JV partner, then I answer as quickly as
possible. These are the folks that I respond to first. They are the ones who keep
me in business, so I try to keep them as happy as possible. :o)
Many of them have become close friends - and I try to treat them ALL as such.
6. I purge the emails at the end of the day. I answer all of the important emails and
delete the ones that have either answered themselves (many people email me back
to say "nevermind, I figured it out.") or for whatever reason are no longer
considered critical to answer.
Answering email is a constant battle for time. But, with these tips I have been able to
stay on top of things fairly well. A detailed game-plan put into action usually gets the job
done without too many headaches. :o)
3. Evaluate. The other time saver that I use is to evaluate and prioritize the daily actions
of the day.
Each day I make several "task sets." The most important things to do for the day are put
in the first task set. Then each item is sorted into task set #2, #3, etc. I work my way
down the list. At the end of the day the important stuff remaining is forwarded to the
next day (along with new stuff) and the stuff that no longer seems important is deleted.
There are a couple of things that I place high priority on: One is new product
development and the other is my affiliate program. I create a new product about every 46 weeks. This doesn't happen by chance. I make certain that EVERY work day I spend
at least two hours in the creative process. I have setup a very detailed checklist of all of
the steps it takes to create a new product. Each day I pick back up on the list where I left
off the day before. By staying on schedule, I have been able to become one of the most
productive web marketers online -- releasing more products per year than just about
anyone that I know of. And we're not talking about any poorly written, quickly put
together junk either! Every product is carefully planned and developed.
I also know the value of the affiliate program. I am only ONE person. I can only
promote so much. I only have so many resources, and certainly only so much time. But,
the power of thousands of resellers makes my profit line soar. So, I make sure that I keep
the affiliates as active as possible. I develop new exclusive products for them,
customizable eBooks, special reports, step-by-step training and an Affiliate Report
newsletter. Because of that, when I release a new eBook, it immediately goes into the
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hands of thousands of people almost overnight. Learn this: you must make your affiliate
program a priority. Spend time on keeping your affiliates active, loyal and productive. If
you help them make money, they will help you make money!
One thing that I have always struggled with is "too many irons in the fire." Whenever I
am approached with a new project, interview, eBook or other JV offer, I tend to say "yes"
without thinking about how much time it will take and how busy I currently am. I have
learned this through the past year: Sometimes you have to say "no, thank you." I would
LOVE to get in on all of the stuff that comes my way. But, I just don't have the time. I
run a business full-time. I DO factor in time for side projects and joint venture projects but space is limited. I have learned that I have to pick and choose what fits best in with
my time and game-plan.
Those are the three things that I do each day to save time. There are many more tidbits to
add in those three categories...
...but I just don't have time to include them. :o)
I'm only kidding.
Recommended tools:
!123 Web Marketing –
over a DOZEN high quality tools to help you
start and grow a successful, efficient online
business.
!The Profits Vault –
a collection of articles and interviews that will
teach you “How to Turn Any Web Site into an
Instant Cash Machine which Automatically
produces its own hits, makes its own sales,
processes its own orders, and practically takes
care of itself!”
!Clickbank –
Automated Credit Card Processing and Affiliate
Management system for under $50 up front cost!
! Optin Lightning –
High-powered, low-cost list management packed
with features!
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Yanik Silver – “King of Copywriting”
Yanik Silver is a “results-only” direct response copywriter and
marketing consultant who specializes in creating powerful tools and
resources for entrepreneurs to enhance their businesses.
Before learning about direct response marketing, Yanik pounded the
pavement selling medical equipment starting at the tender age 16
when he first received his driver’s license.
And actually it was a customer who gave him his first taste of direct marketing and it
literally turned on the lights and helped him discover what he wanted to do at a young
age.
Yanik is the creator of the successful !“Instant Sales Letters”, a website where
practically any business owner can create compelling, effective, money-making sales
letters in 2 ½ minutes using easy, fill-in-the-blank templates.
And now his newest project (co-authored with Jim Edwards) is called !“33 Days to
Online Profits”, which provides a step-by-step “roadmap” for successfully launching
any online business – Guaranteed!
Author’s Note: Yanik is one of the most efficient marketers you could ever meet. His
meteoric rise on the Internet is a testament to his ability to get maximum results in
minimum time with high-quality effort.
If you want to learn how to be efficient online… not only learn from Yanik’s books and
articles, but watch what he does and how he does it.
Here Yanik shares a tip that makes the most of everything he ever writes – nothing is
wasted…
Advice on operating efficiently online:
I try to leverage just about all my activities. I never allow myself to do something and
then only use it once to get results.
For example, one of the most time consuming things any online business owner must
deal with is creating new content for websites, newsletters and online magazines.
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Instead of creating new content over and over again, I create ezines on autoresponder.
Each of my products has it’s own mini-ezine, or min-course or some sort of sequential
follow up system people can sign up for.
Whenever anyone signs up they get issue #1. It's all evergreen stuff and excellent
content so it never goes stale. I try to teach principles that can never get outdated and I
only recommend established products so there is less of a chance of links getting broken
or pages going offline. I like to write things so I don’t have to go back and change them
later… even months down the road.
But I don't stop there… I found “solo” emails to my opt-in list work great and are the
fastest way to make money on the back-end of any product.
When I find a product that really helps people make money, save time or teaches them
something that will benefit them tremendously I see it as my duty to let them know about
it. By the way, one of the most efficient ways to make money online is to develop your
own email list and then work the list by providing quality content and endorsing quality
products.
Another mistake I see people making is “pre-judging” their list. Don’t judge your list’s
wants, desires and needs – ask them. I use surveys to help me determine what my
customers want to buy next. Rather than guess, I ASK them! You will potentially
WASTE a tremendous amount of time if you develop products any other way.
About the most inefficient thing you can do is develop a product without making darn
certain you have a willing and waiting audience ready to pay you for it. In addition, you'll
find that your customers/prospects have a greater capacity to spend then you think. If
they like what you offer, they’ll find a way to pay for it.
Once I create a winning stand-alone email (for my product or an endorsement) I'll then
add that message to the autoresponder queue so new subscribers automatically will get
these proven sellers. This allows me to get a big bang up front when I announce
something to my list and then develop a very nice stream of income from people who join
the list.
About the most efficient thing you can do is communicate directly, one-on-one with your
customers. By setting everything up in an autoresponder it doesn’t matter if 50 people or
500 people sign up in a day. They all get the same quality, proven communications from
“me” at exactly the right time without my having to lift a finger once the original email is
done.
This also means I can take a vacation whenever I want and not have to worry about my
follow-ups going out on time. Talk about getting the most “bang” for every effort you
make!
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Finally, to keep myself efficiently working towards my goals, I consciously and
consistently set aside time to work at tasks I know produce “$5,000/hour results” instead
of getting bogged down in $10/hour activities (like admin stuff).
I'll disconnect the phone and set my microwave timer for 30-45 minutes and ONLY work
on what I need to do that will make money. Those activities include:
•
Writing a sales letters
•
Writing website copy
•
Writing ebooks
•
Promoting my products to ezines, joint-venture partners, etc.
•
Activities that bring quality, targeted traffic to my website
Using autoresponders and “evergreen” copy is just one way to do that. Depending on
your business there may be multiple ways for you to use this principle.
You only have so much time in the day – you must choose to use it wisely the first time
so you can reap rewards repeatedly without having to perform the same effort again.
Always look for ways you can do something once and use it over and over again.
Recommended tools:
!Get Response –
High-quality, low-cost autoresponders that are very reliable and
pack a powerful marketing punch!
!Instant Sales Letters – Anyone can create professional, high-quality sales letters that
sell like crazy in 2 ½ minutes. Incredible!
!33 Days to Online Profits – A step-by-step roadmap nearly anyone can follow to
produce amazing online profits in 33 days or less.
!Auto Responder Magic – Learn the secrets of the web’s top marketers and how they
use auto-responders to put their website marketing and
profits on total autopilot!
!Instant Internet Profits – Learn how Yanik creates and sells online information
products and how you can too!
!Email Sneak Peek –
Lets you view your email without downloading -excellent for eliminating junk before downloading it.
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Jay Conrad Levinson – Mr. “Guerrilla Marketing”
The original master of Online Marketing offers valuable insights, tips
and his priceless advice to help individuals compete efficiently with
much larger organizations.
Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the best-selling marketing series
in history, "Guerrilla Marketing," plus 24 other business books. His guerrilla concepts
have influenced marketing so much that today his books appear in 37 languages.
He writes a monthly column for Entrepreneur Magazine, articles for Inc. Magazine, a
syndicated column for newspapers and magazines and online columns published monthly
on the Microsoft and GTE websites.
He operates several websites including: !JayConradLevinson.com
Author’s Note: We could go on and on about Jay Levinson’s ability to operate online
efficiently but I think this fact sums up his abilities better than 2 pages of well-deserved
accolades: Jay only works 3 days a week and has done so since the 1970’s!
His life and business are so well organized that he enjoys prestige and income most
people only dream about, yet he does it in about half the time… and certainly with a lot
less stress! If you want to learn how to operate online in the most efficient ways
possible… you must pay attention to the jewels Jay is about to share with you.
Notice how Jay emphasizes decisive action, planning AND the expectation of getting
things done quickly whether doing them himself or depending on others.
Advice on operating efficiently online:
Several points I can share immediately on email:
1. When you get email in the morning first DELETE everything you can.
2. I then answer the others immediately. I don’t wait. I don’t save them for later… I
do them NOW!
Delete it or answer it now – those are the only two choices I give myself!
As a courtesy, any email you intend to answer must be answered within 24 hours - unless
you are on vacation.
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Get everything out of your email box NOW by dealing with it on the spot. Don’t
procrastinate at all. I detest looking at a crowded desktop (on my computer or otherwise).
I really don’t understand how people deal with unanswered email. I’m not talking about
stuff that just came in, I’m talking about people who are still looking at things that came
in weeks ago. You can’t operate efficiently when you see that same stuff over and over.
Your workspace (online and off) must be clean and clear in order to deal with things as
they come in as well as get to the things you plan to accomplish.
Just like email, when you are dealing with any online activity it is crucial to use this twostep process. When I’m dealing with work as it comes in, I first eliminate (delete) the
things that aren’t going to be necessary for me to attend to then quickly attend to those
things I must in order to get them out of the way as FAST as I can. Next, I immediately
get to the things I planned to do that day.
I think online it is even more critical to first eliminate the things that you won’t deal with
and immediately attend to those things that need attending to. I also expect the people I
deal with to do the same thing.
Something I do to really help myself accomplish this “get it out of the way quickly and
effectively” mindset is that I have really linked great feelings within myself to having
things done correctly and off my desktop. That feeling of having a job done – large or
small – is indescribably delicious! I work very hard to get it out of the way so I can get to
the things I plan to do for the day – and I do this in spite of the influx of email that just
keeps coming.
I will say that I do feel blessed to be a fast typist, but this is a skill almost anyone can
acquire with enough practice. This skill is crucial for me as an “onliner”. Also, the ability
to be concise is critical for operating efficiently online. You must practice expressing
your thoughts clearly in as few words as possible in order to communicate without
confusion while moving on quickly to the next message or task. This will help keep you
from getting caught up in your email for hours.
I also believe the following principles help you to naturally operate your business
efficiently online (and off). Efficiently operating your business isn’t about struggling. For
the most part, efficient online businesses “flow” very naturally and smoothly.
First, I would remind people to look at their business in the context of their life and that
your business is a PART of your life – it isn’t your whole life. You must build in balance
for your life as a whole.
Second, I would say you must operate with a plan – a “roadmap” – you will never
efficiently get from point A to point B without operating according to a written plan. It’s
not possible to get there quickly without one.
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Third, you must prioritize the things you’ve got to do. Committing the things you’ve got
to do to writing and putting them into priority order is almost magic.
Fourth, you must then try to delegate as much as you possibly can so you don’t get tied
down with busy work. 20% of the things you do in business will get you to your goal
with giant steps. The other 80% are baby steps that must be taken, but you should try to
delegate those to others so you can get where you’re going faster. The most efficient
people do this well. They have mastered the “art” of delegation.
I urge people not to get involved with the 80% baby steps. Of course don’t neglect those
steps, but there is a whole world of freelance and technology tools available for online
business owners to delegate the tasks to. Let someone or something else handle it.
Realize that all the business tasks you can take on are NOT created equally. Only address
yourself and your attention to the important ones.
I see people who spend as much time working on the unimportant details as they do on
their main focus and I know they aren’t going anywhere because those details will always
be there. They can never grow beyond them!
I’m very big on having balance in your life, operating according to a written plan,
prioritizing your activities and delegating as much as you can. With the speed of change
online, nobody can operate efficiently without doing these things.
If you are having trouble deciding which activities to do yourself and which activities you
should delegate to others use this simple rule:
What do you enjoy doing and what are you good at doing?
You’ve only got one life. If you spend all your time doing things you don’t enjoy you
won’t get anything meaningful accomplished. Delegate the things you don’t like doing
and stick with the things that bring you joy and satisfaction. Efficient people love what
they do and they are good at it.
Only do the things you enjoy and that you are good at and delegate everything else to
someone or something competent to handle the task quickly and effectively.
One of the biggest problems I see people dealing with that limits their ability to operate
efficiently is their inability to delegate due to an oversized ego. They think “If I don’t do
it then it isn’t going to get done right”. They’ve got to realize that is the wrong attitude.
You aren’t the only person on the face of the earth who can do it. In fact, many people
can do it better, faster and more quickly than you. Let them do it so you can concentrate
on taking giant steps in your business. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your
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efficiency. You won’t ever get around to the important things because your ego won’t let
you go beyond these tasks that “only you can do”.
Another thing that identifies efficient people online is their ability to identify change, roll
with it and go with it. Inefficient people resist change and this causes them to either miss
opportunities or get left behind as the market moves on without them. Now this doesn’t
mean you should embrace change for the sake of change itself. You embrace change for
the sake of improvement. If in doubt ask yourself “Will this change improve my ability to
do business, deliver a quality product / service, or increase customer satisfaction?” If the
answer is “Yes” then you need to go for it.
No matter how fast or slow change occurs - and though you must anticipate change most of all you’ve got to live in the present moment. The “here and now” is where you
impact your business the most.
I keep a daily date book. I don’t turn the date book over to the computer. In my case, I
only write down days for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ve worked a 3-day week
from my home since 1971 because I figured out how to efficiently operate a free-lance
business from my home.
I simply hand write my day down (Day-at-a-glance) and I fill the pages ONLY with tasks
that are realistic for me to do THAT day. I NEVER want to kid myself by writing down
things that are unrealistic or write down 8 things on a page when I know I’ll only have
time to get 5 done. When I have filled up that day I then put things down for the next day,
the next and then take the next assignments over to the following week.
That’s how I leave my Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday free. I don’t schedule
anything for those days.
Here’s the key - When I write these things in my calendar these are PROMISES I’m
making to myself. You can’t kid yourself if you are going to be successful in business or
life. So anything that gets written down gets done. I make the commitment to get to the
assignments I say I’ll get to.
Putting it in writing, with a deadline in the date book I use everyday, and making the
commitment to those assignments is crucial to efficiently getting things done. Plus, by
not depending on technology to keep my schedule I can still work on my assignments if
the power goes out.
I literally refuse to do anything I don’t love. I wouldn’t dare write a task on my calendar I
wouldn’t enjoy doing. I’ll either find a way to delegate it, avoid it, go around it or deal
with it indirectly. That is the underlying principle of my own efficiency.
Recommended tools:
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! Marketing On Steroids- Jay Conrad Levinson is probably the most respected
marketer in the world. In his new ebook Jay reveals how
you can use marketing steroids legally to make your
business insanely profitable.
! Guerrilla Marketing for the New Millennium - The ground-breaking new
marketing course by Jay Conrad Levinson. Learn to think
and market like a guerrilla and crush your competitors.
Click here to learn more about.
! Guerrilla Creativity -
“Make Your Marketing Message Irresistible with the
Power of Memes”. Learn to create a simple symbol that
instantly communicates a complex idea and drive your
business profits through the roof!
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
Jonathan Mizel – “The Online Marketing Letter”
Jonathan Mizel is president of Cyberwave Media and publisher of The
Online Marketing Letter, the longest-running Internet business newsletter
in the short history of the Internet (since 1993). He is an innovative direct
response marketer who has developed ad campaigns for companies like
Microsoft, Intel, American Express, and BMG Music Club, and isn't
afraid to push the marketing envelope.
Jonathan recently moved to Hawaii where he continues to efficiently
operate his online business while watching from the deck of his home as
whales frolic in the Pacific Ocean. If anyone knows how to get maximum
return from every effort online – it’s Jonathan.
Author’s Note: In his usual efficient, no-nonsense style Jonathan Mizel gives us a twopart lesson on how he manages to stay on top year after year on the Internet.
First, Jonathan tells us the simple, yet powerful techniques he uses everyday to operate
his business smoothly. Second, he gives us a very good explanation about what he thinks
is the most efficient, long-term form of marketing available online.
Part 1 - Advice on operating efficiently online:
1) I don’t do any work that generates less than $250/hour. If it does, I hire someone
else to do it for me. That means I don’t do any of the following myself:
•
Answer e-mail
•
Answer the phone
•
Do the books
It takes a lot of discipline not to jump right in and get involved with these important
tasks, but I force myself to stay focused. I spend most of my time writing ad copy,
developing marketing strategy, and setting up joint ventures with people.
Those are the high-dollar tasks in our business and my time is best spent coordinating
and engaging in those activities.
2) We use software, Autoresponders, and Web based scripts to do repetitive tasks,
like track sales, respond to simple customer service requests, and follow up after
the sale. Manually sending follow-up emails rates about the least efficient thing
you can spend your time on… too many tools exist to do it faster, better and more
consistently than you could ever do it yourself.
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3) We strive for technical compatibility in our office, which saves money and time.
For example, we all use the same e-mail program, the same operating system, the
same database, even the same kind of cell phone. We also use the same follow-up
system (!Aweber) for all our promotions.
This means we don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time we launch a new
product. Since we know how to use the tools, we don’t waste time with a new
learning curve every time we want to do something new.
In fact, we place such an importance on efficiently releasing new products and
have gotten it down to a science, we even teach other people how to efficiently
launch their products on the Internet.
We have developed the “Marketing Rollout Formula” (!Marketing Roll Out)
to roll out all projects in less than 30 days for under $500!
This is the number one way we are able to test and roll out new projects quickly
and easily – with the least amount of energy and effort.
4) We try to find multiple uses for any software we invest in.
For example: One of the most efficient things you can do is track your advertising
so you can know which ads work and which don’t. Instead of creating separate
pages to track each ad, we use our affiliate software for tracking. Each ad has it’s
own affiliate code. If we buy keywords on a pay-per-click search engine, each
keyword has its own affiliate code. That way we know exactly which keywords
convert visitors to sales and which ones don’t.
Part 2 - The most efficient online marketing method!
If you think about all the ways to get traffic to your website and listed them off, you
would have a list that looks something like this:
•
Search engines & directories
•
Pay-per-click search engines
•
E-zines
•
Newsgroups
•
Text links
•
Banner ads
•
Pop-ups
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•
Link trades
•
Publicity
•
Contributing content to publications
•
Etc., etc., etc.
However, there’s one technique that’s hands down better than anything listed above, even
though it technically includes all of these methods. The technique is simply…
Start an affiliate program!
If you have a successful Web site, you probably already know this, especially if you sell
high-margin products and services, and can afford to pay a commission based on sales.
In fact, I was recently at a business retreat with several other top marketers, including
!Marlon Sanders, !Yanik Silver, !Declan Dunn, and !Corey Rudl. I asked each
of them what their number one source of traffic is, and they all said the same thing…
affiliates!
Several said their affiliate force generates as much as 90% of their total traffic, which
isn’t surprising, considering how many dollars they pay out in commissions each month.
Why is this the most efficient way to market?
The number one reason this traffic is so good is that it’s absolutely, positively risk-free!
In fact, if an affiliate sends you a million visitors, and none of them buy, you don’t pay a
cent.
Of course, if someone sends you a hundred visitors, and all of them buy, you only pay
after the sales have been made, and then, only a portion of the proceeds, guaranteeing you
a profit! (That’s why affiliate techniques are also called performance marketing.)
Think about it, what this means is if your offer is good, you can pretty much generate
unlimited traffic by simply contacting prospective affiliates, offering them a generous
commission, and giving them quality promotional tools (banners, ads, e-mail teasers, etc.)
They’ll find creative ways of promoting your product you probably haven’t even thought
of because they are motivated to turn their mailing list and Web site traffic into revenue!
The Key - Efficiently Tracking Sales for your affiliates
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Quality offers and responsive ads aren’t the only thing affiliates want, they also need to
feel confident they’ll get credit for all sales. One of the most important elements of an
affiliate program is bulletproof tracking that uses both cookies and offline tracking.
For example, take a look at this example from our affiliate program: !Cyberwave
Media. When you visit this site, it will insert a cookie that tracks future sales, no matter
when they are made.
After you are done, close your browser window and visit: !Amazing Pop Ups. Now
click the order form button and the affiliate code 10799 should automatically appear in
the form. We set our cookie for 35 years so our affiliates get the credit when we follow
up, even though we send people to the main site.
We also insert the affiliate code in the ordering instructions for fax and phone sales. More
and more affiliates are demanding cookies, as well as offline tracking, to make sure their
promotional efforts are rewarded.
You work hard to recruit quality affiliates, so the most efficient thing you can do is
satisfy them up front that you are protecting their interests.
The two affiliate program software packages we recommend have these advanced
tracking features built in:
•
!Assoctrac
•
!Synergyx
Recommended Tools:
!The Online Marketing Letter - The longest running Internet marketing newsletter
published. Since 1993, tens of thousands of online
entrepreneurs from virtually every industry have
relied on our techniques and experiences to guide
them. Discover the newest ways to use the Internet
to sell more of virtually any product or service!
!Anatomy of a Marketing Rollout -
Here's how to take any product and roll it
out from a few hundred, to a few million
visitors every single month. Discover how to
get unlimited traffic! You'll learn the exact
steps to take, and the order to take them to
maximize profitability and minimize risk.
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!Amazing Pop-Ups -
This is the number one pop-up course on the Internet,
endorsed by everyone from Marlon Sanders to Yanik
Silver! Discover how to double your opt-in rate, explode
your sales, and squeeze up to 300% more revenue out of
each visitor with simple, easy, code you can add to your
site in just a few minutes.
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
Larry Chase – “Ultimate ezine Publisher”
Larry Chase has published his ezine “Web Digest for Marketers” since
1995. He is also the author of “Essential Business Tactics for the Net”
published by John Wiley & Sons in May 1998.
As a Net Consultant, Larry has worked for: Con Edison, 3com, EDS, Hotel
Discount, Auto-By-Tel, New York Life, and scores of other firms, both
large and small. He helps firms map out a strategy and figure out where they're going
with their web sites, in six months, a year from now, and beyond.
Some of Larry’s speaker topics include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Developing Instant Inbound Leads on the Internet
Prospecting for New Business on the Net
Using the Net as a Productivity Tool
So you've Got a Web Site, Now What?
Effective Ecommerce Strategies
How to Start an Effective Email Marketing List (Like Web Digest For Marketers)
Author’s Note: Larry really emphasizes focus as a way to increase and maintain a high
level of online efficiency. For Larry, focus spells the difference between mediocre and
incredible results online.
Advice on operating efficiently online:
Try to do things with many different reasons in mind
Keeping this idea constantly in mind will make all your output work harder, whether in
your personal efforts or the efforts of the tools you use online.
I would encourage everyone to use everything more than once if at all possible. Get more
than one result out of everything you do.
For example, when I read another person’s ezine I try to do 3 things at once:
1. I am looking for potential advertisers – people I see who spend money on ezine
advertising that I can approach to advertise in my ezine. It’s a lot easier to sell
someone who is already sold on the medium and understands how it works.
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2. I am looking for ideas – things that I can write articles about or trends I need to
educate my readers about.
3. I am looking for content to send to other people. - I learned a long time ago that
personal networking is one of the most profitable activities for any business
person. Emailing articles and snippets with a one-sentence note to someone I
think would be interested helps to keep my network fresh and “in-touch”.
Before the web I used to clip articles and send them to people - email just makes
it even easier.
Don’t get side-tracked!
Always focus on the task at hand because not doing so is the biggest productivity killer.
For example:
You’re working on your website’s sales copy and your email chime goes off. You open
your email, read the message, click on a website, which leads you to an archive, which
leads you to another website… and on… and on. 15, 20… 30 minutes goes by.
You finally get back to what you were doing. By the way, what were you doing?
You’ve totally lost any momentum you had. You waste more valuable time getting back
into the swing of what you were doing – if you can even get back at all.
I’m very fond of telling people “Stay on point!” If you have to, write your current task on
a 3x5 card and tape it to your monitor. Remind yourself every 10 or 15 minutes what you
are working on and what you are trying to accomplish. Don’t stop until you’ve completed
the task.
If I ever find myself straying I simply ask myself “Am I on point?” If not, I immediately
stop that activity and get back onto the point of what I was originally doing.
Another question I love to ask myself when I’m engaged in a non-focused activity is
“How does this serve me?” If my current activity doesn’t serve a planned purpose, I stop.
Here’s an article Larry recently published in his ezine emphasizing the importance and
benefits of staying focused (and efficient) online.
(You can subscribe to his ezine free at ! Web Digest For Marketers )
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Top Tips For Staying Focused on the World Wide Web
Ever notice how often you get side-tracked whilst working on the Internet?
You open up an email, and hard as you might try to not leave email mode,
you click on an irresistible link which plunges you into browser mode and
the World Wide Web. One thing leads to another, and you're now looking at
a stalactites Webcam in Africa.
How did that happen? More important, how can you keep this unproductive
behavior from reoccurring multiple times each day?
Below are some tips to help you stay focused and on-point with your
intended mission.
1. Turn off your speakers so you aren't distracted by the "be-dute" sound
every time an email flies in. Like Pavlov's dogs, you naturally want to then
leave what you're doing and visit your In Box to see what's up. If this
happens every 5 minutes, you'll never get anything done.
2. Better yet, promise to only visit your In Box four times a day, like ebook
author Jim Edwards does. This is one technique he uses to get such a
prodigious number of ebooks written. He doesn't allow himself to get
sucked into the In Box swirl.
3. Create a "Read" folder where you can stuff all those emails that demand
reading time, then schedule time to read them, rather then perusing them as
they come in. What you really want to read first is email from business
prospects, clients and potential leads.
4. When reading email newsletters that are long-winded, simply skip the
first three paragraphs, which should have been edited out anyway. These
warm-ups often begin with analogies and metaphors you've heard before,
and are often just padding for the real message, assuming there is a real
message.
5. Look for action words in long-winded emails. Too often, people write
email novels and give you their life's story before they get around to the
bottom line. Maybe they figure if you're reading all the hot air they have
your interest. I don't know, but it's annoying. I scan for action verbs or an
out and out call to action like "...so call me if you want to have lunch with
my client when he's in New York."
6. Use Boolean searches when searching the WWW. Search engines like
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Google and AltaVista offer this feature, which will help focus your search
greatly. Some search engines let you search the search results as well. That
lets you cast a wide enough net to catch much of what you want and then
filter down to the nuggets.
7. Send yourself email. I'm certain most people do this already. When out
on the Web, if you see something of peripheral interest, mail it back to
yourself for later inspection, rather than going off topic to examine it at the
moment you come across it.
8. Unsubscribe regularly from newsletters: Really! Many of them only serve
to keep you from your appointed rounds. If you notice you're deleting some
regularly, get rid of them altogether. It's one less thing to clutter up your
radar screen.
9. Use the phone instead of the Net. Surprised to hear me say this? Well,
sometimes one network is faster to use than another.
10. To stay on top of your competitors' moves, consider using automated
reconnaissance services to notify you, rather than manually conducting
exhaustive searches constantly. If necessary, pay for the reconnaissance
services. Your time is worth more than what it will cost you.
Bonus Tip: Don't you yourself contribute to the din of distractions. You
know how you feel about people who send you novels about their family
around this time of year? They go on for pages, largely about people you
don't know. Keep messaging brief and to the point. People will and are
grateful for this.
I've talked to thousands of WDFM readers over the years, and their biggest
praise is that the reviews are short and to the point. Bring an indisputable
sense of immediacy and relevance to your message.
In other words, get to the point, man:). LC
Recommended tools:
! Web Digest For Marketers –
get the latest tips, tricks and sites along with
informative articles to help you market more
efficiently online and off.
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David Garfinkel – “Advertising Headlines that Make you Rich”
David Garfinkel helps companies with high-end business-to-business
products and services increase sales and make bigger profits. If
you’re like most companies, you have generic advertising that is not
specific to your strengths. David has a powerful and proven process
that ferrets out your uniqueness and distills it down to a unique selling
proposition – a few simple words that powerfully assert your
competitive advantage.
From there, he develops marketing materials and processes – sales
letters, advertisements, telephone scripts, postcards, Web pages, tag
lines, trade show promotions, press releases, autoresponder copy.
In short, he comes up with whatever it takes to get you the sales and profits you need to
grow. And he gives you a workable plan to use the copy and strategy to increase your
sales and profits.
Companies in 81 industries have increased their sales by millions of dollars per year
using David’s strategies, tactics and sales copy.
Author’s Note: Talk about efficiency. David actually limits the number of people he will
work with so each client gets maximum results. Most consultants are all too eager to take
anyone and everyone as a client, but the efficient consultants like David only work with
motivated clients who want results.
Visit !David Garfinkel’s Website
Advice on operating efficiently online:
David offers a two-part interview.
In part one he gives us his views on thriving online in a downward or stagnant economy.
In part two he tells us the most efficient way to use advertising to grow your business.
Part One
Do you see the challenging times we’re in as a burden or an opportunity? Many people,
when they hear that the economy has slowed down, act like they are obligated to
participate in a recession! You may feel that way also, but you don’t have to. Once you
realize that fortunes are made in bad times, you can put aside your worries long enough
to evaluate the opportunities in front of you.
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What follows is a set of concrete actions you can take right away. This is an action plan
you can use to say, “The hell with the recession – I’m cashing in!”
In the 17 years I’ve been testing the waters of the marketplace, I’ve seen different people
make essentially the same mistakes over and over again. I’ve also noticed the habits and
practices of shrewd individuals who consistently make money. What follows is the best
of what I have learned, organized into steps you can take.
What Not To Do
The biggest mistake most businesses make in times like these can be summed up in two
words: cutting back. Whatever you do, don’t cut back where it can hurt your business.
That is, don’t cut back on your prices, your marketing or selection and availability.
However, there are areas where it can make sense to cut back and in the process increase
your efficiency. It’s a good idea to keep your fixed costs low, so you may need to cut
back on staff. You should certainly cut back on whatever debt you can, and cut back on
frills. Make necessary investments – marketing, inventory, customer convenience – but
go easy when it comes to spending on non-essentials.
Cash In On Opportunities
In tough times, it’s more important than ever to keep an eagle-eye on trends in the
marketplace. Here are three things to look for that can help you make money in the
months ahead:
1. Security-related businesses. I have a client who provides a product that helps
corporations remind their employees to practice safe and careful computer habits.
Recently the term “Digital Pearl Harbor” has appeared a lot in the news, as a way to
describe the potential threat of cyber-terrorism. It’s real. I helped my client re-formulate
his marketing message to get the attention of the major news media. Needless to say, my
client’s business has grown substantially. By the same token, anything you can do to
help people maintain or increase security (whether computer-related or not) has a good
chance of making a lot of money in this economy.
2. Internet marketing. After the dot-com and NASDAQ crashes – and especially after
the fall of Webvan – a lot of people started to lose faith in Internet marketing. That trend
reversed direction in a hurry when anthrax started to show up in postal mail. When I was
writing an article for Sales and Marketing Management about how to get more sales from
Internet marketing, one provider of email marketing software told me orders skyrocketed
50% the month after the terrorist attacks. Anything you can do to help people market
better on the Internet has a lot of profit potential at this time.
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3. Helping people get more out of what they’ve already got. A good friend is helping
a Fortune 100 company take ideas its creative employees have come up with and turn
these ideas into new, freestanding, highly profitable companies. Why? Because the large
corporation lacks the skill, speed and entrepreneurial knack to launch its own start-ups.
Suddenly many other large companies are asking my friend to do the same thing for
them. If you can help people take better advantage of their existing resources, in these
times you will have limitless opportunities.
Your Survival Game Plan
I’m sure your first priority is keeping your own business going. Here are 10 things you
can do now to ensure that your business will survive, thrive and operate efficiently in the
days, months and years ahead:
The Basics:
1. Get back in touch with old customers. The biggest cost most businesses never take
into account is the cost of acquiring a new customer. Undoubtedly you – or someone you
can work with online - have old customers who would gladly give you more business if
you gave them a little more attention. Rekindle those old relationships and watch the
cash start to flow!
2. Make extra effort to keep current customers. Don’t be surprised if competitors are
gunning for your current customers more than ever before. It’s very easy to do this,
especially online where the cost to reach these customers is almost zero! Go the extra
mile with current customers to make sure they stay with you. Common courtesy – saying
“please” and “thank you” – along with punctuality and following through on every
promise, make up the glue that retains customers, if for no other reason than it’s so rare!
3. Offer prospective customers a free sample. From a test-drive in a new Mercedes to
a food sample on a Saturday at the grocery store to the first chapter of your latest ebook,
offering a free sample is one of the least expensive and most effective ways to get a new
customer. When I convinced a business-to-business travel agency to offer free samples
of its services to CEOs, it added $5 million in annual, recurring revenues. Ask yourself
this question: What can you do that you’re not already doing to help customers
experience the value of what you offer before they commit to buy?
Advertising:
4. Only advertise where your prospects and customers are. Take a very close look at
how and where you advertise your online business. Stay focused and put your message in
front of targeted prospects. A “shotgun” marketing approach won’t work very well,
especially when people are watching every dollar they spend.
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5. Use a powerful headline in every ad you write. The same goes for emails (use a
powerful subject line); Web pages (use a powerful title); sales letters (use a headline or a
powerful first sentence); and pay-per-click search engine listings (the link they click is
critical). The most important thing about these first few words is that they need to grab
the reader’s attention and create the expectation that the reader will learn how to solve a
problem or achieve a desire by reading further.
Just by changing the headline in an inexpensive ad for a one-person business, I increased
advertising results from zero to $11,000 profit in one month… without one single
increase in cost. They were already buying the ad! Talk about an increase in efficiency.
We’ll talk a lot more specifically about advertising efficiency in part two of this
interview.
6. Make a compelling offer that drives prospects to call or visit you. Most advertising
you look at (online or off) is limp and lifeless – it gives the reader no reason to respond.
Make yours stand out by offering a freebie, or a discount, or some other incentive to
order NOW!
7. Synchronize the people who answer your phones or emails with the ads you’re
running. It’s amazing how businesses spend thousands of dollars to advertise, only to
waste the qualified leads that come in because the people answering the phone or emails
either don’t know about the ad, or aren’t trained to close sales. Don’t let your business
get stuck in sales-process limbo. Plan every step of the sale, from when the prospect first
contacts your business.
Joint Ventures:
8. Form joint ventures with non-competing companies that have the same customers
you do. One of my clients offers Web sites to health-care professionals. A friend of his
mails to between 30,000 and 40,000 of these health care providers every month. My
client recently struck a deal with his friend to include an ad I wrote in his friend’s
mailings. When we run the ad in a trade journal, it costs $10,000 each time. When we
include it in the mailing as a flyer, all my client pays for is printing – pennies per piece –
and gives his friend a percentage of the new business he gets. With online joint ventures
you don’t even have printing costs. It’s virtually all profit.
Joint ventures like these are win-wins for everyone involved and are perhaps the most
efficient form of marketing anyone can engage in.
9. Combine resources with other companies to reduce costs and risks. A friend of
mine gets over 200,000 unique visitors a month to her Web site. I have neither the time
nor a strategic reason to promote my Web site to get that many visitors. My friend places
ads free of charge on her site to sell some of my products, and I give her a commission
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whenever there’s a sale. Every business has excess capacity in one area or another.
When you combine your resources with someone else’s excess capacity, you both can
profit for very little additional cost.
10. Never do anything yourself that you can hire someone to do for you. The secret
of every millionaire I know? Focus. They know what they do best, and that’s what they
do. But here’s the important distinction: that’s all they do.
For example, if marketing isn’t your strength, get some help. Every marketing consultant
has a specialty. Mine happens to be working with business-to-business companies
offering high-end products. What you should do is figure out who is the best provider of
the help that you need, and hire that person.
I’ve put together a special report called How to Succeed Working With A Marketing
Consultant . It’s available free online at:
!http://www.davidgarfinkel.com/mktsuccess.pdf
Part Two – Efficient Advertising
Stop trying to do everything.
In advertising remember this principle:
Efficient = Effective
The most efficient advertising is advertising that brings the best results for the time,
money and energy invested to create and run it.
Concentrate on what you do very well and then hire others to do the rest!
For most people, there are two ways to create and manage your own advertising – the
easy way and the hard way.
The easy way – hire someone.
The most efficient way to create your advertising is to hire someone else to get inside the
minds of your prospects, look at your business from a unique perspective and then match
the two together. This creates the most effective advertising that meets the needs of your
customers and creates the most sales in the least amount of time.
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The hard way - doing all your advertising from scratch.
To create effective advertising you must speak the language of your customers, not the
language inside your own head. Most people can never completely get outside
themselves and totally into the mindset of their customers enough to understand what
those customers truly want – before they have ever heard of you or your business.
Because of that, and because they will never release control of the advertising function of
their business, most people will never fully exploit the potential of advertising to totally
revolutionize their business.
Just ask any online business owner – one of the hardest things you’ll ever do is write the
sales letter for your own product. Yet, think of a product you’ve recently bought (that you
really liked) and you could probably write a better (or at least greatly improve) the sales
letter the business owner used to sell you. Why? Because in this case you, as the
customer, clearly understand the benefits that made you buy.
So if you can’t afford to hire someone and you realize you aren’t the world’s greatest
copywriter, what do you do?
Simple. Just as with any problem, you find…
The Middle Ground – learn by example using “proven” formulas.
The most immediate place to increase any advertising efficiency is by improving the
headlines you use in your advertising, web pages and sales letters.
Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, get yourself a couple of good books on
advertising headlines and writing sales letters. Make sure those books teach you based on
adapting examples of proven headlines and sales letters over to your own needs.
Let’s face it, there are certain headlines and sales letter formulas work. Here’s a simple
example:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” is the title of a famous self-improvement
seminar series. It was also a headline used to sell tens-of-thousands of books by mail
order.
Well you can learn to adapt that winning formula to your own needs. In this case the
formula is “How to ____ and ____.”
Here’s how various businesses might adapt this headline formula specifically to their
business:
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Hypnotherapist - How to Change Habits and Get Results
Bank - How to Save Money and Retire Rich
Health Food Store - How to Change Your Food and Feel Great!
Landscaping Service - How to Design Your Lawn So You Get Compliments
Cosmetic Dentist - How to Change Your Smile and Become More Attractive
Dance Studio - How to Dance Comfortably and Become More Popular
Hair Replacement Specialist - How to Have More Hair and Be More Attractive
Camera Store - How to Take Great Pictures and Be Proud of Them!
Kitchen Remodeler - How to Change Your Kitchen and Enjoy Your Home More
Yoga Instructor - How to Loosen Up and Relax!
Quick Oil-Change Service - How to Save Time and Make Your Car Last Longer
Tire Store - How to Drive Safely and Ride Comfortably
Safari Tour Company - How to Have an Exciting Vacation and Make Your Friends
Envious
Martial Arts School - How to Stay Fit and Protect Yourself
Stop-Smoking Program - How to Kick the Habit and Feel Great
Luggage Store - How to Be Stylish and Travel in Comfort
Candy Store - How to Have Fun and Satisfy Cravings
Time Management Expert - How to Save Time and Get Things Done
Salon and Spa - How to Totally Relax and Feel Great
Headhunter - How to Get a Better Job and Make More Money
In my book Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, I take 70 of the most proven,
best money-making headlines and break them down so that any business can almost
instantly adapt them to their advertising.
You don’t have to struggle for hours (like most people) trying to think up great headlines
that “might” work for your business. Use the examples of headlines proven to make
people take action and buy products. I could talk for hours about the psychological
reasons why they work, but the fact is they work. The most efficient thing you can do in
your advertising is USE proven headlines.
The same goes for your sales letters. There are plenty of good programs out there that can
teach you how to write a winning sales letter.
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Since headlines represent 80-90% of the power of any ad, letter or web page advertising,
learning to “model excellence” you see in headlines that work can dramatically improve
your business in the shortest time with the least effort. That sure sounds efficient to me!
General Suggestions and Thoughts for increasing your efficiency online
First, stop trying to do everything.
Second, create an efficient business by becoming an effective business owner. What are
the few things you can do really well and then you can either not do the other things or
hire others to do them. Either way, you’ll do better, you’ll make more money and you’ll
enjoy more success.
Third, focus!
Mark Joyner (ultra-successful ebook publisher) once told me he’s never seen anyone who
habitually sends out jokes they find on the Internet who is successful… and he’s right!
You can’t get successful (let alone operate online efficiently) if you focus on everything
but what it takes to make your business work. You’ll never make it.
The key is to focus on the things you enjoy, that you do well, and then let other people
take care of the rest. In fact, if you really do this, other things will almost arrange
themselves around you… it’s almost a mystical kind of phenomenon.
I’ve noticed for myself there are two things I really enjoy and do well:
1. Writing how-to content for the business arena
2. Writing sales copy for high-end business to business sales
And I have basically cut everything else out of my business life.
The Internet makes it so much easier to reach your goals if you are focused. For example,
it used to take hours to write an article for offline publications. You had to type the article
on paper, if there was a mistake you had to white it out or even re-type the whole page.
Once I finished I had to literally mail the article to the magazine or whoever. Now I can
type it up and email it in a morning and it is in print shortly thereafter. If you are focused
then the Internet makes it much easier to efficiently complete whatever you’re working
on.
The flipside is also true…
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If you are easily distracted and can’t maintain focus, the Internet provides endless
opportunities to stay really busy without getting anything accomplished or making any
money in the process. There’s always something to read, email to send, web pages to surf
and things to click – but is it getting you anywhere?
Is it bringing you any closer to your goals?
If you’re not operating in a focused manner according to a plan, then probably not.
The Internet magnifies your ability or inability to focus.
Recommended tools:
!Advertising Headlines that Make you Rich! - David Garfinkel has been described
as, "the world's greatest copywriting
coach."
He's a successful results oriented
copywriter and his new ebook shows
you exactly how to instantly adapt
proven money-making headlines to
your business.
! Killer Copy Tactics - A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the
man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach."
David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this
groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what
Internet based learning should be.
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Kevin Donlin – The “Follow Up Marketing” King
Kevin started marketing online before there was a Web -- he first sold an
ebook on Usenet in 1994. Since then, he’s researched and tested every
possible online marketing method.
From 1995 to 1997, he was Webmaster for FedEx.com. His boss was the visionary
genius who built the FedEx Web site ... and he personally answered more than 11,000
emails in two languages from customers worldwide. You could say he was present at the
birth of online marketing and e-commerce.
Amazingly, Kevin keeps current by reading 27 ezines, 5 print magazines and 2 books on
marketing every month – because he believes the most efficient way to operate online is
to stay current with the latest trends and techniques that produce better and better results.
Kevin’s primary website is !Guaranteed Marketing where he offers information on
his favorite and most efficient marketing technique “Follow-up Marketing”.
Author’s Note: Kevin Donlin concentrates not only on generating a six-figure income
from his online business, but also on having a quality life with his family. Kevin’s
business is based on efficiently managing his time and efforts to gain maximum return in
the shortest time.
We can all take a page from Kevin’s book (literally), especially when it comes to
managing projects, people and our most precious resource – time!
Advice on operating efficiently online:
No matter how rich or poor, educated or ignorant, lucky or cursed, we all start the day
with the same 24 hours. How you spend your time -- your most precious resource -- will
determine 100% of your success or failure in your online business.
I offer the following tips to help you increase your efficiency at what you do and – in the
process – increase the level of joy, satisfaction and financial rewards you get out of life!
1) You can't improve what you don't measure
This is a tidbit I picked up from my FedEx clients, when I used to be Webmaster for
FedEx.com. They were forever analyzing business processes. From the number of scans a
package receives during transit, to the number of calls an #800 operator is expected to
handle per hour - all operations at FedEx are carefully measured so they can be tested and
improved.
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You can find out where your time goes if you measure how you spend just one entire
workday. That's all it takes to gain incredible insights that will eliminate time-wasting
activities and make you more productive.
Efficiency means not only saving time, but working smarter.
Here's my own example.
I focused on eliminating TV during the day.
For the month of December 1998, my Palm Pilot records show that I spent 18 hours
watching news and other programs between 9:00 and 5:00, Mon.-Fri., when I should
have been working. Eighteen hours of TV a month works out to 216 hours per year, the
equivalent to 5.4 FULL WORKING WEEKS SPENT WATCHING TV.
Unacceptable!
But measuring a problem is only the first step toward a solution. You’ve got to take
ACTION to make a change for the better. By February 2001, I had cut TV time during
the working day to a total of 6.5 hours for that month, freeing up 138 hours -- 3.45
working weeks -- per year.
How are you spending your time? Could you be more organized?
Start measuring and improving!
2) Use the time that others waste
Make a conscious effort to better use down time or transition time. If you can reclaim just
one hour of extra time each week, that adds up to 52 extra hours a year -- more than one
full work week.
Start right now by putting that business book you've been planning to read in the
bathroom. I read one book every month this way and sometimes two, depending on my
diet ;-)
Author’s Note: This one tip enabled me to finish two books in the last month and a half.
Now I have a very well stocked “reading room”!
One former US president, Warren G. Harding, wrote an entire book during the
cumulative time he spent waiting for trains. I carry a legal pad everywhere and write in
the waiting room at the doctor's office or when my car is being serviced. You, too, could
write an entire book this way, in waiting rooms!
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If you find yourself engaged in something that doesn't require a lot of brainpower, try
multi-tasking. When I call my brothers in the evening to talk about hockey, for example, I
usually do the dishes at the same time, or clean up after my four-year-old. While
exercising, I listen to educational tapes. I'm always looking to double my productivity by
doing two things at once.
What time are you wasting? Can you find and reclaim an extra hour this week?
3) Kill your telephone
Here's a little trick that not one in 20 entrepreneurs knows, but it can literally free up
hours of extra time for you every workweek.
Starting tomorrow, turn off the ringer on your phone -- don't answer it. Try this for a day
or two and see if it doesn't make you more productive. You can also use this technique
with your email by following Jim’s advice on following an email schedule.
I started not answering my phone two years ago. You can't call me directly unless I'm
expecting you. Instead of a telephone ringing every 15 minutes with another interruption,
I listen to classical music on the radio or birds in the yard as I write.
Do I ignore my clients and prospects completely? No! My answering machine has an
upbeat message from me, telling people that I'll return their call within 90 minutes, which
I do, like clockwork.
This eliminates telemarketers and other time wasters, who don't leave messages. Doing
this saves 30-60 minutes every day in interruptions while I focus on more important
things.
Try it yourself and see.
4) Batch tasks like cookies
Returning your phone messages in one batch every 90 minutes is just one way to increase
productivity. Grouping your email replies works the same way too.
Examine every process in your business the same way, with an eye toward grouping
similar tasks. You can produce an incredible time savings this way.
Look at how a baker works….
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He doesn't make 12 cookies, then 10 loaves of bread, then 24 more cookies and then
work his way around to 20 more loaves of bread ... he bakes a batch of similar items all at
once, then moves onto the next one. He finishes one job before he starts another.
Here’s an online example: Processing credit card transactions and doing my finances in
Quicken is a low-value task that would disrupt my workday. So I wait and do all of it at
once at 6:00 a.m. every Saturday morning. Then I'm free to goof off for the rest of the
day.
To sum up, the most important thing I ever did to make myself more efficient was to
carefully measure everything I do each day. Then I picked one area at a time and got busy
improving how I did it. It's a never-ending process that pays big dividends now and for
the life of my business.
Recommended tools:
The most efficient way to make money in your business is not to find new customers…
it’s to sell more and more often to the existing prospects and customers you already
have!
!Follow-up Marketing -
This incredible site teaches you "How to Double Sales in
Your Small Business ... in 20 Minutes a Day ... With an
Easy, Completely Different Approach to Follow-up
Marketing."
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Neil Shearing – Follow the “Internet Success Blueprint”
Neil Shearing started out like the rest of us – he got really
excited about the possibilities he saw online and just dove
headfirst into the Web.
With a scientific background, Neil always looks for the
logical, practical way to do things better. He’s a no-nonsense
guy who doesn’t like wasting time and is always open to any
quality TOOL that gets results fast!
As you can see from his input, Neil specializes in getting the most out of every single
effort.
Visit his website !Internet Success Spider
Advice on operating efficiently online:
1: I use this tool every single day, and it cuts down on my typing by about half...
!Quick Keys.
Any sentences that I type often are programmed into it so that I hit one keyword combo
(eg CTRL + J) and the sentence is typed.
Excellent! (and you thought I actually typed "thanks for your email" in all those emails I
sent ;-)
2: If you're looking for a past email from someone, try clicking on the "From" bar in the
window pane for the messages, and the folder messages will be sorted in alphabetical
order.
It sure makes finding all the emails from "Joe Bloggs" easier!
This works for the Subject too, which is great for grouping similar emails such as order
confirmations or newsletters which always have the same subject.
3: I have a custom start page for Internet Explorer.
(Author’s note: THIS IS AN AWESOME TIP! We immediately started using this one
as soon as Neil told us about it!)
I copy frequently visited URLs into a webpage I keep on my desktop called "start.html".
Then I set it as my default homepage in Internet Explorer... and “presto”, all of the
webpages I visit often are one click away! Much more versatile and easy to use than
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those complicated bookmarks and “favorites” I can never seem to organize in my
browser.
4: I love RoboForm (but I love my wife and son more) available from !RoboForm. It
works with Internet Explorer and remembers all your passwords *and* fills in forms
where it recognizes the form fields.
Also it doesn't have the negative attributes that Gator allegedly has. Best of all, it's free!
5: My "Internet Sucess Spider" software was originally written to save me time. The
great thing is it's now saved several hundred people hours of time each as well ☺.
This software hunts down “Super Affiliates” and Super Link Partners to help generate
sales for your associate program and links to boost your search engine rankings.
Several huge names online have said it has saved them countless hours of searching for
potential joint venture partners!
Check it out at: !Internet Success Spider
Recommended tools:
!Internet Success Spider – learn to find, identify and recruit “Super Affiliates” who
can sell more of your product in an hour than others
can sell in a month! This software is a “must-have” for
anyone serious about growing and expanding their
affiliate network at with lightning-like speed!
!RoboForm – auto-complete forms without the “spy-ware” issues associate with Gator
!Quick Keys – cut down on keystrokes while increasing speed and efficiency for
repetitive motions online.
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Rick Beneteau – Free Ezine Publicity “Machine”!
Rick has made his way in the online world primarily using two
techniques… affiliate programs and ezine articles. Rick has found
these two methods the most efficient for his lifestyle and the type of
“remote control” business he chooses to run.
In late 1996, Rick logged on to the Internet for the very first time. The
challenge to conquer what he refers to as the "Wild, Wild Web" was too great to resist.
1998 found him one of the pioneers of the 2-Tier Affiliate Program now so prominent on
the Internet.
He also began writing business articles in a style still not seen very often on the Internet.
His friendly, wit-driven articles soon filled the pages of most of the prominent ezines and
newsletters.
Rick's first ebook entitled !"The Ezine Marketing Machine" was released October/99
and has since become an Internet-wide best-seller. It teaches anyone how to harness the
powerful free advertising potential of publishing articles for ezines and how virtually
anyone can do it!
Advice on operating efficiently online:
Affiliate Programs
By far, the best time-saving tip I can provide is setting-up an affiliate system for my
resellers that automatically delivers everything they need to begin marketing my products
and start earning themselves the generous commissions we pay right away.
I couldn't imagine NOT providing the essential resources and steps for affiliates to take,
which in our case includes a LOT of pre-coded resources (banners/graphics, ads, articles,
etc.), and having to individually assist over 15,000 individuals in getting started!
I cannot even begin to account for the time-savings here as we have always supported our
affiliates in this manner, but suffice it to say I'd be spending most of my time going back
and forth with new affiliates helping them get off to a good start as opposed to
developing new products, or, taking a vacation:-)
Implementing this type of system may be a little more time-consuming during the
development phase of designing an affiliate system, but rest assured it saves
immeasurable time, puts new affiliates into instant-action mode and helps them
sell/earn more which of course, is the name of the game!
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The Write Way!
In my totally biased opinion:-) here's the absolute *best use* of your time to build not
only a highly targeted traffic stream and the sales that come with it, but *earn* the great
reputation it takes to build a strong and viable Internet business - write articles for the
hundreds of thousands of ezines out there!
Simply stated, become an *expert* in your field *using* the ezines and success flows to
you.
What do I mean by this?
Interviews (such as this) and other high exposure publicity opportunities (radio,
television, print, Internet) come your way. Joint ventures (extra money making and
exposure opportunities) find you.
Sales happen - potential customers click directly on your website because they read your
article and want to find out more about you.
All this happens without one painstaking submission to a search engine or costly ad in
one of the ezines your article *could* appear in - FREE.
Beauty is, *your article* will get clicked on MUCH more than any ad in any ezine your
article is featured in!
Give of yourself - your knowledge, your expertise, your desire to help people IN your
articles, and you won't believe what happens!
My entire business began, and is still being built this way.
Bottom line: if you can write a simple letter to a friend, you CAN write an article for an
ezine that can literally revolutionize your business almost overnight.
Recommended tools:
!Ezine Marketing Machine - Internet Marketing Expert Rick Beneteau shares with
you the ONLY Method he used to build his business,
his reputation and how to get millions of impressions
per month. LEARN with his Powerful New eBook, The
Ezine Marketing Machine. Click here to LEARN &
EARN!
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Joe Vitale – Outrageous Copywriting Genius
Joe "Mr Fire" Vitale is an explosive "results only!" marketing
consultant.
He has helped over 200 authors and publishers write, publish
and promote their books.
His reputation for writing powerful copy is well known and he
is a master at efficiently creating FAST and dramatic results for
his clients:
•
One of his sales letters achieved a record-breaking 91% response.
•
One of his ads brought in 500 responses in only 30 days.
•
A press release he wrote got a reporter to call only 7 minutes after it was released.
Author’s note: Joe Vitale is uncharacteristically brief in his answer here ☺ - but since
this interview was conducted by email, I guess we witnessed his system first-hand!
But don’t let the brevity of his answer distract you from a very powerful technique that
can save you hours of time each week – especially when your business takes off and the
email starts pouring like a busted fire hydrant!
Advice on operating efficiently online:
My girlfriend says I've created an "instant decision" way of handling my email, which I
get by the hundreds each day.
Here's how it works:
First, I have filters set up on my email to automatically delete all email that is just
"undelievrable" or "system failure" or blatant adult ads. I never see that email.
I take a quick look at all the rest, my finger hovering over the delete key, much like when
I look at snail mail standing over the waste basket.
Ads are deleted.
Ezines are scanned for any relevant material; if none, they are deleted.
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Personal email is scanned to see who it's from; business partners get immediate attention,
fans get answered after all the rest.
And all my replies are telegrams---short, direct, sweet!
(Author’s Note: Does all this advice about email sound familiar!?! There’s a reason we
tell you to handle your email this way -- because it works!)
Recommended tools:
! How to Write and Publish your own eBook in as little as 7 Days – By far the most
efficient way known to man or woman for getting your own ebook out of your head and
into your computer so you can sell it online for outrageous profits!
!Advanced Hypnotic Writing- the unparalleled sequel to Joe Vitale's blockbuster
"Hypnotic Writing." It reveals how to use the phenomenon of hypnotic suggestion to turn
your words into cash.
!How You Can Make $5,000 - $15,000 Each Time You Teach Your Very Own Email Only E-Classes! – Joe reveals his proven techniques for teaching e-classes, classes
you teach by email only and get paid $500 to $1,500 per student… all by remote control!
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The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business - ”How to do less, get paid more and have tons more fun!”
John Harricharan - “Attention and Intention”
John is the author of the bestseller, "When You Can Walk on
Water, Take the Boat," and the creator of the ground-breaking
"PowerPause" system for success.
Outstanding businessman, lecturer and award-winning author,
John Harricharan is a unique blend of pragmatism and
mysticism. With his professional background, he also exhibits a
rare sensitivity and charismatic delivery which have earned him
well-deserved respect and acclaim.
He has shared the lecture platform with such well-known speakers as Deepak Chopra,
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Og Mandino, Gerald Jampolsky, Foster Hibbard, Eric
Butterworth, C. Everett Koop and others.
John almost magically combines ancient and universal truths about life, people, behavior
and more with the 21st century world of the Internet.
John operates two very successful websites including ! Power Pause and ! Super
Seminar
Author’s Note: John’s advice is sometimes a little different than you might expect – but
his advice always contains the seeds of so many wonderful truths about life and how to
get the most out of your activities. Read John’s information with an open mind because it
just may change your entire perspective about how and why you operate your business
online.
Advice on operating efficiently online:
"Beyond the knowledge of business and its
complexities, way beyond the expertise of marketing
gurus there is a place where the seeds of success
germinate. Find this place and your marketing results
will shine with brilliance."
- John Harricharan
A commentary on efficiently marketing (internet or otherwise)
About marketing--Marketing is not really about marketing. While I was going through MBA school they
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did not tell me this. It was only years later that I figured out that marketing was about a
state of mind. Actually, a thing of the spirit.
Within the act of marketing are all the qualities of the great laws of the Universe.
For example, the law of "giving" comes to mind as I think of marketing. Why the law of
"giving"? Because if we give the best product or service we have, and we give at a
reasonable price, (not too expensive, not too cheap) we will find that customers begin to
be attracted to our business – seemingly without any outside influence.
By giving value, by showing our customer that we respect and care about them, by giving
them value with integrity and enthusiasm, we create a mystical marketplace where
everyone wins and all receive prizes.
And how do we get to the place where we can provide great value in our products and
services? By creating in our minds the "intention" to do so. Because, if we have a clear
intention, the ways and means will be provided for us to reach the goal. The Universe
always delivers exactly what we need if our intention is clear and true to our most sacred
selves.
Having a problem in your business? Encountering a roadblock that is preventing you
from moving ahead, let alone creating an efficient well-oiled online “business machine”?
Perhaps the roadblocks have nothing to do with your business, your website, your
autoresponders, your email, your graphics or the 1000’s of other things that “prevent”
you from efficiently reaching your goals.
Perhaps the roadblocks are within you.
Remember I told you that this is not taught in MBA school? Yet, the most successful
marketers are aware that efficiently marketing online is more than the mechanics of
putting together a launch or a campaign.
Marketing is a thing of the mind.
When your intention is clear and your mind is not burdened by the unnecessary thought
of figuring how to make things work, a strange and, if you will, a mystical thing begins to
occur. Your attention begins to refocus. Ideas seemingly come from nowhere and
nothing. This is the secret of "allowing" instead of "forcing."
Allow the ideas to come. Don't force them. Someone once said that the distance between
abject poverty and fantastic wealth is no further than one great idea. The idea does not
have to be complex, it could be as simple as one, two, three, but when we really feel the
power of the idea, a whole new world is born.
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The ideas will follow your "intention." And your "attention" will be guided to focus on
the necessary combination of action that will lead to accomplishing the thing you were
dreaming about – often faster and more efficiently than you could ever dream possible.
How does the combination of "intention" and "attention" produce such awesome results?
I really don't know. Furthermore, it isn't even necessary for me to know. All we need to
do is to work it and it'll work for us.
I certainly don't know how an airplane works. Or even my TV or car. Yet, I use them all.
I have no idea what makes my liver, kidney and heart function. Yet, my trust in their
ability to perform their function helps them to be even more effective.
So it is with operating an online business. If you want to be successful in your online
ventures, you have to have success as your intention.
You can't want success and hold failure in your mind.
Your intention will lead you to pay the proper attention to your advertising, your sales
letter, your product and your campaign. You'll be led to write the right words, create the
perfect sales letter, advertise in the proper ezines and take all the necessary steps that
ensure success. If you encounter problems or roadblocks, a clear intention will
automatically lead you to the most efficient solution.
Such mystical efficiency tips work for anyone.
You don't have to be a marketing wizard or an advertising guru to be successful in your
ventures. All you need is an open mind and a willingness to try these methods. You'd be
amazed how powerful the results could be. Intention and attention -- the combination is
unbeatable.
Recommended tools:
! Power Pause -
It could change the very way you look at business or life. It
could even make your life a glorious adventure. I will also share
with you what others have said and how they have benefited from
this simple formula. Then I'll make it worth your while to learn it.
! Super Seminar - The message contained in these tapes can transform your life
from mediocrity to excellence. Practice and apply these principles
and you will find prosperity, success and happiness as your new
reality.
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Jon Keel – “Instant Website Traffic!”
Jon Keel has developed a local and national reputation as a
performance-based online marketing expert, having been actively
involved in this arena since January, 1997.
In addition to running his successful online marketing consulting
business, Improved Results, he is an adjunct professor at the Xavier
University Williams College of Business.
His MBA course, "Online Marketing and E-Commerce," gets rave reviews as being
"hands on" and is regularly oversubscribed. He had an integral part in co-developing the
E-Business MBA concentration at Xavier, which began in January, 2001.
Author’s Note: Jon is particularly well known in online marketing circles as “the” expert
on pay-per-click search engines. His practical advice and strategies have enabled scores
of online businesses to squeeze every last drop of performance out of their online
advertising dollars.
Visit Jon’s Website ! Instant Website Traffic
Advice on operating efficiently online:
As most people know, pay-per-click search engines allow advertisers to bid on the
keywords they appear under on certain search engines. The more you bid, the higher you
place in the search results.
In my opinion, pay-per-click search engine advertising is (with one exception) the
fastest, most efficient and measurable way to advertise your business online.
Why?
Several reasons:
1. Because you can target your website visitors with laser efficiency. You only bid
on the keywords you know your best prospects search for
2. You can control how much you spend on advertising to obtain a guaranteed result.
Unlike banner ads where you might spend $500 and get 35 visitors, with pay-perclick you can set it up so you get 5000 visitors for $500 and they are all targeted.
You decide how much you will spend for a visitor.
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3. You don’t pay for the visitors until you receive them. They have to click your link
before you get charged. Try running a newspaper advertisement and asking the
Sunday paper not to charge you until 100 or 500 people visit your store!
4. Other than a joint venture mailing where another website owner sends out an
email to their list endorsing your product or telling people to visit your website,
pay-per-click search engines are *the* fastest way to get traffic to your website.
You can get targeted traffic to your website as quickly as 5 days or sooner using
pay-per-clicks.
With all that said, many people over-simplify submitting to a pay-per-click search
engines. Though it’s not rocket science, you can waste a lot of time and energy if you do
it wrong.
Here are some guidelines to help you use pay-per-click search engines as efficiently as
possible.
Rule#1 – When bidding on any search term, buy into position 1,2 or 3 if at all
possible.
Since Overture (formerly Goto.com) lists only the top 3 results on all its partner sites
(where most of the traffic comes from) you won’t get much traffic if you don’t fall in the
top 3.
If bidding into the top 3 is too expensive then move on to Rule #2.
Rule #2 – Bid high on “lesser” keywords
Overture’s keyword tool allows you to see related searches to the main keywords you are
interested in. Often these keywords cost less than the more popular keywords. If you can't
afford the main keyword then you have to go get the other 100 or so other keywords that
people do additional, related searches for.
Again, especially with these lower level keywords, if you don’t bid into positions 1,2 or 3
you are wasting time!
Rule #3 – Know your “numbers”
Efficient online marketers know exactly what they can spend to bring a visitor to their
site and still make money. People who are scared to bid on pay-per-click search engines
often operate out of fear or the unknown. Since they don’t know the percentage of buyers
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out of every 100 website visitors or how much profit they make on those purchases, these
marketers don’t know whether they are making money or losing.
For example: If you make $50 in profits for every 100 visitors, that means you have a
visitor value of 50 cents. You can afford to pay up to 50 cents a visitor and still make
money or break even (breaking even can sometimes make you rich if you have a big
enough back-end).
Whatever profit you want to make needs to be factored into whatever you are willing to
spend.
If you want to make $20 profit from every 100 website visitors then you can afford to
spend 30 cents a visitor.
Know your numbers so you can buy clicks at the right price to build your business
without burying it in the process.
Bottom Line -
90% of the marketing results with pay-per-click search engines come
from the top 3 positions - this is where the real traffic comes from!
Other efficiency tips & “snippets”
1. Only return phone calls and email at certain times. Group and similar activities
together and do them all at once. Otherwise you’ll get so “busy” you won’t get
anything important done.
2. At the beginning of every week I write down the most important things to get
done that week. I concentrate on the things that will generate revenue or build my
business then I schedule them and get them done first!
3. I take time for my spiritual life and my physical activities such as exercise. To
make sure I get them in and have balance I literally schedule in important
personal appointments for spiritual development, relationships, exercise, family
and more.
4. I operate under the principle “if it doesn't get scheduled it doesn't get done!”
So schedule your priorities... until it forms a habit.
Schedule the things you say are important and treat it like an appointment with
your most important client.
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5. Learn to outsource effectively. Even if you’re good at something, if you have to
do it repetitively you should find someone else to do it. Always be on the lookout
for talented people with valuable skills who need to make extra money.
Leveraging your time in this way ultimately determines how far your business
will take you.
Recommended tools:
!Instant Website Traffic - Now you can play with the big boys and girls. "Instant Web
Site Traffic" shows you how, in a step-by-step way, to
quickly drive qualified visitors to your web site.
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Gene Ramos – “Going the extra mile”
After working for his father and building a company for four years,
Gene moved over to a young start up company named Apple
Computers. Here Gene managed the development division for the
then famous Apple IIe computer.
Gene is a pioneer in the commercial Internet field. He began in the
Internet arena back in 1994 by forming iMSi Virtual Corporation
and, among other things, conducted Internet Seminars with the
premier Internet marketing consultant Mike Enlow at a price of $15,000 per attendee.
Gene currently operates an Internet consulting business specializing in providing online
businesses with the tools, technology and expertise to make the Internet work for them.
Visit Gene’s Website ! Digital360 (Gene has very graciously made a special “bulletproof” web hosting offer for purchasers of this ebook. Be sure to check it out. We use
him for all of our major ebook hosting projects.)
Author’s Note: Gene specializes in the things that make online businesses “go” such as
website hosting, shopping carts, software, scripts, etc. His is the “nuts and bolts” guy who
provides the tools others (including us) use to sell online. In particular, Gene provides
excellent and very dependable web-hosting solutions.
I thought it very interesting that Gene offered these particular insights when talking about
operating efficiently online. I expected a whole bunch of specifics about the best way to
set up this script, or the type of code to make this or that happen online – yet Gene offers
some very philosophical thoughts on creating an efficient mindset to grow and expand
your business. Well done!
Advice on operating efficiently online:
The most efficient thing you can do in business is focus the majority of your attention on
the wants, needs and mindset of your customers and prospects.
We have incorporated a set of practices which are now second nature in running our
business. They include using a “USP”, “Making Concern Calls” and avoiding “The
Seven biggest Business Killers we learned the hard way -- and will never do again”.
First, what's a USP?
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Simple, it's a Unique Selling Proposition – which is all about stating what you do in a
way that clearly satisfies a client's emotional wants. It sets your business apart from the
others by showing you provide what the competition can't or doesn't offer.
To operate efficiently you must first differentiate yourself from the competition.
Your well thought out USP should be at the core of all of your marketing and promotion
efforts.
Make sure your USP is something you can deliver. Don't promise responsive client
services if you can't give it, and don't tell people that you can provide turnkey solutions if
you can't or don't already have the team and tools set up.
A client will hold you to your promises (both real and implied) in ways you can't imagine
– so make sure you can live up to all promises before you make them
Here's a quick way to get you thinking about your USP.
"Most businesses in my industry do ______________. But what we do is _____________
and this makes us special.”
Make Concern calls
We have found a simple technique that create a “Wow” experience for business prospects
and has our clients falling over with shock.
We call it the “concern call” and use it both over the phone and through e-mail.
After your first meeting with somebody going through their issues and concerns, they
will go home or get offline with a plan to return to the next meeting or online visit. How
about giving them a call the next day to express your concern over their problem, and ask
if there is anything you can do before the next meeting to help them? Tell them you were
worried about them and just wanted to do something.
Don’t try to sell them anything at this point - all you talk about is them and clarify
your understanding of their problem! I assure you that if you do this right and don’t
mention any products or solutions they will be blown away. You cared enough to check
up on them and didn’t try to sell them anything! They will not believe it!
What do you think they will tell their friends at dinner the next evening? You can bet it
will be something positive about you!
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Another type of concern call is to call after a baby is born or someone is recovering from
surgery. “Just called to wish you a speedy recovery, and to see if you’re OK. I was
worried about you.”
Get the idea?
This is a little thing to do, but to some people it is very big! Once again, you are doing
things that no one else will do. The concern call has made me a lot of friends -- and a lot
of money.
By the way, I do not make these calls to make money. I make these calls because I really
like people and I’m truly concerned about their well being. If you do it just for the
money, it will come off as phony.
If you don’t care don’t use this technique!
The Seven biggest Business Killers we learned about the hard way -- and
will never do again.
Never "Let Anything Take Care of Itself"!
Things will usually never take care of themselves. If you let things go unwatched,
assuming they are being taken care of, you are often in for a rude awakening! Listen!
Your success is 100% up to you! I have seen first hand just how well things go when they
are “taking care of themselves”! Do yourself a favor and have a system in place to follow
up on things.
Avoid Complacency
As soon as you are satisfied that is the moment decline begins! Things never stay the
same. They always change for your clients and you.
Keep on top of the changes and you will change your income upwards all the time.
Let the changes slide by you and you will start sliding down too! You must keep growing
or you will eventually die. It is a fact of life.
Avoid Negativity
I know this is hard and all of us can succumb to negativity at times. It happens to us when
things seem out of control and nothing is working right.
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I’ve learned that you are allowed to have your bad days, but then you have to take a deep
breath, put on a smile, and start in again! You might need to read or listen to some
motivational stuff, or take a breather to get a fresh perspective. Enjoy feeling miserable
for a very short time - then get over it!
Stop Being “Cheap” At the Wrong Times
Are you familiar with the story of the goose and the golden egg? Remember how the
farmer wanted more gold so he killed the goose so he could reach inside and get more?
Well, your marketing is your goose - it lays the golden eggs for your business.
You must reinvest some of your income in more and better marketing – “feed” your
goose so it can lay more golden eggs.
I love doing things cheaply and some things, like recycling paper clips or cutting up scrap
paper, are super ways to be frugal.
However, being cheap with your marketing is financial suicide! Pick your spots and
spend where it will do one thing and one thing only – contribute to building the business
you've always dreamed of!
Avoid Resentment
Now this may be hard for you to accept - especially if someone “does you wrong” or a
vendor makes a mistake which creates extra work for you - but don't get resentful.
Resentment is poison for your life and your business - nobody can operate efficiently
(online of otherwise) if they are filled with resentment over anything.
Reframe resentment into a learning experience!
Spend all the time and energy you would have spent being angry and use it to find a
creative way around the mistake or event that bothered you.
Get Rid of Conflict
Conflict, especially on a regular basis, is extremely costly in terms of productivity and
your mental well-being. If you can't redirect the energy of the conflict to a resolution
where both parties are satisfied and happy, YOU MUST CHANGE THE SITUATION!
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Inner peace is so important to achieving any kind of meaningful success. If you are
spending time figuring out who's going to “stab you in the back” next, you're probably
looking backwards instead of forward to your great future!
Resolve now to end conflicts even before they begin!
Develop Balance in Your life.
I feel this is the most important of the seven thoughts I’ve shared. You cannot become a
slave to your work. You must have a life and enjoy your time while you're working down
your personal path to success!
Take some evenings off. Take the kids to the park. Watch them play baseball. Take your
spouse, friend or companion to a movie, to a park or the beach and then have a nice
dinner.
If you achieve success at work at the expense of your family and personal life – you’ve
missed a big part of life as a whole.
I can tell you from personal experience that more money isn't always the solution.
All lasting success starts and ends with having balance in your life.
Take some time to smell the roses and enjoy your success – large and small!(It's a sappy
old saying, but it is true!)
Keep the fun factor high and if you’re not having fun - it’s not worth doing. Think
Positive - Be Happy - Enjoy what you do.
That’s my secret to operating efficiently online.
! Digital360 -
“Bullet-proof” website hosting, Internet consulting and more.
Click this link for a special offer on website hosting you won’t beat
anywhere else!
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Bonus #1 – the “Magic” Autoresponder
Message that saves me 1 to 3 hours a day (or
more) in unnecessary emailing
Does this sound familiar?
I was totally stressed out with all the work I was putting into my business. 18 hour days
were not uncommon and it seemed I just couldn’t focus. Instead of creating the perfect
remote control business I had created something I didn’t seem able to control at all. To
make matters worse, my wife and I were getting ready to take a trip to the Bahamas
within a month and I wasn’t sure I could go – how could I leave this monster to take care
of itself?
My parents happened to be in town for a visit to see our new house, though they weren’t
seeing much of me because I was up in my office answering email 10 times a day. When
I mentioned to my dad that I was considering canceling the Bahamas trip because I was
too busy he told me I was crazy.
Well after I calmed down a little bit and talked things over with my dad – who happens to
be the most organized person I know – we came up with a two part plan.
He helped me realize that the starting and stopping of my other tasks along with the
constant barrage of email made it virtually impossible to get anything accomplished. We
needed to get my time organized so I could actually get things accomplished.
The first strategy: we organized email around my time instead of the current situation
where I was at the mercy of the “in-box”. I detail that schedule in the “Email – ‘Grab the
Tiger by the Tail’” chapter of this book.
The second strategy we came up with was to drastically reduce the amount of email I was
receiving – the majority of which had me providing technical support or answering the
same questions over and over again. After some discussion we realized that over 90% of
all the emails had predictable answers – the same answers every time.
Once we realized that the problem practically solved itself.
Here’s the process we went through:
I went back through my email folders and looked at all the questions I had been
answering every day and identified all the common problems / questions / concerns.
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I quickly went through my “sent” items folder and picked out the answers I had been
sending people and matched them up with the questions. Within about 2 hours I had
everything together.
Next I just signed up for an autoresponder at ! Get Response and loaded the autoresponder with my new message.
Finally, I set it up so when someone bought the book through !ClickBank, the first
screen they came to asked them to “verify” their purchase. What I was really doing was
getting them to sign up for the auto-responder so I automatically send them this email.
When I “pulled the switch” something almost magical happened. In one day I went from
receiving 30 to 40 technical support emails down to 2 to 3!
One simple auto-responder message eliminated over 70% of the emails that were taking
me 1 to 3 hours a day to answer.
By the way – assuming a 5 day work week – saving 1 to 3 hours a day to answer email
translates into 5 to 15 hours a week or roughly 1 to 4 entire work weeks saved each
year.
What would you do with an additional 1 to 4 entire weeks worth of “found” time?
Take a vacation? Write another ebook? Get to know your family? Go fishing?
Think about it for a minute about how great it would be… then keep reading!
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This one technique created so much more free time that I almost didn’t know what to do
with it! For a few days I actually felt guilty for not working – but I got over that pretty
fast! ☺
As you read through the auto-responder message think about how you could apply this to
your own business. If you sell ebooks in PDF format, you could use most of this email in
its current form! If you sell any type of info-product you could easily adapt it to your own
needs.
After the autoresponder we have included some tips on how you can come up with your
own and save yourself as much as several hours a day of pain and frustration that could
easily be avoided with a little “outside the box” thinking.
NOTE: Do NOT use some bargain-basement autoresponder for this part of the
transaction! Make sure you get a good, DEPENDABLE autoresponder - such as those
available from ! Get Response. At this point people have paid for the product and you
MUST make sure they get it quickly. If your autoresponder breaks or goes down, you
may be in for some refunds.
Subject: *Download Instructions* – Tech Support
Hi [[firstname]]
Thank you for purchasing:
"How to Write and Publish your own eBook...
in as little as 7 days"
==================
*********** IMPORTANT***********
~ SAVE this email where you can easily find it.
~ Read *all* of this information first *before* emailing for
technical support.
******** Purchase Details ************
Dear [[firstname]],
Thank you very much for purchasing:
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"How to Write and Publish your own eBook...
in as little as 7 days"
Below you will find the answer to almost *every conceivable
question* you could ask about downloading, viewing, clicking
links, and printing the ebook.
*Before* emailing for technical support -- there is a 99%
chance the answer to your question is *found below*.
Jim Edwards & Joe Vitale
Co-authors
www.7dayebook.com
'Mechanical' Issues
1. Downloading the ebook
2. Opening the ebook
3. Downloading & Using Adobe Acrobat Reader
4. Printing the ebook
Common Questions / Issues:
5. *Where are my Bonuses* I was supposed to get with my
purchase?
6. I downloaded a copy of the ebook but now *I can't find it*
on my computer - what do I do?
7. What will my credit card charges say?
8. Is there a "Hard Copy"?
9. The links in the ebook won't work.
10. I can't print the book / it stops printing at a certain
page.
11. Do you have an affiliate program?
===========================
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1.Downloading the ebook
You should have been taken immediately to a download page
where you could download your book and bonuses.
If not, here is the link to download the book.
http://www.your-url.com/your-download-page.html
Make sure you save the files (by following the instructions on
the download page) to your hard drive in a place you can find
them before you do *anything* else.
You should save the file to your "desktop" so you can find it
easily and quickly once you have finished downloading.
Unless you change the name of the ebook file you downloaded,
it is named 7day_ebook.pdf -- this is important to know if
you have a problem finding the file later.
===========================
2.Opening the ebook
Once you have downloaded the ebook to your computer's desktop
(or whatever folder you saved it in) then simply double click
the file and it should open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If it does not open automatically in Adobe Acrobat Reader -then open Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking "Start" >>
"Programs" >> "Adobe Acrobat" >> "Acrobat Reader"
Once you open the Adobe Acrobat Reader program click "File" >>
"Open" >> then (if you save the file to your desktop) go to
your desktop and open the file named "7day_ebook.pdf"
This should open the ebook file in your Adobe Acrobat Reader.
===========================
3.Downloading & Using Adobe Acrobat Reader
If you need Adobe Acrobat Reader (or if you need to upgrade)
you can download the FREE Reader software / upgrade by going
to
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http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
You can get the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader FREE
Adobe Acrobat Reader comes with an extensive "Help" file - if
you have questions about how to operate the program -- please
open the Adobe Acrobat Reader program, click "Help" and make
the appropriate selection.
===========================
4.Printing the ebook
Open Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking "Start" >> "Programs" >>
"Adobe Acrobat" >> "Acrobat Reader"
Once you open the Adobe Acrobat Reader program click "File" >>
"Open" >> then (if you save the file to your desktop) go to
your desktop and open the file named "7day_ebook.pdf"
Then click "File" >> "Print"
===========================
*** Frequent Questions / Common Issues ***
===========================
5.*Where are my Bonuses* I was supposed to get with my
purchase?
You should download two (2) files from the site:
1. 7day_ebook.pdf, which includes:
The ebook:
"How to Write and Publish your own eBook...
in as little as 7 Days"
*ALL* the bonus reports and interview *are included* in this
file, including:
~ Joe Vitale
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~ J Conrad Levinson
~ "How to Accept Credit Cards without breaking the bank"
2. millionemails.pdf, which includes the entire "Million
Dollar Emails" ebook
===========================
6. I downloaded a copy of the ebook but now I can't find it on
my computer - what do I do?
When you originally downloaded the files you should have saved
the ebook files to your "desktop".
If you did not, and if you cannot find them, the easiest thing
to do is a search for them.
Click the Windows "Start" button >> then click "Search" >>
then click "For Files or Folders".
Where it says "Search for files or folders named:" type in
7day_ebook.pdf
Make sure it says "Look in: 'Local Hard Drives'" on the pull
down menu right below.
Click "Search Now"
Double click the file in the search results and the file
should open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If it does not open automatically -- make a note of where the
file is located -- then follow the instructions in #2 above.
===========================
7.What will my credit card charges say?
Your credit card charges will reflect "ClickBank / Keynetics"
- they will *NOT* say 7 Day Ebook so please make a mental note
of this so when your credit card statement arrives you won't
have a question.
===========================
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8.Is there a "Hard Copy"?
There is no hard copy of the book available. We thought about
it -- then realized a hard copy would defeat the purpose of
teaching people how to write and publish ebooks!
===========================
9.The links in the ebook won't work.
If you click the "web" links in the ebook (blue underlined
links) and they don't take you to a web page -- Make sure your
computer is *online and connected to the web*.
If you get an error that says something to the effect that no
web browser is configured to work with Adobe Acrobat Reader
then try this:
In Adobe Acrobat Reader go to "File" then "Preferences" then
"Web Link" and choose your browser in the WWW Browser
Application.
You will need to find the .exe file for the browser by
clicking the "browse" button.
Your browser .exe file (usually either NetScape or Internet
Explorer) can sometimes be found in your "Program Files"
folder.
Any more tech support on this issue should come from Adobe or
your computer vendor, (or AOL if you use them) since we cannot
be sure where to tell you to look on your hard drive for your
browser's .exe file.
This should solve the problem of being able to click directly
on the links and have them take you to the web.
===========================
10.I can't print the book / it stops printing at a certain
page.
Two things we can offer with what is most likely your
computer acting up rather than the ebook file.
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1. Try restarting your computer and printer.
If that doesn't work....
2. When you have the ebook open in Acrobat -- go to File,
Click Print, then down in the middle where it says "Print
Range" fill in Pages from with about 20 or 30 pages (example
45-75).
Try printing the book out chapter by chapter.
===========================
11.Do you have an affiliate program?
YES! We do have an affiliate program and we pay a nice juicy
50% commission!
All the details are available at:
http://www.7dayebook.com/affiliateinfo.shtml
===========================
If none of these answer your specific question then please
send an email to
mailto:support@7dayebook.com
We will respond as quickly as possible.
Setting Up Your Own “Magic” Autoresponder
You may be wondering “How can I set up an auto responder using a set of pre designed
form letters (much like an insurance company) to answer most all problems and give
instructions to customers?”
The first step is to take time to look at the “big picture” instead of just continually
reacting in a “crisis” mode. Look at the swamp first instead of the alligators and figure a
way to drain it while they snap at your tail. Now is the time to act if you want to join the
leisure class of Internet business people.
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Next, go through this step-by-step process to create a custom version that fits your own
business.
A. Take a look at the pile of email messages you receive. Look in your inbox, your out-box and every other email box and look for patterns.
B. Classify the email messages you receive – see how many of them ask the
same questions over and over again.
C. Pick out all the questions someone could possibly ask about your product,
ebook, service, offer etc.
D. Write out the *best* answer to each question ONE time! Answer it fully
and in a way that would be very hard to confuse someone.
E. Set up an automatic delivery “system” so that each of your customers or
prospects automatically receives this email message AND understands
exactly what it is. Avoid sending this email manually – the key is
automation!
F. Keep a copy of the email handy so when someone does ask a question you
can simply cut and paste the answer back to them in a few seconds rather
than trying to compose a fresh answer every time.
G. If other questions popup that aren’t answered in the automatic email just
answer them and add them to the list so everyone from that point on
automatically gets the information.
The key to creating and using your own “Magic Autoresponder” is to operate from the
position of trying to answer questions before they even get asked – and making people
aware that you have provided the answers.
Don’t wait for them to ask – tell them! Say “Hey, here are some questions you might
have and rather than wait for you to ask, I though I’d let you know ahead of time.”
Doing this will not only cut down on your time wasted with email, it will also increase
the overall level of satisfaction for your customers and prospects.
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