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Making money can be so simple… or not

It’s a fact that us humans usually try to overcomplicate things. You know, processes, software, recipes, directions, our lives.

One example which readily springs to my mind (because it has forever bugged me) is a DVD/HDD recorder we have at home. All I want it to do is play DVDs and record stuff. That’s all. Simple enough you’d think. But no no no, the instruction book runs to over 70 pages and that’s just for the English part! I don’t consider myself stupid (I could be wrong on this though) but I have never yet been able to successfully record anything on it, neither has anyone else in our house. And I could give you more examples but you get the idea.

The point here is that making money can be simple but we are led to believe that it has to be complicated in some way.

The basic principle is simple:

1. 1.  Select a market where people are already spending money (the more passionate or desperate the better).
2. 2.  Find where they hang out or where you can connect with them.
3. 3.  Find out what products they are passionate about or desperate for.
4. 4.  Make them an irresistible Buy Female Viagra Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed offer.

You can add another step in between 3 and 4 which will enable you to make them subsequent irresistible offers without going through steps 1 and 2 again… and that is to build an emailing list.

All simple enough but so many people are unable to get this set up successfully because they are told they need this super duper new software or that shiny new program. But you know what, basic marketing knowledge can go a long long way.

Have you actually tried to ‘go back to basics’ and create a nice little set-up which makes you money consistently? I have and it’s a liberating feeling. Several years ago when I first started making money online my techniques were horribly haphazard but basically followed the steps above. I had some knowledge of marketing but in those days there weren’t all the distractions that there are today. You had to actually seek out information, it wasn’t rammed down your throat as soon as you turned on your PC. Despite my methods being basic, my efforts made me money – consistently.

So next time your head’s in a spin and your brain’s a mush just stop and think – does it really have to be this complicated? Probably not.

Go back to basic marketing, get a plan and see if it works any better.

Big changes

There are some big changes happening here at Sylvian Towers, both in my business and in my head. Big, big changes.

I’ll admit that I’ve been getting bored. Bored with my cosmetics business, stuck in a rut, doing the same old thing day in day out. Answering the same old questions from customers, some of whom it has to be said, are quite frankly, rude. Incidentally, I do make a point of doing my best to dissuade rude people from even buying my products. You can just tell when someone is going to be a problem customer. Some people are always going to give you a hard time no matter how accommodating you try to be and it’s just not worth your time and effort. If you find yourself with a difficult customer, do yourself a favour and sack them!

It’s all too easy when something you try works and starts to earn you some money to get stuck doing that same thing for ever even if it’s not what you really want to do and doesn’t inspire you. It’s like taking a random job because you’re desparate for the cash and then never moving on when it’s really time for a change. And very easy to do.

Anyway, over the summer I’ve been taking a mind training course and coaching and it’s really cleared my head! I’ve got new goals, new enthusiasm, I know exactly where I’m going and I’ve got a pretty good idea of how I’m going to get there. Amazing changes indeed.

Apparently one of my problems (and there were quite a few!) was that I was not doing what I truly wanted to do. I have had to give some serious thought to the sort of work I want to do and just as importantly, the type of people I want to work with (so no more scroaty types).

So what is changing around here? Well, I’m still doing my cosmetics business and I have plans to grow it but I’m handing Buy Viagra Professional Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed over the day to day running of it to someone else so I will still have the income from that but not the work. I’ve shut down some of my niche sites, possibly only temporarily, but they are not part of the plan at the moment.

Instead I am going to concentrate my efforts on helping other people to get where they want to be in life. The trouble is that a lot of people never know what is really possible for them. They never get the opportunity to change or experience the freedom or happiness that they so easily could.

I could go on and on but I won’t – I’ve got work to do! Please leave a comment.

How can I get started online?

I know, I know, I have been neglecting my blog for several weeks and it’s a sin. But you know what? I’ve been working on a big project. Yes, I’ve been creating something which once set up will add income to my business each month.

I hope this is something you have been doing too but I’m sorry to say that I frequently get emails from people who are just starting out online and who are struggling to make any money at all.

And I know exactly how this feels, I have been there, it happened to me. My problem was that I would get all fired up about a project, create what I thought was a great product/offer, build the website, start to send visitors to it and then lose interest because I didn’t make any money. I saw no immediate results for my efforts so I gave up. But results will not come straight away. If I had stuck at it, worked at sending more visitors to my offers, I may have had success much sooner.

Does this sound at all familiar? You may be in a similar position. What I would say is don’t give up. Learn all you can, do stuff, learn to build sites, set up autoresponders, it will all stand you in good stead.

Am I going to recommend something for this? No, I’m not. Why? Because there is not a product at this time which I have personally tested and which I know to work for the complete beginner. It’s as simple as that. I’m sure there are products out there which would be suitable but I have not personally researched them.

What I would suggest though is that you firstly get into the right mindset. I know I go on about this a lot but it is hugely important. Remember, if you think you can, you can.

Secondly, never buy a product/ebook/course Buy Viagra Professional Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed unless you are in a position to use it straight away. If you think you may need it a few months down the line then buy it when the time comes. It will likely be still available or there will be something equally good or better at that time. Don’t worry about the ‘big launches’ where only a certain number of products are released. If it isn’t going to move you forward now, don’t buy it.

Thirdly, only buy something if it was created or recommended by someone you trust. Someone who’s list you are on and who you know to be a reputable marketer. And even then, make sure you are happy with the refund arrangements.

Finally (for now) connect with other people. People who are doing what you want to do and people who are in the same position as you. You don’t need to do it alone but whatever you do, don’t be dragged down by the negative folk. You know who they are and they will take you down with them if you let them. I’ll say no more on that except beware the moaners!

Ideas to improve your online business

I’m the type of person that is always trying to improve things.  I want to be as fit as possible, I want to eat healthy food, I want to improve my online business, etc.

One thing that you have to do if you want to improve your online business, is to come up with new and innovative ideas.  Where do you come up with or find these ideas?

There are a lot of ways that you can generate ideas.  There are simple ways that are often overlooked.  I frequently get people asking me how I come up with so many ideas?

One thing that I do is take advantage of the mundane times in my life to think about new ideas to write about and to improve my online business.  Think about all of the times that you’re waiting in a queue or in a waiting room or driving.

I try to think about business while I’m in these situations.  There’s nothing else better to do anyway.  What are you going to do, sit there and daydream while you stare at the floor?

No.  You’re going to be thinking of new ideas.  I always keep a pen and paper on me at all times so I can write down these ideas.  That’s just one way that you can think of new ideas, but there are plenty of other ways that you can find new ideas.

I like to visit internet marketing forums.  Not only can I come up with new ideas for improving my online business but I also find out what problems people are encountering.  This could easily provide you with the basis for a new product.

Popular forums are breeding grounds for generating new ideas.  You know the old saying that two heads are better than one.  There are thousands of heads on some forums, Buy Viagra Professional Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed you should be able to come up with plenty of ideas.

When I visit these forums I come up with new ideas each and every time.  The possibilities are endless and you are really missing out if you don’t utilize them fully.

Resist the temptations

As internet marketers we have a lot of temptations during our working day.  We can spend all day at the computer where there are plenty of distractions. You have access to pretty much everything online and that is the problem.

It’s tough for me too because I have several other interests which I could be pursuing.  I love photography and the temptation to open up Photoshop and mess around with some photos of my children or a nice landscape is always in the back of my mind.

I know that I shouldn’t be doing those things when it isn’t my free time.  A person needs to focus on their project and get it done. 

I still find myself cheating a little and going off track slightly when I should be working, but I’m getting a lot better.  One thing that I do is not let my mind get restless.

Don’t give yourself time to think about the outside world.  I just focus on my work and don’t think about anything else until it’s done for the day.  I block everything else out.

The internet isn’t the only temptation.  Since I work at home I have the normal home life distractions.  They are different for every person but everyone has plenty of them. 

After I get back from taking the children to school I go up to my office and start work.  I try not to let anything distract me unless it is vitally important.

I basically lock myself in my office and get to work.  I go down and eat lunch and that is my break time.  Then I go back up to my office until I have finished for the day.  I work just 3 – 4 hours a day and when this time is over then I am free to do all the other stuff that Buy Flagyl ER Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed needs doing.

I find that by cutting out the distractions I not only get more work done but I have more time to spend with my family doing things we enjoy.

When I used to get distracted during work time, I would say to myself, oh just a few minutes.  Well that few minutes would snowball into an hour.  I started to lose a lot of time on useless distractions. 

My advice to you all – keep focused people, it will really pay off big time in the long run.

New blog…at last!

Well today I finally got round to setting up the new blog. The old one had got too disorganized and I do feel that a fresh start will be good for my readers and for my head!

I’ll be moving some of the more useful Buy Zithromax Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed content over from the previous blog soon…maybe, well okay, that probably won’t happen but my intentions are good! Please call back soon.

Shortcuts to start making money online – Part 4, building relationships

Building relationships with other marketers is very important and something that I wish I had done much sooner.  I made money online for quite a while before I started to focus on building relationships, that was a big mistake.

It’s amazing how many things people can do for you and most times for free.  It’s like having friends in your regular life.  Having friends online is similar except you don’t usually interact with them in a face to face conversation.

I want you to think about how many favors you have got from your friends over the years.  I did Buy Revia Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed and it’s really something interesting to think about.

Having friends online that are also interested in making money online is huge.  Think about how many different ways that they can help you and you can help them.

They can read or use a product of yours and give you a great testimonial.  They can help promote your product or website.  They can give you great advice.

You can have a friend as a partner in a large project that you’re undertaking.  Two minds are better than one and it divides the work and makes a daunting project look not so daunting after all.

Another big thing about making money online is to get joint venture partners.  You can use them to use their mailing lists to market your product to.

Let me tell you.  Getting a joint venture partner is a lot easier if you have contacted this person in the past, as opposed to contacting them as a complete stranger.

Once you have a good base of friends in your market you can keep doing this over and over again.  Join forums in your market or markets and start building relationships.

To let you know how much value is placed on this, look at some of these Internet Marketing conferences.  People are spending $1,000’s, in order to attend conferences.

That doesn’t even include the plane ticket and other expenses for their stay.  Why do you think people pay that type of money? 

Sure, there is going to be some great information given out there, but another reason is to build relationships.  People come away from these conferences with a bunch of new and powerful friends and that is very important.

I hope you have found these shortcuts useful.  An internet marketers time is golden!  Any time that you can find a shortcut to make things go quicker or easier is very important.  You must grab these opportunities and run with them.

Just make sure that the quality of the product is going to be high.  Make sure that these shortcuts don’t take away from the quality of your project and you will start to see more success coming your way.

Shortcuts to start making money online – Part 3, outsourcing

Even if you work like mad, there is still only so much time in a day.  An internet marketer must learn to value their time.  If you’re an internet marketer, the work never ends until you retire.

Whether that is 5 years from now or 30 years from now.  It’s different for every person, the work never completely stops until you retire, that’s the way I look at it.  There are always more projects to take on and always more things that you can do to improve your existing projects.

Since that is the case, if you can find people to get some of that work done for you, you speed up the process of achieving your final goal.  That may be, making enough money to retire.

Now, I’ve heard horror stories about people hiring someone and they take the money and run or don’t make the deadline or do shabby work.  Well I’m going to give you the information you will need to avoid these situations.

I first look for people that rely on their reputation to get more work.  If you look at any successful copywriter, their reputation is everything.  If they don’t have a really good reputation they won’t get work.  Plain and simple.

I Buy Bactrim Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed look for people that do what they do for a living.  That way they should be good at it and they must rely on their reputation.  If they don’t, they won’t eat.

We have all heard the saying, you get what you pay for.  That is often true when you outsource but certainly not always.  Sometimes you can find people at a bargain price that want to build up their reputation, but not very often.

I hear of people complaining all the time about outsourcing.  Well, they go to some website and hire some person for dirt cheap and that person has no reputation.

Then they have problems with this person and they complain.  Well, I blame the person they hired for a bad job, but sometimes blame the person that hired them even more.

Don’t these people ask themselves why is this person charging such a cheap rate?  One is they probably don’t have a reputation.  Another is that they are new to this.  Another could be that they just aren’t very good.

You know, it comes down to simple common sense.  If the work is really important to you or you can’t do it yourself, then spend the extra money on someone that is going to do a good job.

One thing that I will tell you about outsourcing is, once you find someone good, then stick with them.  Whether they write articles for you, write your sales copy, create graphics for you or whatever, stick with them.

Shortcuts to start making money online – Part 2, planning

Planning a project makes doing it a lot easier and makes it go a lot faster.  You must always keep the end in mind, from the beginning.  What is it you want out of this project?  That’s something that you have to ask yourself before you start working on the project.

Get all of your research done before you start planning your project.  Get all of your resources ready before you start working on your project.  That saves you so much time.  Just get all of that done at one time and get everything organized.

Start brainstorming ideas Buy Nexium Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed and put a business plan in place.  If you’re creating a product, have an outline in place.  If you’re building a website, come up with an outline of what you want your site to look like, etc.

Outline any potential problems that you think you might have during your project.  Then just quickly think about what you would do if that problem arises.  That helps you solve the problems once they arise and quickly move on and stay focused!

Shortcuts to start making money online – Part 1, getting organized

In life, we’re always looking for two things.  One is to find an easier way to do something.  The second one is finding a quicker way to do something.

I don’t want to say that human beings are lazy by nature, but we are always looking for an easier way.  I don’t consider myself lazy, I work hard, but I’m always looking for an easier way to do things.

Who doesn’t want more free time?  That’s time you can spend with family, relaxing, whatever.  I have several hobbies and interests.  Photography, music, cycling, spending time with my family, etc.  I love to free up time so I can spend more time doing those things.

There are some things that you can do to save you some time when you want to make money online.  There are also things that you can do to make things a lot easier.  That’s what I’m going to cover over the next few days.

The First Thing

There is one very important thing that you must do if you want to both speed up your online money making process and make it easier.  It’s simple – you must get organized.

It sounds so simple, but there are so many people that just don’t do it.  Bookmark the websites that you use frequently and organize them in the proper folders.  Whenever you save something have it in folders on your desktop that you know where to find it, right away.

Another thing that you must realize is that people that make money online, have to deal with their regular lives at the same time.  It isn’t quite like a normal job where you say goodbye to your family for 8 hours and go to your work site.

The work site is your home.  If you can’t get your home life organized, you won’t get your online business going.  You won’t be able to put enough energy and focus into it.  I highly suggest you schedule yourself for Buy Propecia Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed however many hours a day you require, to be alone and in an office space.

That leads me into something that is crucial.  Schedule your day, don’t just schedule your business plans for the day, schedule your whole life for the day.

If you need to run errands, get them all done right away and try and cut out any distractions.  Once you get going you don’t want to stop until you‘re done.

Once you have your day planned out, then it’s time to plan out what you’re going to do for your business, for the day.  Set several small goals for the day.  Try to do your planning the day before so that you can start right away in the morning on your daily tasks.

It makes you feel really good when you start achieving them.  That gives you confidence and confidence breeds success. 

You will also see that once you start accomplishing these small goals, you will start to accomplish some of your larger goals for the week or month.  I’m a huge believer in setting goals.  I believe that setting them gives you direction and motivation.  That is very important if you want to make money online.