What is Dropshipping? Where to start? - it is, first and foremost an income stream that I suggest you look at seriously. Why?
In other words, you have an online store without needing to stock products. You choose the niche that you want to promote, you choose the products that you want to sell. Your buyers place an order on your website and pay you the full retail price As soon as the money is in your account, you, in turn, place your order with your supplier at his wholesale price - the difference is your margin and depending on your overheads (which are usually very small) it might all be profit! Sounds easy, doesn't it? Might even sound too good to be true.. Well, "easy" is relative, and nothing happens without a bit of effort, work and application. What are the Benefits?
What Tools Do I Need to Get Started? The only tools that you will ever need are, as a minimum:-
You can sell on e-bay or Amazon, but we recommend that you stay away from there, as the competition is fierce and you really need to know what you are doing. Later on, you can invest in:
...but that doesn't have to happen until you get some success and a better understanding of how to do it. Q & A Q: Where is the Best Place to Set Up My Office? A: Anywhere you can operate a computer and get a wifi signal - which is just about anywhere in the world. Q: How much will it cost to set up? You can get started for under $250 Q: How long will it take me to make money? That's up to you, but if you follow our guidance you should be profitable in under 2 months Q: How do I set up my website? DIY or have it done for you for a small investment - we'll cover that later on but we can do it for you Q: How will I drive traffic to my site? All the traditional ways, free and paid, but the ones that we will concentrate on are (1) Google Ads and then (2) Bing Ads Q: What Products Should I Sell? A: That is entirely up to you, but in general, stick with products in the 11 most popular Niches on the internet and don't nickle and dime - its easier to sell 10 big ticket items at $750 than it is to sell 100 items at $75 and roughly one tenth the effort - don't forget - people are out there looking for big ticket items, and you just need to find them - if you sell cheap rubbish, you will be down in the weeds with complainers, spending most of your time doing the admin that you are trying to avoid Q: How much time will it take? A: A reasonable amount of effort when you are setting up your store and finding products, then much less when all you will be doing is placing orders - as with anythying do the hard yards up front to earn the rewards down the track two of my favourite sayings "an entrepreneur does the things that others won't so he can enjoy the lifestyle that others can't..." and "..an entrepreneur is someone who will work 100 hours a week for himself, so he doesn't have to work 40 hours for a boss.."! So trade a little extra time up front for the later rewards when you only have to work an hour or two each day.
So, that's it for the first lesson. What does everyone think? Let us have your comments. Next week we will start to get into some more detail on Choosing Niches, product selection and how to get started - so stay tuned!
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It is often said that: “the roughest terrain to negotiate is the six inches between our ears!” ... do we procrastinate? It is called inertia and it usually as a result of “paralysis by analysis” – we over think things, we let our fears take over and we become a “rabbit in the headlights!” The doubt comes from fear of the unknown, or fear of failure, or fear of success, or fear of what your friends or family might think. Those same friends and family won't mind if you help to pay off their credit card or pay off their house, a few years down the track, so why wait and why care? In a blog I read recently, the writer asked: What if you fail? Isn't failing bad? – Failing is the main ingredient for success. .... There are 2 outcomes when you try something new – ...... you either win or you learn! In both situations you win! If you really believe that you have found an opportunity to change your life for the better will you start to think in a more positive way about your future and your success? If you truly believe that there is a way to succeed, will you think more positively? One of the biggest mistakes you can make is doing nothing because you’re too scared to make a mistake. You can’t handle success, if you can’t handle failure. All it takes to succeed is commitment and focus. Because the system laid out for you is so easy to follow, you just need to put the blinkers on and do it systematically. IS IT A PYRAMID? “ Pyramid Schemes have been illegal in most countries for over 40 years .” Well, if you think of a pyramid as an organisation that has the highest earners at the apex and the lowest at the base, you have just described companies, government departments, the military, banks, insurance companies and most other organisations. Here is my definition of an illegal Pyramid Scheme: " ...A business is only an illegal or unlawful pyramid scheme if it sells positions in the organisation, allocates positions, according to how much the entrant has paid, and doesn't move products or services through the network, so that fair and ongoing bonuses can be paid out of revenues, where people coming into the network gain an unfair advantage from doing no work or expending no effort...." If you are in a sound MLM business then you are in a "customer acquisition business" with a range of everyday goods and services, sometimes right across the globe, some of which can also be purchased from other suppliers, and thus must be competitively priced in the open market to be saleable, and you can sell to customers in any of those countries, through your very own online store. The entry fee that you pay is usually fairly small by comparison to the overall opportunity that you are buying into and usually reflects purely the administrative costs of getting you set up on the company’s system and the price of some initial sales stock. You are not paying for a position in the organisation, because you can only start in one place and that is underneath your sponsor. However, I prefer to look at it in a different way. You are always starting at the top of your personal network, because that is what counts the most. You are the “head of your empire”, no matter how big or small it may grow. It is a system where the entrant earns from his or her own personal efforts and where bonuses and commissions are fairly based on effort. Provided that the products are easy to move, that your business has a fair compensation plan, that the owners are people who are focussed on your success, then it is a good business to be in. A major point of difference with MLM is that your company doesn't pay third parties for advertising or marketing to the public, so those millions of dollars that conventional sellers need to spend on marketing, can be better used in customer savings and distributor bonuses. Better off in your pockets! You are placed in a network downline from your sponsor. You cannot make any money from your upline, only from your downline, and your upline can only make money from your efforts, when they help you sell product or build a successful network of other distributors who also sell products and services. So you make direct profits from sale of retail products, commissions on your volume and over-rides, as incentives to grow your network and advance in the organisation. These over-rides on your residual income come direct from the company, not out of any distributors’ pockets. You and your "pyramid" can end up more successful than your upline and his “pyramid”, and he will thank you for it every day! You pay a joining fee which is a tax-deductible overhead - it may be a one-time fee or it might be renewable, monthly or yearly. It usually buys you your Online Storefront - then you may pay an admin fee per month to be supplied with a comprehensive back office set up, that tracks your business, and is continually and automatically updated by your head office, which means that you are “Open for Business” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in many countries. In some organisations, you will get access to online shopping malls in many countries around the world. The kind of internet access that you get the use of, would cost an individual or company tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up, and you get it virtually free, so don’t forget to factor that into your thinking. But, still, no one earns any money from any of that - only from moving products and services through their distribution network - so it is not a Pyramid scheme! - Our federal and state governments outlawed them around 40 years ago as they did in America and Europe, so there is virtually no way you could start one, today, in just about any country in the developed world. A good MLM company will have an Integrity Board or department that monitors these types of consumer issues. Make sure that you check this when you are investigating the opportunity. SOME MORE OBJECTIONS I don't have the time Time for what? Time to fail? Time to keep doing what you have always done? Time to improve? If you are not succeeding doing what you are doing now, don't you think a different direction might be called for? If you could succeed at this doing 10 hours a week around your 40 hour J-O-B, which one would eventually become more important? Have you got 10 hours a week to watch TV - could you get up an hour earlier each day and go to bed an hour later each night? What do you do on weekends to improve your life? As Mark Twain said: ".. Insanity is doing what you have always done, the same way, each day, but always expecting a different result..!" I Think [the joining fee] is Too Much to Pay to Get Started If you think that the average investment in MLM is high, consider what you are getting for it – in most cases you are getting the chance to potentially make a great short term or long term income (that you can easily live on or retire on) without overheads, travel, government interference, staff worries, expensive equipment and about a million other problems, so is $200 or $500 a big investment? Is $1,000 a big investment? Is $40 per month over the top? In addition you are getting fantastic training and support from everybody in your team and your upline. These days, the internet makes it so easy. Your company site and your team sites will have hundreds of hours of free video training, audio files, webinars, access to printed materials, RSS feeds, social media and almost endless ways to build your team and your business. Do the maths and you will quickly see that your initial investment is a drop in the ocean, compared to the investment you would have to make in most businesses. Have a look at how much you would need to invest in one of the large franchise chains, or just in setting up a local suburban shop or office. MLM is a “no-brainer”. "I Can’t Sell/ have no Sales Experience/ don’t want to be in a Selling organisation" Guess what – you are not in the Selling business! Your MLM company is in the selling business – it is the warehouser, invoicer, shipper, storer, transporter, mailer of products, payer of salaries and overheads, payer of bonuses, advertiser, marketer, webmaster, call centre and a hundred and one other things, and the organisation that takes all the risk. You are in the Opportunity business – your job is to sell opportunities and dreams, build the sales and help to build the distribution networks and offer the hope of a better future to people who are looking for change – don’t confuse the roles. Yours is by far the easier. "I Can Make Money Investing Somewhere Else" Even if you only ever made $100 per month from your MLM business – think about this – to make $100 per month from your investment portfolio, you need to have $24,000 invested at an average return of 5% per annum. Not everyone has a lazy $24,000 laying around, but just about anyone can make $100 from MLM. That kind of logic crushes most excuses, wouldn’t you think? I Can Make Money playing the Stock Market (or the Forex Market) Good luck with that. If you are good enough and knowledgeable enough to make a living out of the markets, then we wish you well, but if you are a novice, you will need to have seed capital, spend a lot of time learning about it, find a broker you can trust, or set up your own trading system, which means costly software and monitoring systems and time consuming reading of complex investment reports. This is hard work and will take you as much time as building your MLM system, and it will probably keep you awake at night, wondering if the market is going to turn on you, tomorrow. If you do even a bit of research you will find that there are a lot of scammers out there disguised as experts, so be careful. Having said that, it is, of course, a perfectly legitimate way to spend your time and your money, but as yet, nobody has come up with a perfect system for predicting the markets. MLM, on the other hand, has come up with simple and nearly perfect systems, and all you need to do is plug in and follow them. SO, SHOW ME THE MONEY! How Much Can I Make? Short answer? - Anywhere from Millions to Nothing & everywhere in between!! But, every good MLM company very carefully and deliberately goes out of its way to say that no income levels can be guaranteed. You will see these disclaimers on all of their material. If you don’t see them, you may be looking at the wrong kind of business opportunity. These disclaimers are there because nobody has any quotas and nobody "gets the sack". You can do as little or as much as YOU want, and there are no quotas, and definitely no limits on what you can achieve. Some people will dabble with the business and may never make much money out of it, and that is THEIR CHOICE. But those who want to, will find a way to do it. Those who do succeed can live fantastic lives with enormous freedom, because this is a business where the bulk of your earnings at the high levels is RESIDUAL income – that is, money that you make from work you did in your early days – you can literally be making money while you sleep. Another old saying - " ...an entrepreneur is someone who will work 100 hours a week for himself, so that he doesn't end up working 40 hours for someone else.. and (from the great Jim Rohn..) ..."If you don't plan your life, chances are, someone else will - and guess what they have planned for you - Not much!..." and this one - "An entrepreneur is someone who will do the things that most won't so that he can enjoy the life that most can't... The freedom that it buys can be priceless. There is time freedom, freedom of choices as to where you live, when you take time off, where your kids go to school, when you sleep in, who you can help with your time and money and many other great advantages of residual income. Follow the Success Trail Look at the top achievers and follow in their footsteps and there is no reason why you can't make as much as them, or even more. If you hear someone say "that didn't work" just ask them: …”Was it the business that didn't work, or was it you who didn't work? ….”. A 5 figure income per month inside the first year is very achievable. The only question you have to ask yourself is - if a bunch of people will do it, why shouldn't one of them be me? It is a fact of life that nearly 96% of people who start in MLM don’t make an income that they can retire on. ....MLM companies know that – they don’t fight it. They just expect there to be enough leaders to make their companies prosperous. Don’t fight the statistics – find a way! So? What is the answer to that one? BE ONE OF THE 4%! It’s just a decision, and a bit of work, and the ability to plug into a proven system and follow it. ..AND FINALLY - JUST DO IT! Get Started So, once we understand all of that, and have those goals set, we just FOLLOW THE SYSTEM (you’ll hear that in every MLM organisation, because it is the only way). Repeat, repeat, repeat - just go and tell everyone you know about your great opportunity - stick to the system. Sort, don't sell, and you will get enough good people on board, that the NO's won't matter - in fact, they will be forgotten. Now back to the plan! Phase 1 – Use the products, sponsor, lead and sponsor some more! Phase 2 - Repeat Phase 1 Phase 3 - Repeat Phase 1 Phase 4 - Repeat Phase 1 Keep it simple and never get out of Phase 1! That is really how easy it is to build an empire! Do, on day 101 what you did on Day 1 – don’t make the mistake of getting into the management phase. As an example, if you want to run a successful restaurant, there are many things that you might need to do, but the one that counts the most in the restaurant’s success is turning out great food every meal and every sitting. Without the basics the other stuff won’t happen. MLM is no different. Keep it simple. Sponsor, and help you downline to sponsor, then move the products and train with your group and the rest will take care of itself. We wish you well in your network building and we are here to help. BE COMMITTED Remember the example of the big train rumbling down the track? 1. You could get upfront and drive it! 2. You can get on board to enjoy the journey, 3. You can stand on the platform and watch it go by, 4. You could stand in the middle of the track and try to stop it (good luck with that!) 5. You could try to outrun it, or 6. You could just turn around and go home, Your choice. We hope that you will get on board and join your upline on the journey with all of the friends that you will make, along the way. Or in the words of the old Middle Eastern proverb: "The dogs bark, but the caravan rolls on!" BUSINESS BUILDING
Build equals work But it's not like you have to do HARD work. Here is what you WON'T be doing:
Above all you aren't going to be evasive or secretive about the company who you are very proud to represent. But you ARE going to be:
Because in direct selling, nobody succeeds unless their downline succeed. The late, brilliant Zig Ziglar said it best: ..”You get what you want when you help enough other people get what they want...” Now, obviously there is no way that you are going to be able to talk to all of those thousands of people, by yourselves, so this is where you get to understand the principle of a lot of people doing a little. ......Read on, good people. THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF NETWORK MARKETING The numbers aren't important, but the model is. You will build a network when you find enough good people who want their goals as much or more than you and who will be prepared to work with your and your upline. The network builds when you find leaders who find leaders and so on. You might start out as a local business, but it will take off and, if you can find 3 good leaders and they can find 3 each then the business will start to run on auto-pilot. Don't forget a lot of those people will be people who live in any of the countries that your business operates in and in some MLM businesses that’s the whole world, and most of them you will never meet!! This is where the excitement begins to kick in, when the understanding begins to kick in! But before you get carried away, our advice is to keep it local to start with, build a group of great people around you and nurture them and it will take off in directions that you may not have dreamed of. Let's Throw Some Silly Numbers Out There Some Silly Numbers – except that they are achievable! If you did manage to build 7 lines wide and all their downline 7 wide, down to 7 deep you could have, potentially 960,800 people in your whole organisation - if each one of them had just 2.5 customers, you would have a total of 2,402,000 customers and 960,000 IBO’s – a total of 3,362,800 people using the products and services. If they all used and spent just $35 per month on your goods and services that would be a total of $117,698,000…. (a not insignificant amount of money!!) Now let's assume that, because we are only human we only do 0.05% - 1/2 of a percent (one half) percent of that volume - that could still mean $58,849 per month in sales or $706,000 per year in revenue - would that be enough to make some nice bonuses? And that is only achieving 1/200th of the goal. How would you go at your “J-O-B” if you only achieved 1/200th of your quota? Do you think your boss might have something to say about it, come the end of the month or the end of the financial year or Friday afternoon? OK, OK, now, let’s not be silly. Most people will never get anywhere near those goals (not within a bull’s roar!), but we can get a fair way along the journey from "zero to hero", make some great money and we can all have a bit of fun, trying!! Concentrate on sponsoring two or three good leaders and help them to get two or three each, then build down deep, looking for leaders. If you are in a binary system, you put your good people down one side of your business. In those systems, be guided by what your MLM Company advises. If we do it as a team, attend some of the great events that our company puts on, and on a regular basis, we can have a bucket load of fun with other like-minded adventurous, and motivated people, and most importantly, we can hear from people who are making those incomes – people who started out just like us, who set easy, achievable goals, then consistently and persistently go about achieving them - people who don't let excuses get in the way of progress - people who don't let anything get in the way of their dreams!! People who have “planted their flag” - for whom failure is not negotiable! Focused and committed people. Do you see the raw power of it? That's why we call it a "Direct Selling Engine". That is why the smartest companies in the world are recognising it as the way to get their products and services out there, into the marketplace without multi-million dollar marketing and advertising costs. That engine can turbo-charge your business!! And it can change your life for ever! It is the ultimate multiplier - even in the Old Testament, someone said - go forth and multiply! Must have been the first MLM’er!! OK , all jokes aside NOW LET'S GET REAL!! PROSPECTING - HOT COLD AND WARM Where do I get my Prospects? In short, everywhere. Remember our List, a couple of Articles back? Like we said right at the start, that list that we put up could go on forever –there are as many prospects as there are people. But you want to work with your “Warm List”. What is a Warm List? Many people make the mistake of assuming this to mean people you already know, but it can also be people that you have not met yet. It is just a matter of meeting them, qualifying them, piquing their interest and making the right approach at the right moment. It could be someone you meet in a lift, or a taxi, or on a train where you have 30 seconds to a minute to make a good first impression. That is what we call the “elevator speech”. It could be someone that you see around your school, or club or on a committee that you admire or think you would like to know better. It could be someone who has had some bad luck that you think might need a bit of a lift. You can take as much time as you need to build your “warm list”. The point is –
Your upline will provide that training for you. You can also find prospects by finding leads everywhere – your contact lists, your Linked In network, your Facebook friends, and your Twitter followers. If you publish a blog, or regularly contribute to other peoples’ blogs, there are opportunities to capture those leads. You can purchase leads, but this takes a bit of expertise, so talk to your upline about how you do it. Internet and Social Media marketing is a lot more specialised than many people think and we will deal with that in another e-book, later on, EVENTS & TRAINING DAYS Big lesson - go no further until you fully understand this point. If you want to appreciate how to make the big bucks, and find the inspiration that you might be searching for, then get in a room with a bunch of people who are doing it!! At every opportunity. In other words, attend all the EVENTS!! Whether they are weekly training sessions or opportunity meetings in a small room, or regional or national or international events in an auditorium, they are ON because they are a part of your system, and you must plug into your system. It may not mean that much, as you read this, but “plugging in” is one of our core concepts and we all need to understand it. Each of us need to trust our upline and join in. You can’t duplicate for your downline if you don’t totally trust what your upline is doing. Hence, the concept of “plugging in”. Get on the bus and come along for the ride. It is that simple. The System Will Provide Reinforcement if You Get On Board Our business depends heavily on positive reinforcement. When you are “out in the trenches” on a daily basis, it is important to get some positive reinforcement from your team mates on a reasonably regular basis. WHY? Because, MLM is not a J-O-B! There is nobody telling you what to do, when to turn up, how much you will earn whether you achieve or not – making you work within certain time frames, allocating tasks that are within your comfort zone. You are you own boss and this could mean that you may be well and truly out of your comfort zone. You are setting your own times, your own goals, your own pace and sometimes it can all get to be confusing – especially where you might get frustrated at yourself for the lack of progress that you thought you were going to make, so it is necessary to get with the team on a regular basis and keep yourself on track. One of the best ways to do this is to hear success stories and get training from people who can present a slightly different perspective. Sometimes it is just the way that one presenter puts the story across, a joke or funny story that you relate to, or a way of describing something that was troubling you. It might be hearing one person’s inspirational testimonial that lets you believe that you are not alone – that you can do it – that you are not the only person who is having a particular challenge. It might be that you just get an opportunity to walk up to one or two of the leaders, and ask them a question about something that is troubling you, or to be able to enjoy their company in a social setting at the end of the day. The word “networking” comes into its own, when you are in a position to interact with members of your network on a reasonably regular basis. It might just be that a weekend away with a few like-minded people is a good way to blow out a few cobwebs. Everyone comes away from an event with a positive story to tell and a way to re-focus their energy for the next few months, so don’t underestimate it. Be like a "frog on a lily pad" – hop from event to event – diarise the events before you diarise anything else – always register for them as soon as you can so that your downline see you being enthusiastic and energetic – remember, this is a business of duplication – your downline will do what you do, even if you think that they aren’t noticing. Make sure they see you being the first to register and the most enthusiastic one about the next event. Above all, promote the events in your group and get as many of your people there as you can. It will build your business faster than anything else. If you don’t understand that, just accept it, as a given it for now, because it will and you will surely believe it after the first event that your downline group attends! One of the great outcomes of events and trainings that we often hear, is when a new leader is getting people along to the events in numbers and is seeing how that helps to build his or her group. It is often because the group learns things that their leader maybe wasn’t able to communicate, and that is the value of getting your people in front of the other fantastic leaders that you will have in your upline organisation. Never underestimate it. Happy Clappers! If you are saying to yourself "I couldn't stand being in a room with all those crazy happy clapping people", think again! Don't let your ego or your irrational fears defeat your dreams and aspirations for your future or your family's future. How dumb would it be to let pride get in the way of progress? When you attend the events, you will hear highly inspiring business common sense from some very successful (meaning wealthy) people who are the leaders in your business and in the worldwide Direct Selling business. Yes, the audience will be enthusiastic, because they are people who are getting actual validation that the system works. Don’t confuse enthusiasm with evangelical fervour. Take our advice, go with the flow and allow the enthusiasm in the room to permeate your thinking. It makes total sense to go along, and it makes no sense to stay away, especially when it is only going to cost you, most times $20 - $30 and a couple of hours of your time! … and it is fully tax deductible. National convention. Then once or twice a year - the big National Event. If you are still embarrassed to go, you can wear a wig or a false moustache, or some other disguise, and hide yourself in the crowd of thousands of people who are excited about their futures!! I guarantee nobody there will be mocking you or laughing at you, and you can sit right up the back, in the darkest corner, and let your guard down as much as you want on the day, and, if it’s still a problem for you, sneak quietly home and tell all your friends you went to a footy match or a funeral! But I would like to wager with you that you will get SOMETHING out of the experience, and you will come away with the confidence to tell your friends and family where you have been and, more importantly, where you are going from there on. NEXT WEEK!! ...THE CRESCENDO... Are you enjoying this so far? Rule #1 - You don't need to care about my big goal and Rule #2 - It's personal - I don't need to know yours! Just tell your leaders what your short term goals are and together you will work out a way for you to get there, and if you are serious about it, you will have the help of your upline and many others who all care about anyone who wants to have a go! We can all refine our goals as we go along. They just come down to simple numbers and timing. We only succeed in the MLM business if our downline succeed first. What other form of business can boast that? So, when it comes to the big goals, set your own! - Whatever you want to do - we don't have quotas in direct selling - it's YOUR BUSINESS!! - you do it at your pace, and no one will tell you otherwise - but we can tell you, from experience, the faster you start the quicker you will build. “Your upline will run alongside you as fast as you want them to - they'll even try to keep up, if you decide to outrun them!” But here are some worthwhile goals! We suggest that you try to imitate them until you get it. Here is how to build it. You will see that it comes down to simple numbers. Phase 1 1. First client - your own best customer - YOU!! You only need a reasonably achievable amount of volume in your whole customer organisation! If you don’t or won’t use your own products how can you seriously ask anyone else to use them – that is how you will learn about them. 2. About 25 personal clients - no time limit, ever! - The quicker the better! - That is our number, what is yours? 3. 2 or 3 front line IBO's with 2 or 3 each in their front line - everyone finding customers! You might be in a conventional MLM system or a binary system. It doesn’t matter. Just concentrate on finding 3 leaders and help them find 3 leaders, anywhere in the organisation and you will be well on the way to a huge network. All the leading MLM’ers in the world, (whatever business they are in) will tell you that they succeed by finding and working with leaders. You will get a thousand people into your network if you can just find 3 leaders who find 3 more leaders. After that, it can take off and your business can be on “auto-pilot” and that is how the numbers will come (with your help and input, of course). Just keep sponsoring, so that your people downline see you doing it and they will naturally assume that that is the norm, and will do it too. Whatever you do, your downline will emulate – that is one of the most important core concepts of MLM building. Don’t take my word for it, just accept it as lore (..and law!) Note that I said "Build" - build equals work - you have to come prepared to work, and there is no such thing as a free ride. In the next chapter we will see what you need to do and what you won’t be doing – let’s hope we can dispel some myths and concerns about what MLM is or isn’t. You will hear this over and over again – the way to succeed in MLM is to help others to succeed, first. Okay, so you got into this business to help yourself and your family. You might ask: ..”Why should I help other people when I am flat out busting to improve my own situation?” You won’t really understand your longer term goals until you really understand the concept of serving others. Your downline will warm to you when they see that you really care about them and their future. After all, what we are doing is giving away a great opportunity. It’s not as if it is something that we have to sell and are selective about it. It is actually something that we have the right to give away. That right is the right to promise to someone that you can improve their life, if they are willing to listen, learn and follow. That is pretty special. So, with that in mind, why not offer it to anyone and everyone – see last weeks post on “Talking to Prospects”. Don’t prejudge anyone, just open your heart and offer it to as many people as you can. If you have to have a “Chicken List” in the early days, then have one. Just make a promise to yourself that you will tell those people about your opportunity at some time in the future. Maybe you feel that you need to achieve a certain level of success first. That is OK, because there is no wrong time to make the right move. Take your time. Make your list and commit to sharing your opportunity with a certain number of people every week, or every month. Any system will succeed if you stick to it. Most companies, can only offer their people a job, a certain income and the possibility of advancement under limited circumstances. They cannot guarantee the job, though, because economic circumstances may change and they may have to retrench. We have the ability to promise unlimited opportunity in return for a small cost and a degree of effort. Now, of course we all want to validate the business, first. We want to see that we can earn money by doing the things that our upline teach us to do, so that is fair enough and all the more reason to get off to that Quickstart. Once you see, and believe that the money is there, you can put that bit of reasoning aside and trust in yourself, so that you leave yourself the time to serve others, in order to benefit yourself. Empathy Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect. Think about what was in your mind when your sponsor asked you to look at this business opportunity. That should be your starting point. Remember that you joined, or are looking to join, because you have a Need, and that can translate into a Why. If your sponsor did not address those concerns, but instead, made it all about him or her, would you have given them the time of day? Think back on that meeting. Did he or she come across as desperate to recruit you at all costs, or did they put it to you on the basis that they would love to have you in their network, so that they could show you the way forward for yourself? One to One Before we take that any further, we need to have a look at what the renowned MLM expert, Tom “Big Al” Schreiter teaches about personality types, as this throws some very useful light on one to one relationships. Most people coming into MLM networks have never done this type of training before and I thoroughly recommend that you spend an hour or so to watch his excellent videos on the subject. You can find them on YouTube at: youtu.be/G_18kYOUW7I Basically, he divides humans into four “colour” types:
Now, I am sure that we are all a combination of two or more of these types, and I am not going into detailed explanations of them, because Big Al does a much better job than I could ever do, on his videos, but it is sufficient to understand that you should have a basic appreciation of who you are dealing with when you are speaking to people about your great MLM opportunity, because everyone will view it differently. What is constant, though, is the fact that, if you come across as a genuine person who wants to help your prospect, and can show them the way forward, their personality type will kick in and they can then build their network, their way, with you being able to help and understand their needs, and their approach. So, empathy is vital and you need to see that there are differences in personality types. Not that you have to become an expert, but allow yourself to do some basic training and prospecting will become easier for you. Giving Generosity of spirit underpins most human relationships. Yes, it is true that we do build relationships in our lives, based on authority, or fear, or love or competition, but the most enduring relationships are based on respect. We respect people who don’t put their own interests ahead of others. In MLM, we respect our upline when they show that they truly care about our success, future, livelihood, advancement and are willing to put all their resources into our training and development. If you look at the high level leaders in your network, you will see that they are out there training and giving their time to people many layers down in the network, when they are already successful and probably could be spending their time with their families, enjoying their well-earned wealth. Why is this? It is because they have long ago passed the point of worrying about themselves and are now at the point of ensuring that all the people in the network below them have the same opportunity to succeed that they enjoyed. These are people who appreciate the opportunity that was handed to them and who are determined to serve those who come after them to keep the dream alive. Trust me, you will hear them at major training events, telling their story and you will be inspired. You can’t fail to be. Another good reason to attend all the events! Conclusion Get out there into the marketplace, put as many people as you can on your list and when you speak to them, don’t make it about you, and make it about them. Share the opportunity at every opportunity. Let people know that you have a better way. Let them know that you are there for them at every step of the way. Let them know that you understand their personality type and can work with them in converting prospects into leaders in their organisation. Forget about You and You will succeed. Here's to Your Success! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Before You Go ..... Check out these two pre-launch TOTALLY FREE business opportunities: .. Who knows if they will work, but lock in your position, study their material and who knows? Might just be a great ground floor opportunity. HODO - Fantastic new disruptive technology that is set to revolutionise the $8 bilion travel and leisure industry - CLICK HERE THW GLOBAL - get paid to watch videos - can't wait for more details - jump in and have a look! - CLICK HERE I came across an affiliate site using Bitcoin the other day and, as with all new, disruptive technology I thought I had better look into it, at the risk of missing out on something or getting left behind, so what follows is the little bit of research that I have been able to do on it (and I stress “little” ) – I recommend that you do some of your own. It’s obviously here to stay! The site that I am talking about is an Australian site called Bitify. (www.bitify.com). You can buy and sell anything that is legal and you can be an affiliate, but you can only pay and receive in Bitcoin or as they described it "BITCOIN BTC AND LITECOIN BTC". What? You mean there is more than one? I don't even know about the first one yet! How do I Get Some of These Bitcoins? Rather than try and write my own informed, or otherwise, account, I checked out a couple of websites to see if I could find a simple explanation. So here are a couple of articles with links to their websites: ____________________________________________________________ Still Don't Get Bitcoin? Here's an Explanation Even a Five-Year-Old Will Understand Nik Custodio (@nik5ter) | Published on January 9, 2014 http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-explained-five-year-old/ We’re sitting on a park bench. It’s a great day. I have one apple with me, I give it to you. You now have one apple and I have zero. That was simple, right? Let’s look closely at what happened: My apple was physically put into your hand. You know it happened. I was there, you were there – you touched it. We didn’t need a third person there to help us make the transfer. We didn’t need to pull in Uncle Tommy (who’s a famous judge) to sit with us on the bench and confirm that the apple went from me to you. The apple’s yours! I can’t give you another apple because I don’t have any left. I can’t control it anymore. The apple left my possession completely. You have full control over that apple now. You can give it to your friend if you want, and then that friend can give it to his friend, and so on. So that’s what an in-person exchange looks like. I guess it’s really the same, whether I’m giving you a banana, a book, a quarter, or a dollar bill … But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to apples! ...let's say I have one digital apple. Here, I’ll give you my digital apple. Ah! Now it gets interesting. How do you know that digital apple which used to be mine, is now yours, and only yours? Think about it for a second. It’s more complicated, right? How do you know that I didn’t send that apple to Uncle Tommy as an email attachment first? Or your friend Joe? Or my friend Lisa too? Maybe I made a couple of copies of that digital apple on my computer. Maybe I put it up on the internet and one million people downloaded it. As you see, this digital exchange is a bit of a problem. Sending digital apples doesn’t look like sending physical apples. Some brainy computer scientists actually have a name for this problem: it’s called the double-spending problem. But don’t worry about it. All you need to know is that it’s confused them for quite some time and they’ve never solved it. Until now. But let’s try to think of a solution on our own. Ledgers Maybe these digital apples need to be tracked in a ledger. It’s basically a book where you track all transactions – an accounting book. This ledger, since it’s digital, needs to live in its own world and have someone in charge of it. Just like World of Warcraft, say. Blizzard, the guys who created the online game, have a “digital ledger” of all the rare flaming fire swords that exist in their system. So, cool, someone like them could keep track of our digital apples. Awesome – we solved it! ProblemsThere’s a bit of a problem though: 1) What if some guy over at Blizzard created more? He could just add a couple of digital apples to his balance whenever he wants! 2) It’s not the same as when we were on the bench that day. It was just you and me then. Going through Blizzard is like pulling in Uncle Tommy (a third-party) out of court (did I mention he’s a famous judge?) for all our park bench transactions. How can I just hand over my digital apple to you in the usual way? Is there any way to closely replicate our park bench transaction digitally? Seems kinda tough … The Solution What if we gave this ledger to everybody? Instead of the ledger living on a Blizzard computer, it’ll live in everybody’s computers. All the transactions that have ever happened, from all time, in digital apples, will be recorded in it. You can’t cheat it. I can’t send you digital apples I don’t have, because then it wouldn’t sync up with everybody else in the system. It’d be a tough system to beat. Especially if it got really big. Plus, it’s not controlled by one person, so I know there’s no one that can just decide to give himself more digital apples. The rules of the system were already defined at the beginning. And the code and rules are open source – kinda like the software used in your mom’s Android phone. Or kinda like Wikipedia. It’s there for smart people to maintain, secure, improve, and check. You could participate in this network too – updating the ledger and making sure it all checks out. For the trouble, you could get like 25 digital apples as a reward. In fact, that’s the only way to create more digital apples in the system. I simplified quite a bit … But that system I explained exists. It’s called the Bitcoin protocol. And those digital apples are the bitcoins within the system. Fancy! So, did you see what happened? What does the public ledger enable? 1) It’s open source, remember? The total number of apples was defined in the public ledger at the beginning. I know the exact amount that exists. Within the system, I know they are limited (scarce). 2) When I make an exchange I now know that digital apple certifiably left my possession and is now completely yours. I used to not be able to say that about digital things. It will be updated and verified by the public ledger. 3) Because it’s a public ledger, I didn’t need Uncle Tommy (third-party) to make sure I didn’t cheat, or make extra copies for myself, or send apples twice, or thrice… Within the system, the exchange of a digital apple is now just like the exchange of a physical one. It’s now as good as seeing a physical apple leave my hand and drop into your pocket. Just like on the park bench, the exchange involved two people only. You and me , we didn’t need Uncle Tommy there to make it valid. In other words, it behaves like a physical object. But you know what’s cool? It’s still digital. We can now deal with 1,000 apples, or 1 million apples, or even .0000001 apples. I can send it with a click of a button, and I can still drop it in your digital pocket if I was in Nicaragua and you were all the way in New York. I can even make other digital things ride on top of these digital apples! It’s digital after all. Maybe I can attach some text on it – a digital note. Or maybe I can attach more important things; like say a contract, or a stock certificate, or an ID card … So this is great! How should we treat or value these “digital apples”? They’re quite useful aren’t they? Well, a lot of people are arguing over it now. There’s debate between this and that economic school, between politicians, between programmers. Don’t listen to all of them though. Some people are smart; some are misinformed. Some say the system is worth a lot; some say it’s actually worth zero. Some guy actually put a hard number on it: $1,300 per apple. Some say it’s digital gold; some say it's a currency. Others say they’re just like tulips. Some people say it’ll change the world; some say it’s just a fad. I have my own opinion about it, but that’s a story for another time. Hey kid, you now know more about Bitcoin than most. __________________________________________________________________ BITCOIN SIMPLIFIED From: http://bitcoinsimplified.org/ Bitcoin was invented as a peer-to-peer system for online payments that does not require a trusted central authority. Since its inception in 2008, Bitcoin has grown into a technology, a currency, an investment vehicle, and a community of users. In this guide we hope to explain what Bitcoin is and how it works as well as describe how you can use it to improve your life. What is Bitcoin? Since anything digital can be copied over and over again, the hard part about implementing a digital payment system is making sure that nobody spends the same money more than once. Traditionally, this is done by having a trusted central authority (like PayPal) that verifies all of the transactions. The core innovation that makes Bitcoin special is that it uses consensus in a massive peer-to-peer network to verify transactions. This results in a system where payments are non-reversible, accounts cannot be frozen, and transaction fees are much lower. Where do bitcoins come from? We go more in-depth about this on the page about mining, but here’s a very simple explanation: Some users put their computers to work verifying transactions in the peer-to-peer network mentioned above. These users are rewarded with new bitcoins proportional to the amount of computing power they donate to the network. Who controls Bitcoin? As we mentioned above, there is no central person or central authority in charge of Bitcoin. Various programmers donate their time developing the open source Bitcoin software and can make changes subject to the approval of lead developer Gavin Andresen. The individual minersthen choose whether to install the new version of the software or stick to the old one, essentially “voting” with their processing power. It is in the miners’ best interest to only accept changes that are good for the Bitcoin currency in the long run. These checks and balances make it difficult for anyone to manipulate Bitcoin. How to get started with Bitcoin. The best way to learn about Bitcoin is to get some and experiment. We have written articles about how to set up your own Bitcoin wallet, how to acquire bitcoins, and how to use bitcoins to help you get going. We have also written about a number of other Bitcoin topics if you prefer a hands-off approach to learning. If your questions remain unanswered, please contact us and ask us anything you like. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wikipedia Had a Go at It, Too - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin .. …..and here is the Wikipedia Version (only the summary – use the link above to see the full research). Bitcoin is a digital asset and a payment system invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto introduced the idea on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list,[12] and released it as open-source software in 2009.[13] There have been several high profile claims to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto; however, none of them have provided proof beyond doubt that back up their claims.[14] The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary.[15]:4 These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain,[16] which uses bitcoin as its unit of account. Since the system works without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S.Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency.[1] Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency,[17][18][19] although prior systems existed[note 5] and it is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency.[15][22] Bitcoin is the largest of its kind in terms of total market value.[23] Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into a public ledger. This activity is called mining and miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins.[15] Besides being obtained by mining, bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies,[24] products, and services.[25] When sending bitcoins, users can pay an optional transaction fee to the miners.[26] In February 2015, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin for products and services passed 100,000.[27] Instead of 2–3% typically imposed by credit card processors, merchants accepting bitcoins often pay fees in the range from 0% to less than 2%.[28]Despite the fourfold increase in the number of merchants accepting bitcoin in 2014, the cryptocurrency did not have much momentum in retail transactions.[29] The European Banking Authority[30] and other sources[15]:11 have warned that bitcoin users are not protected by refund rights or chargebacks. The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators,[31]legislative bodies,[32] law enforcement,[33] and media.[34] Criminal activities are primarily centered around darknet markets and theft, though officials in countries such as the United States also recognize that bitcoin can provide legitimate financial services.[35] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- …………………..anyway, there you have it – it looks like it’s here to stay – I know you get them by Mining, whatever that means, but I still have no idea how to do that , but I will find out, so I encourage you to read up about it and help me out with any useful comments. Here’s to your success! Tell us what you think. Your List Who would be a good candidate for your network? Let's make a list. ....Who might like to look at your business opportunity? .....Who would you want to share the opportunity with? • People who are dissatisfied with their job • people who love their job • people who just want to make some more money to pay bills • people who want to make an insane amount of money • people who want to give their kids more material things • people who want to give their kids an opportunity or a start • people who want to give their kids values • people who just want their kids to stand on their own two feet • people who want to retire but can't afford to • people who can retire and want to have fun with it and help others • people who are not retired but want to have fun with it and help others • people who don't know the meaning of the word "retirement" • people who haven't paid off their home yet • renters • people who have paid off their home and want to keep investing • students who could use an extra thousand dollars a month • students who would rather not have a huge HECS bill • students who want to help their mates out • other blokes who want to help their mates out • ex-students just starting out on life • people who have dreams of building an empire • people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired • people who just have dreams of a better life • people who are just wanting to dare to dream • people who would really love to work for themselves • people who just want to work from home • people who love sales • people who don't love sales • people who want to travel • people who want to stay at home and be carers for others • people who want the freedom to set their own hours • people who want the freedom to do something while looking for their dream job • people who want to write their best-selling novel • people who want to research rare species • people who just want to blog their ideas with time to think about them • people who want time to spend with their kids and not be in a job • people who like you • people who may not like you • people who work for hourly rates • people on casual wages • people on salaries • people on sales quotas • people who resent making their boss rich • people who would like their boss to get rich in their team • people who would like more time to play golf, or tennis, or go fishing • people who just want to spend time in their garden • people who would like to employ a gardener • people who would like to give more to charity • people who would like more time for volunteering for worthy causes • people who are unemployed • people who are carers for sick children or aged parents, or people with other disabilities • people who are retired, and love it • people who are retired, and hate it • people who love deals • people who love saving money • people who would love to earn residual income • people who like to lead • people who like to follow • people who can see value in MLM • People who just want to have a go. • People who own small businesses • people who own large businesses • people who hate being tax collectors • people who hate paying overheads • mature people • people who hate red tape • people who hate paying employees • people who hate renting business premises • young people • old people In short …..Anyone!! You could go on, and on and easily think up hundreds more - but the real point is there are as many categories of people who would like to, or need to see your business opportunity as there are PEOPLE!! So why pre-judge? Why even bother pre-judging - we are not psychics, so why try and second guess what's in someone's head? If you think about it, attempting to judge others may be the height of arrogance! Who gives us that right? As i once heard a leader in an MLM organisation rsay, at a National Event – there is an oversupply of people in the world!! Here's the thing!! It’s not what's in their head - it's what is in their heart - it's what is in their gut!! People will surprise you. Just put everyone on your list and tell them about it – “SORT, DON’T SELL” Offer it up and give it away with all the goodwill you have - even if you only have a "chicken list" to start with. Many, depending on how sincere you are, will be NO's and many will be YES's - that's cool - don't forget, you probably only want 25 or more of them to become your valued clients! 25 out of 30 might be hard work, but 25 out of hundreds or thousands should be easy! So don't be afraid to share it. Remember the example of the deck of cards - shuffle them and turn them over one by one - you will turn up 4 aces somewhere in that pack - just no guarantees where or when. Zak Mustapha
Author of Undefeated Marketing and founder of Foolishness File Ever heard the saying, “the average millionaire has 7 sources of income”? Well that’s what this post is about... generating those sources of income. I’ve carefully selected 7 income sources that have a low barrier of entry. So let’s begin... 1. Binary Options Worried about the risk of investing? Or maybe you don’t have enough capital to invest in any stocks?
2. Freelance Whether you have a full time job or not. Freelancing is a great way to earn money from home on your own terms. All you need is the willingness to work. The number of jobs are limitless. You can do: Writing
Step 1: Write down a list of your skills (e.g. logo design, blogging etc.) Step 2: Create your portfolio on any of these job sites. Step 3: Apply for jobs on those sites until you get some gigs. 3. Affiliate Marketing Most, if not all affiliate marketers are bloggers. If you enjoy connecting with others online and sharing your thoughts then affiliate marketing is a great way to earn an income. The best thing about blogging is the fact that you can work whenever and wherever you want... you’re the boss. To get started with affiliate marketing you need to follow these steps: Step 1: Pick a niche. Step 2: Set up a blog. Step 3: Sign up to affiliate programs. Step 4: Start blogging and connecting with other bloggers in your space. 4. Sell Your Photos Enjoy taking photos? Good news. You can sell them online without much effort. There are sites out there that let you upload your photos, put a price on them and start selling. You probably won’t make a six figure income from your photos. But, you’ll make a lot more money than just letting them rot on your memory card. Here’s a list of sites where you can sell your photos: Let your photos make you a bit of cash while you sleep. 5. Sell Your Knowledge The education industry is worth over $100 billion and growing, making it a great opportunity for you to make some income. People want what you know no matter how easy or not important it may seem to you. The most common ways people sell your knowledge is through:
That’s not an obstacle. In fact, that’s good news for you because it shows there’s a market for what you’re teaching. The internet is a massive place and there’s enough space for another million people like you. Truth is, no two educators are the same anyway, every educator has their own angle and experience of things. Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur.com makes over $7,000 a month from his kindle books even though there are millions of other books on Amazon. So, If you want to take a slice of a $100+ billion industry then selling your knowledge is a path you should take. 6. Mobile App Skinning Most of us aren’t coders. Coding an app is time consuming and expensive. But, why code from scratch when you can just improve existing apps without writing a line of code? Carter Thomas from bluecloudsolutions.com shows you how he created a $70/month app business from scratch. It’s much easier than creating an app from scratch. Even if you do want to create an app from scratch, it’s best to test the waters with this kind of app. You’ll make yourself a bit of income maybe enough to fund the other app projects you wanted to work on. 7. White Labelling Ever bought something from Amazon? Well guess what, there’s a 99% chance it was a white labelled product. Wait, what’s white labelling? For the sake of brevity, it’s sticking a branded sticker (or label) on a generic product. If you thought Amazon products were unique then I hate to say this, but you’re wrong. If you read the ingredients and look at the packaging you’ll realize the only difference is the label. Even if you do see a slight difference, it’s because they both sourced their products from a different manufacturer. Almost no one on Amazon creates their own unique products from scratch. But, you want to know why this business model is on this list? Because you can start your own ecommerce store with just a few hundred dollars! Why you? Because Amazon relies on third party sellers and you could be one easily. Final Words There you have it. 7 carefully selected sources of income you can definitely rely on. The only thing getting in your way to becoming a millionaire now is your willingness to do the work. Don’t let “busyness” get in your way. Life is short and if you want to become a millionaire, you better start now. Assign a week to work on each one and you’ll be on your way to have 7 additional sources of income within 7 weeks. Follow Zak Mustapha on Twitter: www.twitter.com/zakmustapha This is the 4th Article in our MLM series What does the title mean? Why would someone be afraid to succeed? You can understand someone being afraid to fail, can't you? Why would someone be afraid to succeed? There is an old adage that goes - if you try something new, you will either win or you will? Lose? HOW WRONG!! The answer is that you will LEARN! Unless it is some life threatening or fortune threatening venture or pursuit the outcome of not winning is usually finding out what doesn't work and working out how to do better next time (note that I didn't say succeed, next time - it might take a bit of fine tuning before that happens), but every little improvement is part of the journey toward your end goal, which is defined as SUCCESS. If you don’t believe me, read the biography of Albert Einstein, who believed that every failure in an experiment just meant that success was that little bit closer. Talking about that journey, it is often said that "the toughest terrain that we ever negotiate is the six inches between our ears!" What does that mean? It means that self-doubt, procrastination, fear of the responsibilities that come with success, or just plain inertia, do more to prevent progress than all the physical barriers that we encounter, put together. So, fear of success translates to:
Well, it is very easy to hide behind a screen of mediocrity, to just get by, to make a living and not a life. The path of least resistance is always the well-trodden, isn't it? The "no going back" situation doesn't work anymore, you can't slip back into mediocrity once you have made the effort, or can you? But here lies the problem - if you truly want to succeed, mediocrity is not an option. We have to push ourselves and stretch outside our comfort zone. If you want to be like that, then stretch a little bit at a time - each time you do, it's like stretching an elastic band, until it gets bigger and bigger, a little at a time. That is where goal setting can come in - if you set realistic and realisable goals, you can stretch a bit at a time - you can retreat into the shadows every now and then to lick your wounds, as long as you have the discipline to come back out into the light and put your head up. It's okay to fall off the horse or the bike, as long as you work out why you fell, get back on and keep going. Goals are never set in concrete, they can change on the run - think of the example of the guided missile - they don't just fire it at a fixed point, from hundreds of miles away and hope for the best, they tweak it so that it makes little tiny course corrections all along the way, adjusting for wind, rain, magnetic variations, and everything else that can be thrown at it, until it zeroes in on the target. If you have carefully planned your route to the top of Mt Everest and something gets in your way, like a blizzard or a landslide, do you say “oh, well, never mind, we did our best ?” or do you re-group and try to figure out an alternative route? That should be how we see our goals. There is only one certainty in goal setting and that is that if you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it! Maybe you need to have a bucket list of things to do that will conquer your fears - maybe you just need to latch on to a good mentor, to read and digest great motivational material, but the bottom line is that THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY - if you can't climb the wall, then either crash through it, go around it, or tunnel under it, or run down the street and hire a bull dozer!! In any business there are lots of mentors and, particularly in the online world - find ways to find the gurus, and you will find, in most cases, that if you ask for their help they will be only too happy to give it. Remember, that everybody who is doing business online, whether it be blogging, selling, teaching, whatever is highly interested in building their mailing list, so why wouldn't someone be happy to hear from you if you were prepared to subscribe to them, and most of those guys have been where you are, now and most probably got their start through asking for help, or asking to guest blog, or to write an article for a website. So, remember, success will come to you when you are ready to embrace it. Don’t be daunted by it, but go looking for it! Be creative about how to find it - ask Google dumb questions and you will be surprised at how intuitive the answers will be. and. as always, our great bonus offers - this week find out how to make some great money out of affiliiate marketing, just email us and let us know that you are interested ...and, again don't forget those free e-books that we always offer you. Here's to your success,...see you next week Web Gurus This is inspired by an email that was in my inbox today from one of the gurus that I follow - Dr Bob Clarke. There are basically three ways to learn about online business:- 1. Pay for training The best way but expensive. Some of the material out there might be less than good value for money and it is hard to know where to look, and with so much choice hard to decide where to spend your hard-earned cash. 2. Read and Research Also effective and mostly free but time consuming. Time is money. 3. Follow The Leader. This is the middle way, but probably the most effective. I follow quite a number of "gurus", but not slavishly, and there are too many to be doing nothing else but reading their stuff. But I do have a core group of 4 or 5 that I love getting emails from. They are pretty self less people who give away huge amounts of free advice and refer me to great sites where I always learn something new. There are probably many hundreds more and when I come across them, I'll let you know. The beauty of following these obviously successful people is that they will direct us to the courses and webinars and mastermind groups that are worth paying money for, when we are ready. There are the big names of the Internet, such as Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Danny Iny, Jeff Bullas (Australian blogger) and Jon Morrow from Copyblogger There are commercial organisations where you can get tons of great FREE material - to name a couple - HubSpot, Digital Marketer, Huffington Post, Forbes My favourites (and they won't necessarily be yours) are: Dr Bob and Rosemary Clarke - Bob is still practising his profession more or less full time and running a successful internet business and his advice is regular, free, on the money and useful as he usually points you to other great sources of knowledge - http://BobandRosemary.com Dianne Hochman - Diane builds a huge internet business purely on her personality and her material is always down to earth - www.dianehochman.com Pat Flynn - again, good commonsense material and even if you read between the lines of his ads for his paid material, you will pick out gems - www.smartpassiveincome.com Frank Jones - sells a lot of software but gives a lot away, too and very down to earth info - www.frankjones.net (and others) My core group will not necessarily resonate with you and you need to go searching for your own. One great way that I found was to go to Danny Iny's website - https://mirasee.com/how-we-help/ and download a free copy of his book "Engagement from Scratch"- it is a collection of articles from over 30 of the best known bloggers and content marketers on the web - it was responsible for one of my first "lightbulb" moments in internet marketing and introduced me to some of these gurus. One suggestion - set up a gmail account specially for these guys and join as many lists as you can - then unsubscribe from the ones that you don't relate to. As the mail won't be clogging up your inbox, you can read the material or delete it at your leisure - I set up gmail accounts and then use Mozilla Thunderbird as my mail browser - you can have as many mail accounts downloading on Thunderbird as you want and all you have to do is click <File - New - Existing Mail Account> and it will open a screen where you enter your name, the email address that you set up in gmail and your password - Thunderbird does the rest and you will have it on your desktop, rather than having to open a Gmail browser window everytime that you want to log in. Well - I did start by saying "short and sharp" because I was writing this on the bus, but I got a bit carried away. Hope this is all of value to you. As always, let's have your comments (I'm adding this to the blog) and feedback Here's to Your Success! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As always Go to the Free E-Books Tab and check out the offers - there will be more coming in the next week or so - my DAY JOB is getting in the way! |
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