Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 
 

 

 

Informative Articles

10 Cool Ways To Attract People To Your Web Site
1. Give people a free subscription to your e-zine. Almost everyone is publishing a e-zine nowadays so it's important to give something extra with the free subscription. You could offer a free gift or advertising when people subscribe. 2....

10 Tips To Help You Create Your Own Money Making Affiliate Program
1. View your affiliate program as a partnership between you and your affiliates, and make it your priority to develop good relationships between you and your affiliate sales force. 2. Answer any questions your visitors or affiliates have...

Build Lifelong Networks With Your Own Barter Group
I don’t know if you have ever seriously considered bartering. If you haven’t considered it, it’s probably about time that you did. Why? Well, besides the fact that both parties involved in a barter leave feeling satisfied, it can also build...

Build Your Own Board Of Experts
The most successful entrepreneurs rely on their advisory boards to help spot new opportunities and potential pitfalls. Now you can have your own advisory board: a shadow board of directors. A shadow board of directors is a low-tech technique for...

Buying and Selling Distressed Houses for Maximum Profit
If you want to become a real estate investor, find a "fixer-upper" owned by an anxious seller. Finding distressed houses at bargain prices, fixing them up, and then selling them on a consistent basis can make you a millionaire. Why Sellers...

Don't Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line
A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. But wait, shouldn't a business owner already KNOW...

Four Employee Behaviors That Can Kill Your Business
I found it important to clarify for employees what “deal-breaker” behavior was at my company. These are the things I insisted would not be tolerated and would lead to immediate or ultimate termination, depending on the nature of the infraction...

Seven "Really" Truly Unique Ways to Sell More Books
These marketing tips aren’t for the weak at heart. Use discretion and know where the ego and self-promotion boundary stands for you. 1. Use a fold over business card. Place your book information inside the fold. The title on the bottom side...

The Millionaire's Favorite Author
YOU WON'T FIND W.G. HILL ON ANY BEST SELLER LISTS, BUT IT'S HARD TO FIND A MILLIONAIRE WHO HASN'T READ MOST OF HIS $100 "SPECIAL REPORTS". Hill's Low Profile -- The name W.G. Hill isn't bandied around much in the book-publishing world. No...

Youth Entrepreneurship, A Disappointing Truth
The psychology of entrepreneurship can be very rewarding to one who dreams of starting their own business. The freedom of being your own boss has billions of people seeking financial independence and other entrepreneurial expectations. But is...

 
 
 
Invest Nothing - Get Nothing

People ask me all the time why I write articles. They ask me questions like:
What makes you such an expert?
Where do you learn this Internet marketing stuff?
How long have you been doing this "Internet marketing thing"?
How much money have you made and then they want to see my
bank account figures?

I write articles based on a simple philosophy. I take what works and use it to impart some sanity into the crazy hyped up world of Internet marketing. I also apply what I have learned to the running of an my Home based business.

Internet marketing can be a very impersonal business. Sometimes it seems almost sterile in its approach. Everywhere people are trying
to sell something. Buy this - buy that - buy mine don't buy the other guys because it sucks, etc.

When you don't buy then they get insulted. If the majority of these so-called Internet sites were real world brick and mortar stores they would be forced to close their businesses within the first few weeks, or months.

Why?

For one of following two reasons:
1) The law would shut them down for making such wild, and false, advertising claims. (Note: That is exactly what the FTC is starting to do to websites!)
2) The store owners would run off the majority of their potential customers with their carnival, take the money and run, style of hawking their inferior goods or the same goods you will find on hundreds of other sites.

Occassionally I get an email from one of my readers asking me for advice on one of the many "categories" of Internet marketing. The bottom line of every question I get is how to be "SUCCESSFUL" in working from home and marketing on the Internet.

The thing that intriques me most is that these people who write to me never want to spend any money or invest any of their time to be successful. All they want is some magical formula that will give them instant "riches". They are hardly ever willing to spend one thin dime or invest any of their time at all.

People don't seem to think they need to educate themselves about every facet of online marketing. All they want is for someone to hand them the answers on a silver platter. No work or investment in time or money to learn how to market - another words they aren't willing to do anything.

The kicker is that people are actually convinced that you can do NOTHING to become rich except throw up an inept website. Then within a few weeks they'll make a fortune and retire!

I would like to share with you the typical email that I get where a reader is asking for help. I'll get a request for some information on the tricks to being a success with an online business.

The first thing I usually do is to ask the person some questions. The questions I ask are always the same. They are:
- Exactly what are you promoting?
- Is it an Affiliate program(s) or is it your own program, book, etc. and if its an Affilaite program are you promoting more than one?
- How long have you been trying Internet marketing?
- What is your website url?
- What is your Alexa site ranking?
- Who is your webhost provider?
- How are you advertising (Traffic exchanges, classified ads, FFA sites, ezine ads, PPC)?
- What tools do you use to learn from (special membership sites, ebooks, ezines you read on a regular basis, on-line study courses, information sites,

 


etc.)?
- How many hours a day are you devoting to your marketing efforts?
- Why did you get into Internet Marketing in the first place?
- Exactly what are your specific 1 month, 3 month, 1 year goals and 5 year goals. What would you like to get out of your efforts?
- Is this a hobby, a passion or a pure profit motive?

Rarely is anyone able, or willing, to answer more than two or three of these questions. If you've read my past articles you know how strongly I believe in setting aside some time every day to learn and grow your knowledge.

I usually reply back with some of the things the person needs to do to grow their business. Then more likely than not I get some terse reply of why I'm not giving them some secret formula. Or a personal attack on me because I choose NOT to brag about how much money I may have made in my own Internet marketing efforts.

My answer to that is a simple one. I would rather leave this world with many friends and colleagues that know, and trust me, than to put an few thousand in the bank by being dishonest and bilking people.

On all of my websites you will find my full contact information - including my actual address and telephone number. If you look at a 1,000 sites you'll be lucky to find this same information on more than a couple of dozen other websites. Why?

People think they can throw up a website with a sales page, sell you something, collect the money and run. No bother, no REAL guarantee, no responsibility - nothing. If that is what you think then you too are in the category of:

Invest Nothing - GET NOTHING

I often get the feeling that those who write me don't want to listen OR learn - they just want some magical quick fix! Being a successful netprenuer is not a given...You MUST EARN your success.

As I said in an earlier article "What is more important - Time or Money" it WILL take some of each. You can spend more money and take a little less time - OR visa-versa. However, your best results will be if you spend the time AND some money!

When I started my own Internet marketing I set a budget of how much money, and time, I was going to use for all of my marketing efforts. It was a very small budget, and it still is, but it was what I knew I could afford. I have actually spent most of my marketing budget learning the ends and outs of Internet marketing and very little on actual paid advertising.

You have heard me say this before I ALWAYS have been and will continue to always be a student. I am taking a small amount of my earnings each month and adding to my training, knowledge and promotional efforts.

One of the most important things I have learned is that NOT ONE of the six figure earners ever got where they are by taking shortcuts. They have all invested lots of time and/or money into their efforts, albeit some more than others. The point is this NO Effort = NO RESULTS!

If all you want is a free ride, the lazy way out, money for nothing and kicks for free - as the song says it so well! Then all you'll get is nothing! You only get back what you put into your business.

Invest Nothing = Get Nothing! Michael Domeck is the editor of the Beacon News and has been marketing on the Internet for over 3 years. I consult with clients on Internet marketing for the Home based business. Having sold my other sites my curent site is http://www.the-best-light-houses.com