AdSense

Google AdSense is the advertising platform which allows you to place a piece of code on your website which displays ads in a custom configuration. You will get paid per click, an amount which is determined by various factors. Be careful not to overpopulate your page with Google ads. They are often seen as “spammy” to people who know internet marketing. Displayed professionally, though, they can add some extra income to your campaign. Read Google’s terms of service to make sure you are following protocol.

Affiliate Marketing

If there is a product you use and love you can offer it to your visitors and get paid each time they buy. Most software or internet products come with the ability to sell the item for profit. The merchant will supply you with graphics, a unique affiliate code and specific advertisements. You can place these image ads anywhere in your blog. Be careful not to distract your readers with them and only include a few of the products you deem appropriate for your audience.

Advertisements

Once your blog gains some popularity and page rank, you can offer advertising space to other websites for a monthly or yearly rate. Your blog should have some authority and a large number of monthly visitors to start this monetization method. However, if your sole purpose is to land prospects, this may not be the best method for you unless you keep it to a low number of advertisers.

There are many ways to monetize your blog and the method you use will depend on your goals and your readership. Remember to think about your visitors first before implementing any advertising and ask yourself if the information will help them and add value to their endeavors before you begin any new campaigns.

What does the mindset of the wealthy look like?….

For one, wealthy people are forward thinkers. They do not dwell on the past, their mistakes or the mistakes of others. They realize focusing on the past will never propel them to the future they desire. They are visionary thinkers and they move towards their goals regardless of their circumstances. They look at their circumstances as learning experiences rather than platforms to gripe about their negative situations. They make life happen instead of letting it happen to them.

Successful people also are driven by a desire to succeed. They believe they deserve success and follow it despite the obstacles. This does not mean they never have a bad day or experience hardship. It’s quite the contrary. The difference is they act in spite of the external. They try to keep the vision of where they are going available so they can use it to muster up motivation when needed. They fail just like everybody else, but they dust themselves off and keep going. They realize these failures are simply springboards to greater success.

How can I do this you say? If you feel like you could never adopt this mindset, you are right! You can’t just get it instantly. The truth is you can get there but it does not happen overnight, especially if you are prone to perceiving your world through a negative light. It will take some re-training and focus, but it can be done. Start perceiving your world and your business in a positive light and when you hear the negative thoughts, replace them with positive ones. When obstacles come your way in business, re-train your mind to value them instead of complaining. When you overcome them, you will be stronger and more motivated. If you think like you are wealthy you will become wealthy. Here’s to your success!

I often reflect on the major areas of my life when thinking about business decisions because a correlation always….. exists.  What I mean is people often think they do not have what it takes to overcome obstacles and succeed. They fail to remember the inner strength they were forced to call upon in past life circumstances. If you ever bought or remodeled a house, dealt with a sickness, parented a child, changed careers or went through any other life transformation, you most likely faced a few brick walls. The skill to fight these battles is in you; it just needs to be recognized and nurtured.

When you face obstacles in your business, it is no different than your life. Which way do you go? In the face of the trial or do you run away from it? You know as well as I do running away from it never makes it go away; it just delays it a little while. Some people give up because they feel they do not have what it takes to make it. Others change their perception and muster through it. How can you change your mindset so you can climb over these hurdles?

When you face a difficulty, your first impulse may be to retreat. Don’t worry; this is very common. You can think it, just don’t do it! At this point, you must change your thinking about what obstacles actually are. They are only as difficult as you perceive them to be. See them as small and see yourself as possessing the power to face them and overcome. Next, change your mindset concerning the nature of the obstacle itself. These situations are meant to make us stronger and supply us with more motivation to move forward. So, essentially, they are needed and are facilitators to business success.

You really can get through any difficulty you face with your business. The old adage, “When there is a will, there’s a way” identifies with the strong desire present in each one of us to succeed. Stay connected with that desire, believe you can do it and your business will always enjoy continued success.

You can run the best looking website and the greatest business in the world, but if you are not targeting the right… people with your services, your company will not go anywhere. You must research your target audience and know what makes them tick. Who are they? What are their burning questions? What are their problems? The answers to these questions are like gold to your campaign because they will give you a direction and an audience to sell your services.

I wish I could tell you there are super secret ways to determine who you are targeting, but it really comes down to brain power. If you are selling pink shoes, what is the first thing that comes to mind?  Maybe young girls or teenagers or a specific age range? A professional, fun woman or maybe a mother of girls? You can also type in your main keyword in Google and look at your competitors. Research their website and enter their URL into a demographic tool such as quantcast.com. This will give you a better idea as to who they are targeting and give you a more detailed look at your demographic. Don’t get stuck in competitor data, though. Think outside of the box and see if you can target others who would be interested in your business.

Once you determine who your prospects are, you must put yourself in their minds. Think about what qualities they would look for in services. As you are going through this process, visit your website and other web real estate and imagine you were them. Does your offering solve their problems? Is your website and content offer answers to their questions?

The more you can solve the problems of your target audience, the greater chance you will gain customers for life. The same old website design just will not do. There are too many copycats on the web and people are looking for authenticity and a real answer to their issues. Focus more of your time on this effort and you will see a great increase in your business over time.

Anyone can write content and say whatever they please, but when you show your face and your voice, it…. immediately cancels the reservations in the viewer’s minds and brings them one step closer to buying what you offer. The first thing to remember when creating videos, especially if you are marketing and branding yourself, is to display your honesty. The video does not need highly professional, state of the art graphics to grab the viewer’s attention. Shoot the video in your home office with a good camera and act natural like you were talking to a friend. Let them know you are interested in helping them achieve their goals first before you give them information. Open with a short introduction, tell them your name, who you are and a little about why you are creating the video.

Watch out for “run on” communication. Excessive words can make the video boring. Get straight to the point after you establish who you are and never continue in a thought if it was already stated. Long videos bore viewers and as a result they will not continue to find out more about your business.

Your video should compel people to desire more information about your services. It should not threaten them or make them feel like they are being sold to. At the end, include a call to action and be specific about what you want them to do. Even if it sounds elementary, people like detailed instructions; they don’t want to search for the answer or be bothered. Make it easy for them to visit your website or contact page. Include a link in your description or an opt-in form below the video if you are hosting it on your personal landing page.

For SEO purposes, add your keywords to the title, in the description and as tags. You can distribute your video to the directories manually or use a free service such as tubemogul.com which will do it automatically for you.

The key thing to remember about creating videos is to be you! Don’t try to act like you think people will want you to act. They can smell a lack of authenticity a mile away. You are your greatest asset. Let that shine through the camera and watch the traffic pour in.

Great customer service begins with your website.  What you may not realize is the viability of a lead will start all the…. way back to the first impression you gave to them. How they respond to you will be directly affected by how they perceive you and your business and their general outlook of your services. Of course, if they become a lead, they saw something they liked, however, the more you can do beforehand, the better your lead will perform for you after. Always display honesty and authenticity and develop your brand around your story and your successes. Show your prospects you are there to help them whenever needed and are dedicated to their success.

Once a prospect converts to a lead, it is imperative you follow up with them immediately. You can tell them it will take one to two days to get back to them but if you really want to make a great first impression, don’t let too much time elapse before you act. The follow up should ease their fears of a “scammy” situation and should never involve hype of any kind. You should offer to answer any of their questions and remain confident and without fear when communicating.

The next step is crucial and is a common misstep for most marketers. If you are emailing leads and they do not reply to your follow up, consider other possibilities before “chalking” it up to their disinterest. They could be busy or lost your contact information. Some leads even wait to see if the marketer deems them important enough to send another follow up message. Regardless of the reason, continue to address them and their needs without any sales pressure.

Each follow up message should provide more information and create more hesitancy to act. After about six or seven contacts, they most likely are not interested. Though they will not convert to a sale, you can kindly ask them for feedback which will help to improve your experience and future communications.

The follow up is a critical time and should be taken very seriously. Treat every lead like gold and as if it was your only one. Address them personally and always reassure them of your willingness to help them succeed. This is a recipe for success and will always result in a positive conversion process.

Imagine if you took all the time you spent reading emails, purchasing and researching products and actually put…. it to use with one or two solid marketing methods. Your business would definitely benefit. The truth is the only true way to make money online is to offer value. Don’t be lured in by “get rich quick” schemes or shortcut programs. Though some marketing methods will help you to automate your tasks, you can never get away from providing value and unfortunately, this does take some time. You cannot expect to put up a website and become rich in two weeks. I don’t care what new method you are using or what the gurus are promising. The basics of internet marketing worked ten years ago and they will work ten years from now and they do not change. Focus on authenticity, valuable content and showcase your honesty and willingness to help your prospects. This attitude will do more for you than all of the best tricks combined.

I understand you may desire to learn more about the internet from a few other “star” marketers and this is fine. The problem arises when you do not know when to stop. Focus on one or two marketers you deem valuable and unsubscribe from the rest. You will not miss anything. If these two people are good at what they do, they will give you all of the information you need.

If you spread yourself too thin with all of this information, not only will you get mentally overwhelmed, you will never follow through with even one method! These methods take time to work and they require your attention and focus. If you keep changing to others, you will never complete anything, which means you will never see true profits for your business. Dedicate only a small portion of your day to researching new trends and watch your patterns. Remember, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Don’t fall into the “hype”. Stay focused on the value you provide to your customers and everything else will fall into place.

The dynamics of a great article center on valuable content. In order to create content of value, when you…. write you must first think about your desire to help others. Too often, we sit down to create and our minds are focused on getting more traffic. Unfortunately, the resulting content will not be as effective as the latter. Your attitude will come out in the words so if you adjust your mind beforehand you will experience greater “clickthrough” rates to your website.

Once you are in the right frame of mind, construct a compelling title. Consider these two titles: “Build a Website from Scratch” or “3 Tips to Build a Killer Website from Scratch”. Which one would compel you to continue reading? Of course, the second would draw in more readers. Anything that adds to the title such as tips, how to or even a little controversy such as “The Idiot’s Guide to Building a Website from Scratch” will get the reader’s attention. Add your keywords in your title and remember to continue adding your keywords to the content. Do not spam. Two to three keywords per four hundred word article is acceptable. This will also grab the attention of the search engines.

Once you catch the reader’s eye with your title, make sure you follow through with the correct information. I can’t stress how important this point is! I see too many marketers create fantastic titles but never back it up with matching content. If you are advertising three tips to help people build websites, they better be there! A great title is nothing without great content.

Another great tip is to only give about 80% of your information and lead the reader to click on your links in the resource box. If you leave them hanging they will be anxious to know the rest and it will force them to click on your website link. Include a call to action at the end so they understand where they need to click to get the rest of the information.

These tips will increase your “clickthrough” rates and your traffic dramatically. Track your clicks and you will see the difference when you implement these small changes. Focus on value and helping others, while compelling them with great content and you will see a major difference in the growth of the traffic coming to your website.

OK here is the exercise, you will need an alarm clock, shower & towel. OK for all you people thinking dirty thoughts clean it up & stay focused, this is the cheapest most effective way to decide if you have “IT” basically what it takes…….

The key to this exercise is 100% honesty and accuracy to yourself and the task at hand. If you skip a day YOUR OUT, if you wake up late YOUR OUT, if you cheat YOUR OUT, if you give only 99% YOUR OUT. Again keep in mind this exercise is for your own good the only person that will know is YOU. This is where the Gap begins to substantially separate the successful entrepreneur and the unsuccessful entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur it’s the promises we keep to ourselves that no one knows about that make “THE” difference. Think about how many times you said, “next week I am going to work out”, “tomorrow I am going to start tracking all my expenses”, “I will clean the garage next Saturday”, “I am going to get my website cleaned up tomorrow”. The only difference between the successfully self employed & the not successful are the promises & commitments they make and keep to themselves!

READY HERE IT IS, PUT YOUR SEAT BELT ON…….

Its a SEVEN day exercise. Day 1 set your alarm for 4am wake up and be in the shower by 4:05am SHARP! Prior to getting in the shower put the water at it coldest setting, yes you read that correctly the water needs to be set at near freezing or as cold as it will go. Remember no cheating this is where the tendency to slip a little bit comes in…if so, ask yourself what that’s all about. Next proceed to step into the shower and notice how you do this. Do you step straight head first into the freezing cold water or do you stick your toe or hand in and “check the water” first. If so ask yourself what that is all about. Because I guarantee you… that is the exact same way you will handle your new business. Oh yeah the road I mentioned earlier with dead bodies “toe dippers” were numbered amongst the highest.

The next thing is probably the worst and most enduring. Time yourself and take a 5 minute shower….yes exactly 5 minutes to the exact second, NO MORE NO LESS. If you cut out and quit early you may need to ask yourself what that is all about. Are you going to quit your business when it gets hard and uncomfortable? Again notice how you take that shower, do you step under the water get wet and then step out to soap up & then jump back in to rinse off? If so…… this is exactly how you will handle your business, I promise…..

“HOW YOU DO ONE THING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING”

This exercise is allowing you to finally witness with your own eyes your conditioned naturally tendencies to life and decisions. Entrepreneurial ism is only going to magnify and compound those decisions however bad or good they are.

Last but not least… how do you leave the shower? Do you turn the water to hot and warm back up and get back into your “comfort zone”? If so….again this is exactly what you will do in real life. Things will get tough in your new business so you will “hang in there” and take your 5 minute shower to fix the problem but once you see the problem has been temporarily fixed you will return to your old ways that helped create those problems. The key to this exercise is to learn how to be uncomfortable and still function with clarity and fire to get the task at hand done and fixed permanently.

This exercise single handily changed my life. Many of the false self perceptions I had about myself became glaringly apparent and finally I was able to look at myself with 100% honesty and fix those limiting beliefs. From there I went on to start my own business and become one of the top producers in my field. This stuff really works….

Now this is much easier said than done, but if that becomes something you want to consider as a criteria for your future wealth building endeavors, then consider what is involved in finding a business that can deliver that as part of it’s structure.  Building a business in other countries is challenging to say the least.  The licensing costs in other countries can be astronomical and the political challenges can seem insurmountable. Then there are the issues concerning the importing of your companies products and the associated challenges politically and legally. Thus many young companies with visions of expanding into global businesses, encounter financial and leadership shortfalls that result in less than what they expected. Consider products and services that address a multitude of cultures and ethnicity’s.

If that is your desired outcome, then consider it from the start.  There are those companies out there who are all ready a global entity and have the licenses, the distribution channels, the comp-plan that is necessary for a successful global business.  While analyzing your prospective company’s product offerings, comp-plans, licensing, take it into consideration.  It is a lot easier to address it up front than to wait and find out later that ‘it’s in the works’.

If it is so difficult and challenging to a company to go global, then why would they want to risk what is necessary to make that move.  It seems evident by looking at those network marketing companies that have successfully navigated the move into a global business model that some cultures other than the U.S., have a different way of evaluating what network marketing offers the ‘ordinary man’.  Many times we introduce the concept of network marketing to individuals and we are met with skepticism and self-doubt in the U.S., because people won’t give it a chance or open their thinking to what it offers.  It appears that in some other cultures they seem to look at it as truly a way to change their lives and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.  Perhaps it’s because a couple of hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars a month will make a huge change in their lives where we in the U.S. are looking for an even bigger incentive and waiting for that ‘easy way’ to come along, unwilling to commit to doing whatever it takes to change our lives.

If you are going to be in the business of providing a product and service that would be acceptable to global cultures, think about the religious and social values of those countries as it relates to your product or service.  Is it going to meet those standards and guidelines that they expect for the indigenous people?

We now have the technology and tools to be able to conduct business globally from our laptops (Skype), to have continuous communication with global partners (texting, emails) and to provide information helpful and meaningful information on a continual basis (blogs, social networking.   But, one does not need to hop on a plane and fly over to another country and start knocking on doors.  But, it can be done and since the U.S. consists of a veritable “melting-pot” of ethnicity’s, why not look to build where your business license truly opens global portals.

One starts by developing relationships and building a network of people of all cultures and backgrounds.  By showing your U.S. based business partners that they can be part of something global and giving them the opportunity upon beginning their business to have a ’global license’ you’ve leveraged their chances of success beyond our U.S. economy with it’s unique challenges and stepped into a world-wide business opportunity.

Once you’ve provided your business partners with a company that has the vision, the financial base with a universal product and service, then you are own your way to becoming a true global business partner.

You can draw your own conclusion but I believe that the case is made that the amount of time we invest in our business will receive a great return on our investment if we can align ourselves with some type of business opportunity that is truly a global business model and that has already established itself to have succeeded at changing peoples lives on a global basis.