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.

I get his point, however, which is that you should always maintain and actually nurture your network of friends and associates. That includes professionals in all fields. Harvey Mackay, bestselling author, tells how his dad had shared that same counsel with him and it made a world of difference as he entered the world of business and publishing. You never know when you might come across a situation in your life or your business that you would need the expertise of one of your former colleagues or associates. If you strive to keep in touch frequently with your network of friends, it could save you time and a lot of headache in trying to locate a former associate or to rekindle a friendship.

Harvey said he followed his dad’s advice and it paid off as he needed to get financing and help for his business and because he had kept those networks active and nurtured them, he was able to get the financial support he needed. But, they key was that he wasn’t building these relationships for him to merely have people to use, but he adopted the philosophy of reciprocating as much as possible and helping others before he felt he might even need their help. Hence, he was digging the well before he needed it and that is the message that he continues to teach, thus, dig your well before you are thirsty.