Well, it has been a little longer than usual since I posted on this blog and for those of you who visit regularly, I apologize for the break.
However, I am happy to say that, although I almost gave up on this project – the fact is I am back and so, I haven’t given up.

So firstly, back to something I wrote in one of the earlier mindset posts:

Never, ever, ever give up! (top 10 qualities of successful entrepreneurs)

Roadblock

There is no such thing as an overnight success!

As I listen to the stories of the successful internet marketers that I admire, I am struck by the similarity in their stories. There is always a big reason why they have pursued the internet marketing dream. Also, they had to experience a lot of failure before they achieved success. For most of them, the road to success was neither short nor easy and there were many obstacles that needed to be manoeuvred past along the way. Most of the successful internet marketers spent at least a couple of years honing their craft.

I have found, this week, that when I became discouraged about my lack of progress both on this blog and on other projects that I have been working on, it is good to stop and listen to the experience of others.

I visit the blogs of James Schramko, Yaro Starak and John Carlton fairly regularly to get an information fix but when I need some encouragement to stick with it and keep going there is nothing better than listening to the story of a successful, internet entrepreneur and how they got started. When you listen to story like this it makes you realize that their success didn’t happen overnight. It did not happen easily and they faced as many obstacles as I am facing right now. The reason that they are able to tell their story and that many people listen to them (and buy their stuff) is because they didn’t give up.

As I learn more about internet marketing and the things that need to be done to bring traffic to a website I have realized that although most of the work is not hard to do – it takes a lot of time and is definitely not that exciting!

One of the many ways to get traffic to your site is to develop backlinks. There are many ways to do this and I will go into this in further detail when I get to the traffic posts. But the fact is, to get traffic to a website you need to complete many small repetitive, time-consuming tasks on a regular, consistent basis. For me, I have two problems with this – one I get bored easily and I don’t like doing repetitive, boring, time-consuming tasks. I decided to pursue internet marketing because I am interested in giving myself more time to do the things I enjoy doing, not to give myself an extra job which is more tedious than the one I already do!

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When you start out on your internet marketing journey there are many mistakes to make and if you find someone whose information you trust then you may be able to learn how to avoid some critical internet marketing newbie mistakes as well. Subscribe to my internet marketing newbie top 10 mistakes to avoid report for some of the most common mistakes to avoid.

Internet Marketing Mistake

If I can offer some advice on making mistakes it is this: make as many mistakes as you can as fast as you can. You will not become a successful internet entrepreneur without making mistakes so make them early when the impact on your bottom line will be less.

This a mistake that I relate from personal experience that did NOT make it onto the report above (maybe I shouldn’t have stopped at 10!)

Backup is Critical!

Imagine that you have been busy working away at your internet marketing business for a few months and have quite a few projects on the go, when one morning you wake up and go to your computer to check your email. You gently nudge the mouse to wake up your computer and nothing happens (a bit like trying to wake up your teenager for school). Another nudge, this time a bit more forcefully and still nothing. You check that the power to the computer is on and try again – still nothing. It’s time to try rebooting – it takes forever and a few worrying messages are displayed then it gets stuck halfway through the reboot.

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So by now you should have quite a few ideas for different niches that you want to promote products in. Before you start looking for a specific product in your chosen niche it is wise to make sure that you have chosen a niche that has commercial opportunities.

Product Test No. 1

Does it solve a problem?

If your product/niche solves a problem for your potential client then you are much more likely to find people willing to spend money on your product. Examples of products that solve a problem:

Learn how to lose weight fast
How to give up smoking effortlessly
How to stop your baby crying and get a good nights sleep

Look out for words or phrases that signal a person would like to buy a product or service. Things like: how to, stop, get, buy, learn, order. If you include these kinds of words on your webpage then you are more likely to attract people who intend to spend money rather than those looking for freebies.

Product Test No. 2

Is it already selling?

To find out if there already is a market for the product that you wish to sell then you need to see if other people are already selling it.

Type your product into the Google search engine and see if there are any paid ads. The paid ads are usually the first couple of listings on the left hand column and all of the listings down the right hand side of the Google search results page.

If other people are willing to spend money on PPC in that market they must be making money! If there are pages and pages of PPC ads then you may have found a very competitive market and it might be a good idea to start with something less competitive. Either choose a new niche or become more specific within the niche that you have chosen. Read more »

As a result of an amazing training seminar that I attended last weekend I have had a complete shift in my attitude to my Internet Marketing Business.

Let me tell you a little about the training before I tell you how things are going to change…

Play to Win  – Frontier Trainings

The 3 day seminar that I attended last week end is called Play to Win. It is presented by Frontier Trainings and the dynamic founder and lead trainer of Frontier Trainings, Clinton Swaine. Play to Win is a personal development and leadership training unlike anything I have experienced before. All the lessons are learned through a carefully crafted set of games that included all of the participants in the room (last weekend there were about 120 participants). There are games that concentrate on team building while others focus on presentation skills. The atmosphere in the seminar room is often very intense which makes the lessons learned that much more powerful!

I’m extremely glad that I was able to experience the first Aussie Play to Win - I know that there will be many more. I learned much about myself at this training and most importantly it has really taught me that in order to succeed I need to play a much bigger game. This applies to my whole life and also to my Internet Marketing Business. I plan to implement a set of new strategies that now seem easily attainable because of my new millionaire mindset.

Internet Marketing Tool

As I take a look at what I have been doing over the last few months with regards to my Internet Marketing Business, I realize that whilst I have gained many essential skills, I have been playing a very small game. This small game is reflected by my small results. I have not been treating Internet Marketing as a business but rather as a hobby. I have not been willing to invest too much capital but this is completely the wrong approach. My motivation for starting an Internet Marketing Business was to free up my time to spend it doing more of the things I enjoy. But when I look over the last couple of months I have been spending way too much time on things that I don’t enjoy. Things that I could easily pay some-one else to do for me.

So now, in public, I commit to playing a much bigger game in Internet Marketing!

To become a successful internet entrepreneur I am going to concentrate on the things that I enjoy doing and outsource the things that are time consuming. I also find that the things that I don’t enjoy doing take me much longer to start – procrastination is the enemy here. Another of my mentors Raymond Aaron says that to deal with procrastination all you have to do is offload the tasks that you procrastinate to other people. This sounds like advice I should have listened to the first time I heard it.

So now that I have declared my intentions I want you to think about yours. You have obviously found this blog because you are looking for information about how to start making money on line.

Are you looking for a new hobby or do you truly want to succeed online?

Are you playing a big or small game?

Are you Playing to Win?

This is the most important thing you will ever read about affiliate marketing –

Before you choose the product that you want to sell make sure that there are people out there who want to buy it.

There is no point in spending time and money trying to sell something that seems like a good idea to you but that no-one else can see the need for. This seems extremely obvious but many internet marketing newbies and even those that are moderately successful will tell you at one time or another that they too have fallen into the trap of trying to sell or promote something that nobody wants. It’s even worse when you spend a lot of time creating and developing a product without first checking that there is a market out there.

Niche Marketing

The next thing that you want to consider when choosing the product that you want to promote is how much competition there is. Some of the most profitable markets on the internet are related to health, wealth and happiness but these are the most competitive as well. If you choose a market with a large amount of competition it will take much longer for you to get a result. Whilst you are learning I suggest that you pick a less competitive market so that you have small successes before you get discouraged. The major reason that people don’t succeed in internet marketing is that they give up way too early.If you pick a smaller goal to begin with you will have small successes and this will encourage you to keep going. If your target is too large to begin with then you may not have enough determination and persistence to keep going. Set yourself up for success rather than failure by using effective strategies. Read more »