While wandering about dodging the hordes following their usual frantic Saturday routine (and wondering why I was joining in…), I thought I’d show you a place that is quite close to my heart in many ways, the weekly Farmers Market here in the city of Bath.
You see it was here in 2005 that my wife Licia and I started our journey – with much uncertainty and a fair few nerves – along the road to running our first ever business. My Italian wife Licia was an ‘aspiring’ chef at the time and she wanted to try her hand at selling her home-produced, Italian-inspired food.
Needless to say, she was a great success at the Farmers Market, which then led us on to setting up our very first cafe/deli also in Bath. The point I want to underline, however, is just how much HARD WORK was involved for very little relative reward.
My business partner Daniel likes to compare what he can earn now online to his ‘pizza days’, when he would work a full day for Dominos with only £50 to show at the end of the day for his time and labour.
For us, working on the market felt a bit like working 2 or 3 pizza days to perhaps earn a ‘net’ £50 profit. The hours were long, often all-night leading up to Saturday, and of course there was a lot of shifting and carrying of tables, fridges (yes, we were crazy…) and other equipment as well as the food itself.
I will always remember coming back home about 2pm on Saturday after the market was finished, eating (very good), counting the takings (even better) and then sleeping for hours to recover. So much for a relaxing day off (I was working my corporate job Monday-Friday, of course…)
What a contrast, then to the world I now inhabit. That is, full-time internet marketer, teaching people the very best knowledge, information and tips I learn as my journey develops. Although we’ve just started to produce physical products (a monthly newsletter, audio CD and data DVD) for the members of ‘Your Internet Buddies’, its still a world away from the production of low-cost, perishable produce. At least our CDs don’t have expiry dates on them…
In my corporate job, selling specialist software solutions to schools to help children with their learning, many of my colleagues had to sell physical products like computers or networks. Now, although there was no expiry on these either, the profit margins were thin to non-existent. And a Million-pound order isn’t very cool if your overall production costs are £1,000,001…
In contrast, selling software was much like selling information products. The cost of production is low, but the sale price can still be high, therefore with MUCH higher profit margins.
However, software is complex to produce, and has implications for technical supports and updates, so the clear winner of the three businesses, for me, is to package and sell ‘information’.
Information is a strange commodity. It can vary in price from free to multiple millions, and can be presented and shared in many different formats and situations. For example, a $17 ebook can have the EXACT same information as a $97 DVD, or a $497 seminar.
Unlike many other markets, however, the demand for information is only INCREASING each day. We live today in a specialized world of micro-niches, with a million TV channels rather than just 3 (yes, I’m old enough to remember that…), and that’s because technology has made things a lot cheaper, simpler and faster to deliver ‘tailored’ information that cater for people’s specific needs.
The internet offers us endless virtual real estate to create publishing empires and all for free or insanely low-cost (who would have ever imagined that I could publish a video, with an article, to a worldwide audience, all for the cost of some shared web-hosting…).
Internet search engines like Google allow us to get ‘inside the mind’ of someone surfing the web, and actually present our opportunity ONLY to those people who have clearly expressed their interest in the same thing. The potential is mind-boggling…
What strikes me most, however, is when I see people of all ages, even octogenarians, actually learning the basic skills of writing a blog, creating an ebook or even recording a video, and then promoting their website to prospective customers via Google Adwords. They can do this, and do it well, because the basic skills of internet marketing are… shock.. really very SIMPLE! Anyone who routinely uses email can learn pretty quickly how to get a blog set up – and even create a video on YouTube…
Obviously, there real learning occurs if you’ve never run any kind of business before, or had any experience of the world of ‘profit and loss’. If you have, you’re already several steps ahead of the rest, otherwise be prepared to learn from people with experience, who you know, like and trust. I can promise you that working this stuff out on your own is not so much fun. Yes, I’ve been there…
So, if you’re interested to learn more about how YOU could transform your passions and knowledge into profit online, and you’re the kind of person who likes to learn face-to-face, or as part of a group dynamic, then Daniel and I are putting on a very special one-day event in London on February 13th called R.I.O.T 2010 – (R.I.O.T = Recurring Income Online today)
Basically, one member of the audience, picked at random, will have a group of Internet Marketing experts literally BUILD them an online business on the SAME day! We’re going to demonstrate just how literally anyone can get started online – and fast…
When we ran a similar workshop last summer, we took one young student’s idea about creating a fashion tips business, created a site and a product for her, and drive traffic to the site, even making a sale on the same day!
Even if you’re not the lucky person who gets their business built in a day, however, you’ll still get a first-hand chance to learn all the steps of the process, so you can do it for yourself.
So, if you’d like to find out more about RIOT2010 – and also secure some highly-discounted early-bird seats before they sell-out, then check out our special PREVIEW webinar at http://YourInternetBuddies.com/webinar and find out all about it…
But whether we meet there on the day or not, be sure you ask yourself one question… Is your income currently generated ‘pizza-day’ style?
And if so, do you really want to ignore the income-potential generated by a world-wide, 24/7, Internet Marketing business?
Filed under Blog, Events, Niche Marketing, video by on Jan 23rd, 2010. Comment. 
What’s the one thing you MUST avoid doing in 2010… and why?
Well, watch this short video below to find out…
Filed under Blog, Mindset by on Jan 2nd, 2010. 2 Comments.
Yes, its almost that time of year again…
But this year, before the Christmas rush and New Year mayhem is upon us, I thought I’d share a brief reflection on what 2009 has meant for me.
Have you done the same yet…?
In this short video I share with you:
- The most significant event that happened to me this year, and in fact, in the last decade.
- Why giving up one specific thing has made me REALLY happy (and NO… its definitely NOT what you think!)
- Why the one goal I’ve now achieved can literally happen to anyone… (with NO special skills required)
Here’s a thought we should all bear in mind as the new year approaches.
2010 can be a year of media-induced misery and financial disaster (if you let it) …
OR…
You can shape your destiny – whatever it may look like – by learning and applying some simple skills to add a few extra thousand each month and living the ‘internet lifestyle.’
One thing’s for sure, the choice is ALWAYS yours… because this opportunity truly is open to everyone.
Filed under Blog, Internet Lifestyle, video by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
Tiger Woods has for a long time been a real hero of mine, probably right at the top of pile of heros, in fact, until finally discovering Jim Rohn (RIP).
So recent events have only proven to me, once again, one of the immutable laws of the universe, that is… nobody is perfect.
It may seem simple or mundane to state, but its a reality that so many of us try to ignore and hide away when we interact with customers, colleagues, friends and family.
Why…?
The fact is that by admitting our failures, weaknesses and inadequacies we will appear far more human, down-to-earth and approachable for everyone, especially our customers or fans (in the case of Tiger).
In copywriting there is a much-used term known as a ‘damaging admission‘. Damaging admissions are where you admit a weakness, a flaw, a failing or some past mistake that makes you appear human to the eyes of the reader.
When people see that you’re a real person, with real flaws and who makes mistakes, they will immediately me much more able to identify themselves with you. This helps to build the ‘know, like trust’ factor which is essential before they will start a buying relationship with you or your business.
So, what was Tiger’s real mistake?
Simply, just a failure to admit straight away that he, like the rest of the 6 billion plus people in the world, quite simply is just… not perfect.
Make sure you don’t make the same mistake in your marketing as well.
Filed under Marketing, Strategy by on Dec 14th, 2009. Comment.
Footage from Daniel Wagner’s last-ever 3-day hands-on Workshop in London.
Filed under Blog, Events by on Nov 1st, 2009.
This is a guest post from Daniel Wagner of DanielWagner.com [by the way... he's also the laid-back guy on the left hand side of our brand new website banner...]
Whether you have 300 people on your list or 30,000, surveys are an incredible tool to find out what it is that your subscribers are exactly after.
This is very powerful as you can use this information to create more targeted products for your audience. You can’t get more targeted then to ask somebody exactly what they want, and then sell it to them.
What you will do is create a survey and through that you will ask your list a series of multiple-choice questions.
Now creating a survey is very easy. I use a company called Survey Monkey. All you do is choose the design and create the questions and they collate the responses, give you the most popular answers and essentially tell you what it is that your list wants, according to the answers they have selected.
At the time of this writing, SurveyMonkey charge around $19.95/month …but what I usually do is pay for one month, gather the responses and then cancel the following month. (Remember, you just want the data).
I usually create around 10-12 multiple choice questions. The questions you should ask really depend on the market or niche you’re in.
For example, I’m in the songwriting niche. I’d like to ask my list questions like:
• How old are you? (it’s good to know if you have more children or adults on your list)
• Are you working or a student? (this gives me an idea as to if they have any money to spend, and can help determine a price point for a current or future product)
• Are you serious about songwriting? (gives me an indication as to if it’s a hobby or a passion)
• Which instrument do you play? (perhaps I can send out a product offer relating to that particular instrument)
You can see how this information is very powerful as your subscribers are literally telling you what they want!
When you have all their responses (usually it takes around a few days depending on the size of your list) you can then create a product, such as an ebook, an audio item or a video course. Or you could even find and promote an affiliate product that suits their needs.
Creating Surveys To Make Money Almost Instantly
Here is a method that will make you money pretty much straight away – again, as long as you have a list of some sort. Of course the more subscribers the better, but in reality you can do this with even a small list and you should get a good response.
I always advise my students that they should create products and/or services based around the answers they receive from their lists. But you can actually make money with surveys as soon as the subscriber completes the survey!
So here how it goes:
• You send out an email to your list asking them to complete the survey
• They go though the survey and complete it as you requested
• They click a link at the bottom of the email to upon finishing it, and this link redirects them to a page where you sell a product (either your own or an affiliate product relating to the survey that you’ve created).
This works VERY well.
There is a strange hidden psychological trigger that occurs when you fill out a survey. If you think about it carefully, if YOU filled out a survey that agitated the problems in your mind, and then you were presented with a product that contained the solutions straight after, wouldn’t you be more inclined to buy it? Of course you would.
This works especially well if you have you own a digital product, and you offer the product at half price straight after they have completed the survey. The way you do this, is you tell them that the half-price offer is a way of saying ‘thank you’ for completing the survey and that the offer will be pulled down within 48 hours.
With this tactic you are doing two things. One, you are showing reciprocity. You ask them for a favour (i.e. completing the short survey), they complete it, you then say ‘thank you’. Believe it or not, when you say ‘thank you’, you are looking like a humble and trusted advisor.
Two, you are creating scarcity. When you go to the shops and they are selling “62 inch plasma televisions for £100 for only 4 more days”, you will probably rush off your feet and grab one while you can.
The same thing applies for your product online. If you specify a ‘cut-off’ time for your offer, you will greatly increase your conversions.
You should try to get into the habit of surveying your list every 3 – 4 months. You will not only keep abreast of their needs, but you will also make some cash in the process.
Filed under Niche Marketing by on Sep 22nd, 2009. Comment.
Video is probably the highest-value and highest-impact content you can create. There are a number of different types of devices you can use to record your own video.
Here are the ones I use and recommend:
Webcams
Webcams are excellent, good-value devices for recording video via your PC or Mac. Most PCs nowadays have basic webcams built-in.
For example, this means you can login directly to YouTube and create videos using the ‘Quick Capture’ option
Logitech Pro 9000
If you want to record higher quality video via a webcam, however, you need to use a more sophisticated device. The most widely recommended ‘professional’ webcam I’ve seen recommended and used personally is the Logitech Pro 9000 (£50). This webcam records video at a resolution of 2MB so the quality of your ‘talking head’ video will be much higher than most basic laptop webcams.
Mobile Video
Webcams are fine if you’re sat in front of your computer, but obviously that format has some limitations. You can’t exactly record outside, for example, or when you’re networking at events.
The new kid on the block, however, for recording videos is undoubtedly the new generation of high quality mobile video recording devices. While many mobile phones can now record video, the quality is still generally poor, plus its generally not that easy to take the video that you’ve recorded on the phone and do something useful with it – like upload it to YouTube and put it on your website.
There are now a number of different mobile video cameras, but there is undoubtedly only one major player…
Flip Video Cameras
The Flip camera is probably the hottest gadget of the last 12 months (after the iphone). You know when something is a phenomenon when people refer to it to describe a category of product.
‘Flip’ video cameras are mobile-phone sized devices that are really simple to use. There are only a few buttons to press… record / stop /playback / delete is about all. Simplicity and ease-of-use is paramount, and much like the iphone, the combination of simplicity and quality output has created some raving fans – including me…
Its called ‘flip’ because when you’ve recorded a video and you want to upload it to your PC or Mac, you simply ‘flip’ open a little USB connector that simply connects to your computer.
What’s more, when you attach the Flip Video to your computer, the camera automatically starts up its own software that quickly and easily allows you to upload your videos to YouTube, or download them to your machine and edit them if you prefer.
There are three types of Flip Video, the Ultra (£80), the Mino (now reduced to £95) and the Mino HD (£170). The main difference between the first two and the last is that the Mino HD records video in amazing High Definition. You can now even watch videos on YouTube in HD mode, and the quality is amazing.
The non-HD Ultra, however, despite being half the price can still produce more than impressive results, and for just £80 its a great. If you’re on a budget, however, the new reduced price Mino (non-HD version) is probably the best deal, as its a smaller, sleeker version of the original Ultra.
I personally use the Mino HD, however, and if you’d like to see examples of my videos check out my YouTube Channel and or my blog.
There are other brands of ‘flip’ video from manufacturers like Kodak ZX1 (£136). However, from the reviews I’ve read the quality of these don’t quite match the original Flip Videos – hence I’d recommend sticking with the original Flip brand itself.
The lesson is this… creating video content has never been as simple or as cost-effective… and creating video products or even your own TV channel is now within reach of anyone. Are you going to take advantage of this opportunity for your internet business?
Filed under Gadgets, video by on Jun 4th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Yesterday I spoke with Wendy Dashwood-Quick, a qualified coach and soon-to-be published author, about her experience using a diverse range of tools and strategies to promote her coaching business.
Wendy has successfully used a variety of methods to help build trust and rapport with potential clients, as well as to firmly establish her expertise as a coach in the areas of career change, time management and self-confidence.
During the call Wendy talks about her strategy of using free reports and ebooks to give away in return for building a list of names and email addresses of potential coaching clients.
This has led to her current project, the launch of her first ever published book, called “Discover Yourself On The Yellow Brick Road – 7 Core Principles of Career Success“.
Interestingly, Wendy is employing cutting-edge tactics to help ensure her book on its launch day has the best chance of going straight into the Amazon Top 100 sellers list. Wendy reveals the details of some of the best ways you can effectively motivate people to buy your product within a short period of time and create maximum publicity and impact for your launch.
Wendy is also making great use of the free social media tools available to any coach or business owner who would like to promote their product or service. These social media (or web 2.0) tools, include Facebook, Twitter and the use of blogging – and the impact they can have on the success of your business is considerable.
So enjoy this interview, and if you have any questions about how you can use the internet to market your product or service, feel free to contact me for a free consultation.
Interview with Wendy Dashwood-Quick
Filed under Book Publishing, Podcast, Social Media by on Jun 2nd, 2009. Comment.
I had a great conversation with Sports Success Consultant Jonathan Griffin this week, after he contacted me and asked to take me up on my free 30m telephone consultation call offer.
Before Jonathan saw me speak at the recent Coaches and Consultants Superconference, he was pretty-well confused about web sites. He wasn’t sure what his website should look like, nor more importantly how to get one created without spending thousands and thousands with predatory web design companies…
After watching my presentation about just how straightforward it can be to set up a proper-looking, ‘normal’ website using inexpensive easy-to-use blogging software like Wordpress, he immediately took action. Within a few days he’d registered his own domain – www.jonathangriffin.co.uk – got his own low-cost hosting account, installed a copy of Wordpress and instantly his website was live!
Although Wordpress is designed primarily as blogging software, its also immensely flexible and can easily be used as a ‘content management system’ i.e. a means to create and edit basic pages on your website. For example, I used Wordpress to create a website for a local Osteopath client of mine, even though it doesn’t have a blog at all. But now at least the Clinic owner and all the practitioners can edit and update their pages themselves without having to pay the web designer they had to previously.
During our call, I was able to give Jon some further pointers about where to find the best Wordpress themes, what some of the key plugins are you need to allow you to track your website visitor statistics, easily embed videos onto your pages, and ensure that all your pages are naturally optimized to rank well in Google search engines.
We also discussed the vital importance of building an email list via an opt-in page and again, I gave Jon some useful resources to use to kick-start his new coaching business.
So, if you’re a coach or consultant who currently either don’t have a website at all, or have one that your not happy with and would like to change or at least take control of, then you too need to contact me and request a *free* 30m telephone consultation.
Because my time is limited, however, so are the number of spots available, and these will be filled strictly on a first-come first-serve basis. So, don’t delay, and I look forward to also getting you ‘unstuck’ with your website soon.
Filed under Websites, video by on May 15th, 2009. Comment.
On Sunday I had the opportunity to talk to a group of about 40 Coaches at the Coaching and Consultants Superconference in London.
Although it was the first time I’d spoken in public to such a group, the subject of my presentation was one that has long been dear to my heart. That is… helping coaches and small business owners (or ’solopreneurs’ as they say stateside) to create websites that are simple-to-use, yet immensely powerful business marketing machines.
I started the presentation by asking the audience where they were at currently in using the web. Although it wasn’t a surprise, I was still amazed that about 40% of the audience admitted that they still didn’t have any kind of website at all. As a service provider in today’s economy, how much longer do you think you can survive without at least some kind of professional-looking brochure website?
I asked the audience to contribute some of the greatest problems and pains they’re currently experiencing with their websites. There was no shortage of suggestions and they covered the full spectrum including:
- How to get traffic
- How to easily edit their website and therefore feel in control
- How to use email marketing effectively
- How to create squeeze pages that will help build targeted lists of followers
- How to easily add audio and video files to a website
and more besides…
I then started to tell my story of being a naive new business-owner some three years ago, in partnership with my wife, and how we made bad decision after bad decision, wasting thousands of pounds on a website that became out-of-date in a few months and had to be written-off completely.
Fortunately, I subsequently discovered the power, ease-of-use and flexibility of blogs, and Wordpress in particular, from which point I never looked back. Soon I had the full functionality of a multi-page ‘company brochure’-type website.
Our new site not only reflected the professional nature of our business – an Italian delicatessen in Bath – but my wife and I soon discovered the marketing muscle you will develop by regularly publishing high-quality articles to your very own blog.
My wife Licia’s story is an amazing one. In short, thanks to the recipes, stories and photos that she’d published on our blog/website, she was invited to be a guest-expert by the top UK national food magazine ‘Olive’.
Not long after she was invited to appear on a high-profile National UK TV show called ‘Cooking The Books‘. On this TV Show Licia was the ‘expert’ who had to judge the winner out of the two celebrity chefs that were competing to create the best dish during the program!
The point here is this. That if you publish quality information to a blog about your subject of expertise – whatever that may be – then you will…
- Build a following of people who interested in and like you.
- Become a recognized expert inyour niche – similar to being a published author.
- Increase your core knowledge and expertise thanks to the reflections you are making on your work in public. You will also become better at explaining and teaching these concepts to other people.
All three happened to my wife, but are also entirely relevant if you are a coach or consultant wanting to become better-known and achieve greater authority in your niche. And if you don’t have a niche, well, that’s the place to start…
In addition to creating easy-to edit brochure websites and the power of blogging, I went on to discuss putting audio and video on your website, creating squeeze pages, writing sales letters and how email marketing is one of the most important tools you need to drive traffic to your website and build your audience of loyal followers.
There was even time for a public demonstration of my new product – the Coaches Squeeze Page Creator…
Look out soon for a forthcoming free report based on this presentation that will detail the “7 Killer Website
Strategies To Kick-Start Your Coaching Business In 60 Days Or Less!”
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