Ok, I'll give you a hint…"thin tactical websites verus strategic niche domination"

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It's all here in this short business building roadmap message…

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The question that was rattling around inside of his head (just a quick aside – when you are trying to figure out what is really bothering someone, it ususally comes out at the END of a conversation) was what distribution path should he take to bring his ebook to market.

In his mind, the traditional publishing market meant he should submit manuscripts to publishers, possibly seek out an agent and see if he can score a major publishing deal. 

Or, should be go right to Amazon Kindle and publish his book there?   Getting warmer…but he still wasn't getting it. 

You see, Seth Godin has it right in today's blog post – he talks about "non-linear consumption of content" meaning that the days of consuming a magazine, newspaper, television show, videos, etc…from start to finish are gone.  Where is the start and where is the finish when newspapers are online?  Where is the start and finish when your favorite TV shows are available on demand and more often now, as favorite video clips?

Absolutely, linear consumption is disappearing JUST as is linear business models and linear distribution models.

It used to be the only way to get a book to market was to get the attention of a mainstream publisher, pay them a whack of cash (via royalties) and then push hard to get your book front and center in the marketplace (retail)

But now, as consumers understand non-linear consumption, they go online and search for information and because distribution and business models are also going non-linear you can position your ebook to them from your own website, relevant blogs, articles – linking non-linear content to non-linear marketing and distribution – it really is a an entirely new ball game.

As Seth mentions – instead of riding the wave, you can now make the waves…so this really is your chance to step up, turn your information into useful content, attract attention and make money in the process.  Are you ready?

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This should be a reminder to every one of us in business that for our company to be exceptional we must be brilliant in ALL respects, leaving nothing out and not caving in to efficiency at the cost of losing a valuable customer:

• Understanding our customer and what they want
• Having passion for what we deliver to the market
• Have the vision and guts to create brilliant products
• Simple, fast and efficient distribution and delivery of products to our customers
• Fast, accurate and passionate support for our products once they are in our customer's hands

Now I have 5 Apple products myself and certainly I would consider the first 4 criteria met – even exceededing my expectatoins…but my experience today with Apple Canada support is what will stick in my mind next time I choose a product.

Here's the ugly summary…

1. Called Apple Canada support line to report a problem with my Apple 3GS iPhone (the ringer hasn't worked for days no matter what settings and software updates I use) – that's where the fun begins…
2. You are forced into an automated menu HELL (does anyone ever enjoy using these things – why do companies not know these systems elevate a customer's blood pressure by at least 10 points IMMEDIATELY!).  After several circles – and constant problems with the voice recognition technology I finally hit a dead-end where I was put through to customers support – Yay…on track to talk with a real person…or so I thought.
3. 20-minutes later I finally get a voice on the other end that asks me the product that I need support with – seriously! I just entered that into the automated menu hell from which I escaped.  I quickly said iPhone 3GS to which she quickly told me I had to be forwarded back through the cue to get to the right support person.
4. As I sit and write this I have been on hold another 25-minutes listening to music and the occasional notice that all Apple advisors are busy. 
5. At this point I'm afraid to leave to go to the bathroom…I may miss the advisor and have to start again. Don't they consider a person's bladder when they staff these support desks? 

Come on…I've had quicker response from government departments, what's up Apple?

The lesson for any of us starting and growing our businesses of course is to keep our eye on the complete cusomer life cycle — if a company as brilliant as Apple can let this kind of crap happen, chances are we have also let something slip on our business. 

Put yourself in the place of your customer and work through your various processes making sure that you are being brilliant in ALL aspects of your business…PLEASE!

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Many people guess it is one of:

• Put up a website
• Start a blog
• Develop a product
• Build a list
• Generate traffic
• Become an Amazon affiliate

Not quite, there is one FUNDAMENTAL step that has the most impact to how fast and how big your business will grow.

Step 1 – Know Your Market, Know Your Business!

It doesn't matter if you are hoping to sell affiliate products, produce your own infoproducts, generate advertising revenue or any other online business model, Step 1 should always be knowing who you are targeting and why matched with a solid value proposition that meets significant demand. 

All that you do to build your internet business should be based on who you serve (your target market) and what value you bring to your market in exchange for profit (your Unique Value as well as your method of monetization)

Let's look at these two factors more closely.

1. Know Your Market.  There are billions of people online performing Billions of searches viewing Billions of web pages and spending Billions of dollars…your ability to capture a portion of that activity, placing yourself between that customer and their e-commerce transaction has everything to do with how well you know and target them.  In the vast sea of websites, noise and legitimate competition you can rise to the top ONLY if you do a better job at knowing and targeting your prospects.  Inside InfoMarketer'sZone we spend the first 3-weeks of our 6 week InfoMarketing Profits Video training on uncovering and understanding markets online so that we can rise above our competition and WIN every time. 

2. Know Your Business. Once you know your market and understand what challenges, desires and problems they want to overcome, your next job is to know what value you will deliver to them and the business model that surrounds delivery of that value.  The real secret to making big money with your online business is understanding the emotional flow of e-commerce activity online (where it is now and where it will be tomorrow).  Once you understand that flow, you can better put your online business in front of that flow instantly racking up sales and profits that grow long-term. 

Before you build websites, start list building, blogging or affiliate marketing…make sure you know your market and know your business.

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More specifically, to be effective, you niche market must combine the following:

• Active buyers seeking to solve a problem/challenge or achieve a highly desired outcome/result in their life
• Buy multiple products, including high-end products to get the results they seek
• You identify "a way in" – that is you see a clear path to enter the market despite evidence that there are hundreds or thousands of other competitive products

Here's a great example of a top notch, proven niche market AND a new entry method that is gaining attention.

New York City author J C Davies – first time author of  "I Got the Fever: Love, What's Race Gotta Do With It?" lept into the highly competitive world of dating – one of the most lucrative niches in information publishing, but also one of the most challenging to enter due to the level of competitiveness. 

As is mentioned in this article, Davies has chosen to enter the competitive niche using a controversial method of discussing racial differences in dating. 

Risky yes, but really – when it comes to entering competitive niches thinking outside of the box in order to bring new light to traditional niches in a way that brings publicity and attention to your topic is not a bad approach.

How else might one enter the dating niche? 

• Same sex dating techniques
• Dating for 60+ seniors
• Dating guide for introverts
• Dating guide for divorcees

Each of these drills into a further sub-niche of dating (which in itself is a sub-niche of relationships) allowing laser focus on that particular subset of the market – in addition each of these topics brings with it a somewhat risky element whic his sure to get publicity and attract attention that you can use to market your product.

How can you sub-niche your topic and make it make it a more attractive attention grabber within your market?

Find the right combination and you can dominate large niche markets despite strong competition.

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When you start a business, you have an idea of who you are targeting, what that market wants and the messaging required to get that market to take an interest and buy what you are offering.

The smallest error in either your assumptions around market, their desires or their "hot buttons" can mean a massive difference in your sales, profits and future in your business.

So why are we so confident that WE know the market, what they want and how they want to hear about it?

TOUGH LESSONS LEARNED

When I first started my own information product business I wrote an ebook that bundled a ton of knowledge into a guidebook that helped others put together their own products highly focused on the creative process…but after several reviews and being hit over the head enough times I was told "You have one really GREAT chapter in your ebook which talks about packaging that information into info products so people can leverage their time & energy by packaging their knowledge for profit – why not just go with that?"

You have to understand, the entire book was my baby, I didn't WANT to give up the other chapters, but as time went on it became more obvious that I had to fit my knowledge to the market instead of the other way around.

SO…AFTER ALL, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK

Just this morning I was speaking to another marketer who had yet to learn the same lesson…

He mentioned how much he hated a certain subject line that marketers often use in broadcast emails out to their list, the subject line was "If you are reading this, chances are…"

The fact is there are many email subject lines that may personally dirve me nuts but one thing I've learned to do in marketing is to trust the results…

So, I would not dismiss using any email subject line unless a) It were obviously offensive or would hurt someone or b) Test results showed it was abismal in its response.

There are two aspects to email marketing that are important…

1. Getting people to open the email

2. Getting people to read and take action on your post

It may be that the subject line you mention will do neither OR it could be that it accomplishes both, do we really know?

If not, then I would be willing to test it with some solid content relevant to the post.

Look – if you have a list of 5000 people and what you are writing about is highly relevant to those people, AND the subject line "If you are reading this, chances are… gets them to open and read your email at a rate 1.5 times higher than other subject lines, would you still think it is stupid?

When it comes right down to it, there are two extremely important factors that will improve our business results:

1. Getting to know our market at a deeper and much more comprehensive level…who they are, what is causing them pain, what they badly want and why. The more we know about our market, the more we will be able to speak their language in terms of product offerings and marketing

2. Suspend disbelief long enough to test.  One thing I have learned in my decades creating information products and marketing is that more than half the time my gut is wrong…so it is much better for me to dig in and know more about my market and then suspend disbelief until I have tested. 

Could you have missed something in your product planning or marketing because of how YOU feel or beliefs YOU have instead of taking guidance from your market?  Leave us a comment, it may help others to expand their thinking and breakthrough current limitations.

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Do you have a clear picture of what success in your own online business would mean? 

Even more important, do you have a measure of success in the short-term (say 6-months out), medium term (1-2 years out) and longer term (3-5 years out?)

BUSINESS SUCCESS IS A MOVING TARGET

When I first speak with newbie internet marketers or infoproduct writers and publishers they have a goal of what they would like to be earning – for everyone there are different motivations behind these numbers, some have in mind paying off a mortgage or major debt while others want to replace a current job or career, still others have a big number in mind so they can secure their future years. 

Having long-term measures of success is a great thing – shooting to earn $100K with your own internet business to take the place of a current job is a terrific goal and could be quite realistic in a greater than 6-month scenario, but how do we stay motivated, focused and satisfied with our progress in the meantime?

UNDERSTANDING PROFIT…THEN GROWTH

When we start out, everything is on a small scale (unless we buy an existing business).

We have zero traffic, a brand new website, a new product, no or a very small following – sales will be non existent or at least very low.

In the first few months, as traffic builds, our sales process kicks in we can begin to make some early sales and draw some conclusions. 

Let's say your weekly sales have reached $300, and to get those sales you have spent $250 – that is a $50 profit. 

Not bad to start with, because we could scale this model and turn $600 in sales into $100 in profit, $1200 in sales into $200 profit – and so on…

The first important point in building a business  is that we have found a profitable system, we can work with that.  In the beginning, focus on profit NOT on sales

The differences between those people making $300 on $250 investment and those making $3000 o on a $1500 investment are…

1. They have tried more things and found the right combination that produces 50% profit instead of $15% profit

2. They would have started with little or no profit, but continued to change, test and improve their process to triple or even quadruple their profits

3. They have learned something about their market that is much more fundamental – what their market values most which allows them to make $10 for every $5 invested.

4. Having found a system or generating traffic, converting that traffic into profits and improving profit margin over time, they can now scale their business to continually increase sales monitoring profit to make sure it stays in an acceptable range.  This what takes a part-time internet business into a full-time enterprise. 

FAILING TO SUCCEED CANNOT BE AN OPTION

Too many times the people we work with have given up when they make their first loss, when their profits are not as high as they expect or when their business remains at a very low scale…they have NOT made failure painful enough.

Nothing will happen if you don't make NOT succeeding with your business more painful than succeeding.  It is not enough to say "I wish…I had my own business" or "I hate my job…" without constantly reminding yourself (each day) the implications of NOT succeeding with your internet business venture. 

If you are not absolutely convinced that you MUST succeed with all of your living matter…then you most probably will not.

People who try once or twice and then give up have not associated enough pain and unpleasantness with NOT succeeding, otherwise they would not have given up.

Look, we know that staying focused, keeping your faith, remaining motivated and working through challenges is not easy..if it was, there would be many more of us millionaires. 

A big part of why we made InfoMarketer'sZone so accessible was to not only provide a solid system, simple training and helpful tools for starting and growing your information product marketing busieness on the internet – it was also to provide a strong bridge over troubled dips in your motivation & belief. 

From initial planning through post-launch, we talk about what to expect when building a business, how to measure and examine your online business, how to interpret the results you are getting and how to really scale the more successful aspects of your business so you don't lose faith and you DO succeed where many others have given up. 

Now that is as close to guranteed business success as you are going to get! 

How do you see success in your business or business plans…and how will you know when you have reached your goals?  Let us know by clicking on the "Comment" bubble top right of this message and leaving us your comment.

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"Off-Ramp" Money Machines

It is sometimes confusing to understand how you convert a growing and loyal blog reader base into email list opt-ins where you can begin to push out information to them.

One of the best things about blogs are that, by nature, they put control of what content people want back in the hands of the reader because they "Pull" the content they want through RSS, links, etc…instead of content being "Pushed" at them through email marketing.

However,  at any given time there are a subset of your blog readers (anywhere from 10% all the way up above 50%) who do WANT great content and are more than willing to become an opt-in subscriber on one of your email lists to get that content. 

So, what is the best way to channel loyal blog readers into opt-in subscribers on the path to becoming paid customers?

OFF-RAMPS ON YOUR SUPERHIGHWAY

Try thinking of your blog as the super-highway where you draw thousands and thousands of interested readers each month and you have "off-ramps" where you branch out to collect opt-in subscribers.

Each one of these "off-ramps" is tied to an "automatic money machine" where you have tapped into a passionate desire to achieve outcomes to challenges or desires – the off-ramps take you on a busy street filled with content and multiple promotions that collect your subscribers money before they get back on the super-highway.

First – They Find You

Readers find your blogs by seeing a posting appear on the search engines when they search for information about your topic, or they see a link from another blog they read, or they find you through links from articles and other content around the net. 

If you blog regularly, you will notice your readers/visitors will grow large quickly – the challenge then becomes monetizing that content in a way that meets the desires and wants of your readers. 

Then – They Subscribe…

We do that through a concept of OFF-RAMPS – just as you would see on a super-highway.

For example, one general off-ramp would be a free-course, report or video you give away from the front of your blog – you have an opt-in form from a major autoresponder such as our favorite pick - Aweber, which takes your readers to the specialized content they are looking for. 

Another off-ramp – you could post to your blog part 1 of a video series where they click on your post to be taken to a page where they see part 1 but must opt-in to get part 2. 

You can offer a 1-time 10-page report on a tip, technique, strategy or case study you are offering and collect an opt-in on that.

Next…They Buy From You, Again and Again

Another idea for an off-ramp is to review a product (either your own or an affiliate product where you could earn a profit on sales).  For this type of off-ramp, you can either link directly to the affiliate product or – even better – start the review, then have them click to the "Full Review" which requires an opt-in.  Now you have a mailing list of high-demand subscribers who want to purchase products in different markets – these all become automatic money machines for you. 

HOW DO I COLLECT THE EMAILS AND MANAGE MY LIST?

I've been asked many times whether you should use a Wordpress plugin, script or form to collect and manage your subscribers who sign up on your blog to these "off-ramps" you create – my answer is…

 NO – you MUST use a strong auto-responder service.  The one we have used for years with a high degree of success and satisfaction is Aweber.  Do yourself a favor – get an account and begin building your off-ramps.

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Oddly enough, it took reading a recent interview with Malcolm Gladwell who has recently been on the interview circuit for his latest book "Outliers" to remind me of the important that persuasion and influence play in achieving anything within today's society – including business. 

The author of "Blink" has chosen to deal with much more politically charged topics in Outliers than books of the past – touching on the role of priviledge, IQ and tearing down the notion that there is anywhere close to a level playing field between poor, the wealthy, the smart and those with lower IQ. 

There is a lesson for any of us who write for a living – who produce training, information-based products – don't be afraid to be controversial, to deal with topics that ruffle a few feathers.  I'm not saying be controversial for the sake of being controversial, just to not shy away from the challenging issues and questions related to your topic.

ADVANCING YOUR CAUSE

One of the major statements Gladwell makes in the Macleans interview is the following:

"Being successful is all about whether you have the skills necessary to impose your will on the world. That’s really what class advantage is: being taught the skills necessary to make sense of institutions."

Is that really true?

I would argue this statement is fundamentally wrong – being successful is NOT about IMPOSING your will as much as it is about 1) Knowing what you want and 2) Learning how to influence and persuade others around to your point of view.

Barak Obama was tremendously successful in his bid to become President – would you say he imposed his will on the people – NO, he mastered the art of persuasion and influence.  How do you persuade or influence?

1) You are likeable – if people like you, they are more likely to do what you want

2) You use empathy – if they sense you know what they are feeling, they will be more apt to listen and follow

3) You do what you say and prove what you say is true…proof could be social proof (others support your view) quantitative proof or any other form of credibility enhancing proof points that gain trust

4) Consistency – we value consistency, if you are bouncing around all over the place, you will not be able to influence or persuade

Gladwell is correct in saying that people who are priviledged enough to be around such influence at an early age will have an advantage, I'm not sure that is always the most wealthy, strongest, most prestigious people in society – but there is likely a correlation between status and the ability to persuade. 

Regardless, if one can master the two critical pillars of achievement being 1) Knowing what you want and 2) Mastering persuasion and influencing skills, there is no reason to believe they cannot elevate themselves from any starting place in life.

What do you think?

Jeff

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When you choose to start your own business, the potential for procrastination is very high since you are entering a new area with equal amounts of excitement and sheer terror! 

There are many risks that underly the rewards – you could lose money, look bad to those around you, miss out on living out a long held dream, hurt those around you, so much to ponder, the reasons for procrastination is extremely high.

Once you get started with your online business, there are up-front strategic decisions on market and positioning, technical decisions to be made – again the procrastination anxiety can be quite high.

Info product publishers – developing content for your info products is a common area where you get caught in the trap of procrastination never seeming to finish projects. 

So what to do?

Here's an excellent 6-part method for using positive affirmations to beat back procrastination – turn your objectives for your online business into daily affirmations using this system and you can truly make procrastination a concern of the past. 

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