So many people considering starting their own online business, on the one hand are scared shitless by the seemingly massive undertaking of starting something brand new, from scratch but at the same time are so afraid of being taken advantage of they question the need to invest in any training to get help with their plan to create a web business and do so through internet marketing. 

Often, this results in a plan to "go it alone…" – perhaps seek some free advice online and charge into starting your own business – how hard can it be anyway?

Starting An Online Business Without Being Trained Is CRAZY!

Look, running a business (online or offline) is not rocket science, but at the same time it is not the same as getting a job a McDonalds flipping burgers…(where by the way you still need to go through fairly extensive training).

Putting matters into perspective, consider these questions:

Do businesses hire $100,000+/year employees that have no training, knowledge or experience off the street? 

If you want to become a fitness instructor, dentist, doctor, broadcast professional, etc…etc…etc… what would you expect to pay to be trained?   I'm guessing it is anywhere from a few thousand dollars upward – sometimes much more. 

Growing a real business (even if it is 100% based on Internet Marketing) is no different…people who don't learn the fundamentals are typically out of business very quickly.

Internet Businesses Fail Because…

If anything, people do not take their IM business seriously enough or get properly trained on business and marketing fundamentals.

Those who consider heading into the land of starting their own business and building it through internet marketing without investing in basic training are almost sure to either fail or experience a hobby-like income (a few hundred bucks a month).

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying people whould recklessly spend their money on training – but carefully learn the fundamentals of market research, business value, product creation/licensing and of course, marketing and communication. Also, learning something about leadership and managing other people is critical too as any business at some point is going to require managing people (contractors, VA's, temps, employees, partners, etc…)

Sure, I understand – there are many snake oil salesman in the land of business and internet mraketing training – and you don't want to be their next victim!

At the same time, coming to the conclusion that you don't need to be trained shows me that you don't take your own business seriously enough…and at least partially explains the high failure rate of new businesses (over 80% )

Now, the middle ground of using free resources to learn your chops, not a bad plan and like most other things, the answers are most likely out there…but there are 4 downsides to simply going with finding free tips, techniques and strategies:

1.  Who do you believe – having to vet every single tip, technique or strategy from different sources is time consuming in iteself

2. Do you have the time to chase down all of this material each time you want it?  Is this really the best use of your limited time and energy or could you be making much more money by executing on the knowledge rather than searching for it

3. Can you make sense of it all?  Our brains think sequentially (at least most of us do), so first we need a plan (step1, step2, step3…and then we need to understand information in context with that plan – with widespread free information we don't get that context which makes learning much more difficult)

4. Where do you go when you have a question or need support?  Sure, any given tip, technique or strategy may be 80% useful to you and your business, but what about the 20% that is required for YOU to adapt it to your plan or business?  Free often doesn't come with support, coaching, or explanation and that will hold you back. 

We have coached over 1000 people through the Internet Marketing resource site InfoMarketer'sZone and focus entirely on making advanced tips, techniques and strategies available in a simple, organized way at very affordable prices so that entrepreneurs can get their internet businesses up and running the right way from the start. 

The difference in results is night and day…whatever training you opt for, please don't become so frustrated or jaded to give up your education altogether, there are great programs and information available and we want to see you succeed!

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Without a doubt the most important element to how much profit you make on the internet and how easy it is to attract traffic and customers who pay for what you offer is understanding what it means to find niche markets.

Knowing how to find profitable niche ideas means:

• You will naturally (without even trying) attract a storm of traffic and eager buyers without having to "sell" or "market" your product to an audience that just doesn't seem to be listening or responsive
• Customers, partners, publicity and profit comes to YOU instead of you scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to pay your monthly expenses
• There will be an endless number of niche product ideas and opportunities because there are millions and millions of people that want more and more information about how to achieve their desires or overcome their challenges
• Business is FUN and exciting because customers like you…they are looking for you…and appreciate that you understand them and offer them the niche content and niche products they are looking for

And…the coolest thing of all is that the internet makes niche research so fast and simple, watch this video as we show you IN DETAIL a free way to find niche markets that are RED hot with existing buying activity…

Do you have a niche market, idea or topic you are thinking of turning into a website, business or product that you want to ask about or a question about finding niche markets – post a comment, lets hear from you.

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They follow roughly the same formula…

1. They give you an initial email telling you something is coming
2. They begin to give away lots of content – videos, reports and email content
3. In the background they put together a high-priced product usually in the range of $297 to upwards of $10,000 and they attract a group of hungry affiliates and JV partners
4. Finally, they turn up the heat and orchestrate a massive email campaign to existing and partner niches culminating in 5-figure and 6-figure payouts…

But the question is WHY do they continue to work, even after we have seen launch after launch?

In fact, these orchestrated launches have been happening offline for years…new movie launches, Apple's product launches, book releases, and so on…

There is no black magic or secrets – these are well known processes that when followed – definitely do work again and again…without exception.

Jeff Walker is credited with bringing the product launch process to the market and has worked with hundreds of Guru's and little-known marketers to help them turn their launches into massive successes.

Watch this free video where Jeff shares REAL tips and REAL results (actual earnings numbers) for the first time ever…believe me, this video gives "inside" information that nobody else has…for free!

How Guru's Are Made With Product Launches

Jeff touches on some pretty sensitive topics in this video:

• How much guru's and non-guru's are making with their product launches
• Are the "Guru's" organizing or "syndicating" their launches?  This may be shocking!
• What comes first – the product launch or guru status?  We all assume we must be a guru to do a launch yet Jeff sets the record straight – most guru's didn't become guru's UNTIL they did a launch
• Is there still money to be made with product launches and especially, product launches inside of IM?
• And…a little known TYPE of product launch that doesn't even require going out and getting a heap of JV partners

Be sure to watch this one folks – if you want quick and massive success building your online business and brand then this information is definitely for you.

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He works at a local technology firm, gets paid extremely well, but within 5-minutes of our discussion said to me – I'm bored of my job, what do I do?

More and more people young and old are getting bored of their current jobs, but feel trapped and don't know where to go next?

Could they move to a different position within the same company?  Perhaps, but all of the things that make them bored in their current job may still apply to the new position, so is this really change?

Could they move to a different company or career altogether?  That would be an option, but often that doesn't happen quickly and it may involve undesirable consequences like substantially lowering your standard of living, moving cities or even countries, or starting from the bottom and working your way up again…and there are no guarantees that you won't get bored in that position too.

A New Perspective…Creating Leveraged Value & Branding With InfoProducts

As I continued to talk with my neighbor and mentioned that I had written and published 12 ebooks and operated a number of information-based paid websites, he immediately became excited saying he always thought he could write a book, but didn't know if anyone would buy it or if he could pull it off.

So, we sat down and within the next hour had mapped out a set of topics, research process he will now go through to narrow those topics, a process for uncovering demand and estimate the size of the market AND a full program for deciding what type of information product to develop as well as a system for outlining those products.

He didn't know at the the time I was pulling directly from the full training program online at InfoMarketer'sZone, but he walked away more excited than he had been in the last 15-years, passionate again about using his spare 30-60 minutes each night to complete his first ebook…

So, if you are reading this and have thought "I'm bored of my job, what do I do next?"  – you have other options than to look for another job…this is the perfect time to plan and launch your own personal information publishing business, within 6-weeks you could be selling your own product on the internet for profit…even have your book available to millions through Amazon or iTunes.

Head over the InfoMarketer'sZone and take a look around, that should get you headed in the right direction…and being bored will be a thing of the past.

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We've helped these burnt out people turn their valuable services, consulting, speaking platforms from time for dollars into passive income vehicles such as ebooks, home study courses, manuals, audio and video programs giving them an entirely leveraged line of income where they work once and earn ongoing profits. 

2 POWERFUL WAYS TO TURN A SERVICE INTO PASSIVE INCOME

1. Organize and systemetize your service…two ways to do this…

a) Franchise your service to where you are focusing on the premium end of your market and outsource the work to freelancers or employees.  For example, if you have a successful personal training business, but you are working 14-hour days and can't fit another client into your schedule, think about hiring a freelancer that will help expand your business while you focus your efforts on designing a program for your top 20% customer base – you can charge more and free up some of your own time

b) Help teach others to do what you do…so you end up running a train-the-trainer program that you sell as a program and turn into a product so you leverage your time. I aim to have every client service designed to support or to be turned into a product so I work once and sell it often.   This way – you actually create a training program to help others personal train. 

2. Package your service and knowledge into passive income information products. What you really want to do here is to create a 'home study' version or 'packaged training program' or 'private members version' of what you are delivering on a client-by-client basis – in this model you offer the service once and package it for many. 

Packaging your knowledge into infoproducts for ongoing, passive income is a powerful method of making more money with less time and stress.  Whether you help customers at a bank, counsel people on relationships, help technically train or do business consulting – your service can be packaged into ebooks, courses, videos, or membership sites and you can continue to sell that product again and again.

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Are You Happy With Your Job?

I haven't been living in a total bubble over the last 7-years of operating my own businesses and certainly demand for our internet marketing and information publishing  blueprint systems has never been greater so yes, I can certainly sense that the level of job satisfaction is lower than it has been in the past. 

But wow, I had no idea it had dropped nearly nearly 20% in the last 20-years. 

Here are some stats from a recent study on American job satisfaction:

• the average household incomes adjusted for inflation have been shrinking since 2000.
• Workers under 25 expressed the highest level of dissatisfaction. Roughly 64 percent of workers under 25 say they were unhappy in their jobs
• Only 51 percent now find their jobs interesting — another low in the survey's 22 years. In 1987, nearly 70 percent said they were interested in their work.

The question I have is why the roughly 20% that are no longer satisfied with their jobs aren't looking at alternatives. 

The impact on lives and society of a disatisfied workforce is not to be trivialized…

• More health costs due to stress
• Toll on social costs due to treating emotional challenges such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and even relationship, stress and employment counselling
• Lost productivity – if you are not satisfied chances are you are not producing
• Crime – white collar and otherwise crime rises in a society that is not satisfied with its work environment

So the question I have is WHY PUT UP WITH IT?

With the opportunities that abound today on the internet, self-publishing your own book, ebook or information product or training course costs next to nothing, opening your own e-commerce store is less than a $500 proposition, blogging is free – not only do these businesses earn real money, they offer a platform to brand you and your company for further growth or to open new avenues for employment if you are looking to change jobs. 

Being disatisfied with your job is certainly not uncommon and perhaps is inevitable given today's tight economy and education system, but there is no excuse for staying disatisfied…where do you sit today?

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But you have to admit – if you want to lead your own company into a top earning profit center then you need to be able to perform at top energy levels 90% of the time.

Most of us aren't able to do that and so we can't keep the momentum required to build a strong, profitable and growing internet business.

Here is an excellent post that outlines 20 ways you can boost your energy and fine tune your body and mind to operate at peak performance.

All that may be standing between you and making a full-time income with your own internet business is being able to tap into an unstoppable inner energy – try these 20 Energy Boosting Tips.

Oh yes, and don't blame me if you turn into a force that those around you can no longer deal with – you've been warned!

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While there is some debate over whether traditional publications can move to this model, there is no doubt that for certain topics, a very powerful model for information marketing is to employ a micropayment model.

Roughly speaking, your markets will fall into two broad categories…

1. Smallish, highly focused niche markets where you offer deep, specialized and even personalized information at a higher price.  In such markets you can offer a range of infoproducts including ebooks, membership sites right up to group and personal coaching options.  Due to the specialized and current nature of the information combined with the relatively smallish size of the market – say less than 1Million people – you target a higher price point and offer staggered entry points.

2. Larger, mass-markets where you can offer a low-cost, more generalized information option either on a price for each piece of content basis (Ex $1 for access to a video, article or short report) or a monthly mass-market access cost under $5.

Where might these micropayment models work?

1. Weight loss niche – offer the latest research, news, tips, techniques and social network around weight loss for $4/month
2. Cooking/food – with Millions of potentially interested targets, you could offer a recipe site, sharing site or targeted food site for a low monthly fee using the micropayment model
3. Seniors – tackling an issue a week that helps seniors with health, financial, wellness type issues would open up a mass market at a low monthly cost
4. Technology – many of us love to see the latest technology gadget reviews and would gladly pay a few bucks a month for access to a site that aggregates and offers some new reviews of top gadgets each month

What about your internet business?  Can you target your market with a micropayment option where you can publish and drip content to a large market?  You may very well find out that you can make much more money in your market by offering a low-end, micropayment based option than trying to deliver another ebook, or high-paid membership site.

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That point is understanding the different business models that work online – in other words – how many ways are their to make money and which one do I want to tap into?

Often I get asked – "What niche market should I choose" as if finding the niche market filled with eager, hungry buyers is the holy grail of internet marketing…not a simple task if you don't match that hungry market with a business model that works and delivers to them what they want.

What is often a quetsion about finding a niche market to focus your online marketing busines on really comes down to is understanding the different business models and ways to make money online such…for example:

• Information publishing:  there are thousands of niche markets where the desire for instant knowledge, a cure, a remedy, a system or plan to achieve a certain desired outcome translates into a passionte, hungry desire for infoproducts such as reports, ebooks, seminars, membership sites, courses, workshops, etc… If your strengths are in matching a desire for information with answers to questions, then writing your own "how-to" information product can be a hugely profitable money-making internet business.  We cover this business model in our fast-start program — "The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success System"
•  Selling someone else's products (affiliate marketing) is another approach where you can match a desire for a product or service online with an ability to drive traffic and pre-sell leading to the vendor's sales page where you make a commission on each referral that turns into a sale.  Your internet marketing business in this case is based largely on your ability to 1) identify hot desires within a marketplace for a given product or service 2) generate enough content and advertising to drive significant traffic and 3) pre-sell your market through email marketing, blogging or other techniques of communication leading to the sale where you get paid
• Advertising revenue – the objective here, of course, is to get as many eyeballs to your site as many times as possible and setup an ad offering that entices users to advertise on your site.  Blogging can work, content portals are effective, sites organized around tools, videos, software giveways can all work too.  Here, you want to choose a niche market that is more on the mass market side so that you can achieve strong advertising dollars for your efforts

These are just a few of the online business models that you can tap for your online marketing business.  Each though comes with its own criteria for what is considered a hot niche market – until you know which model you will target, it is like shooting in the dark trying to pick a market.

What is a good niche for your own information product may not be best for creating a content site designed to rake in advertising income.

So first, it is a matter of understanding what business they want to be in – what skillset and interests they have – what they are best at doing so they can operate in the type of business that suits their skillset.

Then we can choose a hot niche once we have an idea what the monetization method is that suits that particular method.

So, if you are still puzzled by how to get started marketing online, seekt to achieve a better understanding of the business models – how you can make money – this will help guide you to the criteria you use when picking a target niche market.

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We've been helping authors, speakers, trainers and entrepreneurs self-publish their own ebooks, audio programs and training programs for years over at Information Marketing Zone – and what each person learns is that…

• If you know how to market yourself and your book or ebook, self-publishing can be far more lucrative than traditional publishing
• Digital publishing – ebooks, digital reports, online newsletters, subscription membership sites, webinars, online coaching programs, teleseminars and the like are all high-profit product creation techniques for sharing non-fiction information with your markets – sometimes for 10X the amount of a typical book you find in the bookstore
• Digital products can be released in 45-days or even less…a far cry from the 6+ months it typically takes to get a book published…which means you can test new topics, build your readership and make more money faster with digital self-publishing
• You can build in market feedback which you can immediately put back into your writing and publishing business to improve your offerings.  For every ebook we sell online we survey our marketplace twice (once a few days after getting the book and again a few weeks later) which gives us additional feedback, new book and ebook ideas, requests for additional consulting and services as well as rave reviews and testimonials – all automated as part of our email follow-up campaign which automatically goes into effect once an order is placed for one of our ebooks
• By offering online affiliate programs you can expose your ebook or digital information product to millions and millions of eager buyers with software that tracks all of this for you and automatically pays you and your affiliate when they make a sale for you – day or night.

Yes, Kindle certainly may be massively changing the way publishing models work – many authors will now consider releasing digital, self-published versions of their books first whereas a year past, they would never have thought of this option. 

But for many of us – we have been doing just this for the last 9-years when the first ebooks hit the market being sold by their entrepreneurial authors from their own websites. 

Today, the opportunity to package knowledge, experience or research into digital information products (ebooks, reports, presentations, trainings, videos, etc…) is even bigger – it seems that finally the world will be catching up to us thank to Kindle.

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