Drip…drip…trickle…trickle…

I heard it all night as little by little the dripping water came close to driving me completely over the edge!

So, I wake up early to tackle the project this morning.

30-minute job tops right?

Not so fast Jack!

As you may well know, it turns out there are some twists and turns when you try and reapair your toilet…

• Every make has a different filler and drain flap (up utnil this morning I didn't even know the name for that black flap – the gatekeeper I was sure was responsible for the trickle from hell!
• Same thing goes with the filler mechanism, and here you have various different sizes too…9",10", 12" and the famous "generic one size fits all model"
• Then, I figured out the flap is rather sensitive in terms of adjustment.  I'm sure I managed to use 2-weeks of water just getting the adjustment right
• All of this had me thinking, in the end, should I have just put in a new toilet?

In the end, I won!

3-hours later and 3-trips to the home improvement store I am now a proud part-time plumber having tackled the wicked task standing victorious in front of our newly quieted throne (I bet you're happy I didn't include a picture right?)

As I had my hands in the back of the toilet, it did strike me though that there were similarities to succeeding with business and marketing, so here are my 4 BATHROOM MARKETING LESSONS:

1. Trial and error…the only reason I ultimately succeeded with this job (as with business) is that I started, kept trying, testing and tweaking things until I got it right.  Marketing and running your own internet business is just the same
2. Doing the job yourself- I knew in the end it would be a better job and I saved about $200.  In your own business it often is better to do things once yourself (and sometimes some things ALWAYS yourself).  I'm all for outsourcing and making money marketing other people's products, but you really need your own products too and you need to know the job you are outsourcing to make sure it is done right at a fair price
3. Successes Pump You Up.  Granted, the feeling of euphoria in fixing the toilet doesn't last quite as long as succeeding in your own business, the journey and reaching your goal is well worth the effort…which brings me too…
4. Not being afraid to try.  You have to start somewhere.  I was far from a plumber, but learned the basics and got rolling. From there I had the confidence I could pull this off and amazingly…did just that.  Same thing goes for building your own business.

Funny enough, these pricniples underly some of the top training systems we make available at Infomarketer'sZone – just didn't realize they had anything to do with fixing a toilet…UNTIL Today!

I totally get that starting and growing your online business to the next level is scary, takes hard work, means that you will have to work through some setbacks and can be challenging at times…but what are the alternatives? 

Just as a leaky toilet would drive me nuts, so would having to work for someone else all my life!

What about you?

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How about a multi-millionair? 

Climbing inside the head of someone ultra successful (financial or not) has always been intriguing to me.

In fact the "Attracting Greatness" system came directly from my own learnings and experience climbing out of financial, physical and emotional ruts in life toward incredible achievement, happiness and financial success. 

What is clear is that there really is very little left to chance in life and even where luck, chance or timing comes into play, we have to be aware enough to recognize it and take advantage of the timing – right?

So, when I read this piece on Secretes of Multimillionaires, it was right in my wheelhouse…

The first 3 secrets are:

1. Decide to be a multimillionaire
2. Get rid of powerty thinking
3. Treat it like a duty

Certainly these factors are incredibly important, for example, "deciding" to be a multimillionaire actually means that you are so sure in your mind that you want to be in this category that you see yourself as already having achieved this wealth. 

It's not a dream, desire or want but rather a  certain outcome toward which you are building. 

Remember that term – "certain outcome" as thinking about your goals in this fashion can make a huge difference in how motivated, productive and successful you are in life. 

In the end though, there are 4 critical categories of improvement you can focus on to dramatically improve your income:

1. Mindset.  We talked about thinking about your goals as if they were certain as you envision our life having already achieved the end result

2. Purpose.  Multimillionaires (or achievers in any area of life) are driven by more than money…they are driven by an obsessive desire to see their ideas validated.  Those ideas could be eradicating world hunger, putting a PC in every home, helping reduce worldwide obesity through a weight loss program, etc… You must find the big WHY that motivates you to greatness

3. Tackle Your Fears.  If others have achieved what we desire then it must be that we can too.  It stands then that the only thing holding us back is US! In other words, the more you can eliminate your own personal obstacles (fear, anxiety, stress, low self-confidence) the more natural progress toward success will be enabled

4. Knowledge.  Becoming a multimillionaire does take an understanding of how and why money is made.  For example, investing versus spending, knowing the most valuable use of your time, understanding the value of leverage, and taking advantage of market timing are all fundamental principles multimillionaires understand. 

Next steps…if you are ready to move ahead and begin the journey to being a Millionaire and then a Multimillionaire,  follow these steps:

• Go get a copy of Attracting Greatness and follow the simple plan
• Pickup a copy of Ultimate Information Entrepreneur Success Package to learn the power of online marketing and information publishing
• Begin raising the bar…focus on your "certain outcomes" and begin studying successful people every day

You have the ability to leap into a new financial, emotional and physical place in your life, it all starts TODAY!

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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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Let me be very clear up-front though, I am not against seeking out coaching or buying a training program,  I have invested in training very strategically over the years and more often than not, benefited tremendously from it. 

START WITH WHAT IS WORKING

I've always learned most by watching what is working at a given point in time — in other words, watching what the top people are doing online and why.

This approach will never let you down.  There are so many trainers and courses out there that are NOT based on real success or results…the way to sift through the ones that don't work or do not apply to your online business is to become a student of learning what works…

When I first started out in 2000 I learned by watching Corey Rudl, Yanik and Marlon come out with their own products – along with my background in developing training programs, the lightbulb went off, there was (and still is) huge opportunity for cost effectively creating and distributing infoproducts (in the past printing and recording costs were prohibilitive).  So that's what I did…I went ahead and did the same thing after finding a gap in the market.  I then invested in some consulting to help refine my first infoproduct…exactly what I needed at the time. 

Then, I watched in the early 2000's as email marketing came into its own – list building, relationship management, copywriting became more important as competition heated up, etc…  Again, I started by modeling some of the most effective email campaigns and sought out training where necessary. 

Late 2000's it was all about SEO – learning how to get your online business in front of your market – content, SEO, blogging, video, etc…  I learned the basics about SEO, went and got my hands dirty and learned a TON more from one course and a whole lotta figuring it out by doing!

Now, I'm learning the latest by watching infoproduct business models turn into larger training and franchised opportunities, traffic generation and online marketing becomes more social and ways of finding opportunities evolve as well.   So yes, I'm following mult-million social networking experts that have PROVEN to me they know what they are doing by building businesses online largely through social networking. 

Yes, I've bought courses, had some coaching, etc…but I've always organized that around what I saw happening rather than just jumping into a program here or there.

My advice…become a student of watching, digging and learning what is actually happening online, base your plans around that and seek out training to fill in gaps along the way.

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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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Today, getting started with internet marketing is a stunning array of dazzling systems, tips, tools and methods – every week there seems to be another dozen surefire courses for making massive profits online…

Ignore all of that for now, what you want to do is get traffic and sales from your ebook right away, not spend the next 4-weeks learning how.

Backed by a comprehensive training program based on our actual internet marketing business practices inside InfoMarketer'sZone – let's look at the system we recommend you use RIGHT NOW to get started marketing your ebook:

1. Blogs Rock! For each market niche we enter, we have active blogs that send us more than 50% of our traffic and sales – Setup a blog around each of the markets where you have ebooks and post to each day around keywords that target your respective markets

2. Have some of the posts link back to your ebooks. For example, you give a tip about your topic and link back to your ebook right in the text of the post.  Do this on every second post and you will have a mix of great content as well as good promotion

3. Incorporate some video with your blogs (screen cams, quickie tips videos, etc…) that will help syndicate your content in other directions (video directories)

4. Setup an affiliate program for the ebook you are selling (either Clickbank or manage your own using Ejunkie, 1ShoppingCart, etc…)

5. Send out review copies to potential JV partners - they will typically want to see what you have before promoting to their lists/markets

6. Generate content EACH day - submit some articles to EZA, a couple videos each week to YouTube, blog post each day, press release 1 each week…

Using these methods alone you should be able to easily reach 200-500 visitors a day to your ebook website and assuming you are converting at close to 1% you will be making daily sales of your new e-book within a very short time.

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Anyone who watches Frank's free stuff will notice that he is a MASTER at bonding with his viewers and once in a while will give some basic information – but magically influences people to do what he wants.

The really good stuff he charges BIG money to access. 

Right now, there is a 15-minute video of rare Frank Kern footage that shares secrets previously only available as part of his Mass Control package – and it's FREE until May 7th. 

As part of the Mike Filsaime, Anik Singal Learning Tree Product Launch, they are making some great footage available for Free. 

So, head over to The Learning Tree Launch Page - get your free pass and go in and watch the videos, download the reports they have – it is terrific material, some really advanced "insider" stuff : (You'll be asked for your email – believe me, the information is TOTALLY worth it)

Frank Kern Training Video

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Most people just don't believe that you can make big money creating and marketing info products outside the "make money" niche markets.  One reason for that is they themselves typically are hanging out looking to make money online so naturally, the majority of the products they come across are selling techniques and strategies to make money online.

But…the good news is that there are hundreds of niche markets that are hungry for information and will buy your info products if you simply get them out there.

Here is an example – Alex Maroko has come up with a top selling basketball training program - all digital – which sells for $47 with some upsells that go even higher. 

Are there people passionate about playing basketball?  Yep, lots of them.

Is there a deep, emotional reason to improve?  Yep, looking better in front of friends, becoming a basketball star, making the prestigious school or local team are all very real, highly emotional drivers for getting better. 

Alex not only produced an ebook to outline his formula, he took video of his tutorials and packaged them into a 16-weeks SYSTEM that guarantees results for those that follow the system. 

By going beyond just "informing" his readers on how to get better with basketball with his info product to outlining a step-by-step system for success he has differentiated his information product and really increased its perceived value so he can sell it for more and sell more of it.

What information can you turn into your own money making info product to sell online…

1. Do you have a favorite sport (hockey, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, swimming, etc…) that you can help someone else learn? 
2. Have you struggled with an illness or health challenge and learned how to overcome pain along the way – that could be taught to others to do the same?
3. Do you have a hobby or passion that you can help others enjoy as you have such as music, art, a craft or collecting?
4. What relationship skills have you learned over the years regarding parenting, dating, career or other networking skills – could you turn this into a step-by-step improvement system?

These are only a few examples to get you thinking.  The bottom line is that there are hundreds and hundreds of topics where there are hungry buyers just waiting to learn and achieve a desired outcome. 

By packaging information into a step-by-step program, formula or system you can tap into high, profit-producing info product markets by starting your own global internet business. 

To find out more about this exciting and highly profitable info product marketing business that you can run from home – tap into the resources available over at Information Marketer'sZone right now.

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Even though many of us have dreamed of writing a book, being a top selling author, having our name on a product of our very own and living the dream of packaging information, teaching and working from home – it sometimes takes years to actually come out and say – "I'm READY to DO this business!"

Every week I get emails and telephone calls where people step up to the plate and say "I'm READY to go – where do I start?"

Or "I've got a few ideas about where to start my info product publishing business, but I'm not sure if I have it quite right – so where do I go for help?"

I get so excited when someone comes to me like this because I KNOW they have the seed – the start of what it takes to be wildly successful in the exciting world of information marketing.  All they need is a little guidance, some shortcuts, some coaching help along the way and a kick-start, then they can achieve incredible things.

How do I know?

It's happened for several of my students – they have gone from dreamers, non-writers, non-business types who languished in jobs where they weren't even close to using their full creativity or achieving their full income potential – and now they operate successful 6-7 figure information publishing businesses.  

What do you need to get started in the info product business – the RIGHT way?

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