One Simple Question to Guide Your Online Business Success

I've taken the plunge and jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, along with some other social networking sites…more on that in a minute.

But first, a quick story.  As I was reading some of the posts on my Twitter page, I noticed one from John Reese where he was responding to one of the people following his twitters…or twits….or whatever they're called.  Anyway, this guy had a really great question and it's one that I've wondered about for awhile.

So this guy named Mike Blaes said he's "…still baffled as to why so many marketers are caught up in doing things to try and "make money" and not actually building a business"

And John Reese replied saying, "I think it's because most people just don't understand what it means to build ASSETS in a business."

I won't post the whole back-and-forth here, but there were a few more related messages so if you're interested, feel free to go check them out.  But just that little exchange got me thinking…uh-oh!

A better question to ask rather than JUST focusing on the money is:

How can I provide the most value…to the most people…the fastest?

Then…how can I monetize that?

The rest will take care of itself.  That'll help solve the "which market do I go into" question and all sorts of other roadblocks that seem to come up as people learn about "this Internet stuff".

I agree with the focus on ASSETS versus "making money".  And one of your biggest assets (and ways to provide value) is your content.

Another good question we should all ask ourselves from time to time is:

What content did you create today that's going to make someone's life better?
Teach them something new?  Solve some sort of problem?

It should be pretty obvious that "providing value" isn't done by checking email, surfing forums, planning your next big project to the nth degree, surfing the web or any of the other random things that take up wayyyyy too much of our time. 

It's done by the start-to-finish creation of some type of content.  This could be:

• a special report
• a mini-course
• an ebook
• a podcast
• a video
• a DVD
• a CD
• a newsletter
• a tip sheet
• a checklist
• an online tool
• software
• an article
• a blog post

…but create SOMETHING.  (Or have it created, but this isn't a post about outsourcing)

One of my daily to-do's was inspired by Dan Kennedy…to do one thing everyday to fill the pipeline.  He talks about that all the time.

I think if you expand that to include doing one thing everyday to add value by creating some form of content, then you'll be well on your way to building a successful online business.

Am I off my rocker or what?  Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

P.S. - Almost forgot to add this, but like I mentioned in the intro I've jumped in headfirst into the whole social media thing.  Feel free to come join me…I think this will be fun.  You can find me on the following sites (if you don't have an account, just sign up and give it a whirl):

Twitter Profile (go check this out just to see the cool background if nothing else)
Facebook Profile

I'll be posting some more about these in the near future and might even whip up a special report with some of my insights so far.

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