Check Out These Awesome New Features From AWeber

I just happened across a blog post over on the AWeber blog announcing some cool new additions to AWeber's Blog Broadcast feature. 

It looks like now you'll be able to schedule when those broadcasts are sent out (as opposed to them going out whenever AWeber detects a new addition to your feed). 

You can also have them only go out once there are a certain number of posts, on certain days, certain times of day, and so on. 

They do a better job of explaining it than I could so why not just check out they're 1-minute video explaining the new options?  (Just follow the link above)

Enjoy!

Popularity: 53% [?]

What Would It Take?

I was part of a coaching group here locally for awhile about a year ago.  I found some old notes I had taken and one thing in particular that I found is something I've always tried to keep in mind since learning it back then.

It has to do with "powerful thinking" for lack of a better way to put it.  No, I'm not going to go get all Tony Robins on you, but I think this was a really useful way of thinking about those problems, goals or other situations that always seem to come our way.

When faced with such a challenge, ask yourself one simple question:

What Would It Take?

Want to have a list of 10,000 subscribers?  What would it take?  Then keep asking yourself that question until you can get down to some actionable steps you can take to help you reach that goal. 

Using the list of 10,000 subscribers as an example, what would it take?:

• That would take roughly 833 new members added to your list each month (about 27 per day)
• What would it take to get 27 signups per day?  A viral special report that people can distribute?  A low-cost report they can sell and earn money from while you get the optin?  Daily blog comments on high-traffic sites related to your blog (you DO have a blog don't you?)?  An interview between you and someone that already has a large list where you collect the optins?

Need to make $5000 a month to quit your job?  What would it take?

• 3 products @ $55 each and selling roughly 1 of each per day.  Okay, so what would that take?
  • Deciding on a market where you could offer 3 such products at that price and testing the market
  • Creating the products,sales pages, blog
  • Promoting those products, building traffic, increasing conversions, adding backend offers, and so on
  • etc.
• 200 newsletter subscribers @ $25/month each (or hey, why not 25 subscribers @ $200/month)
  • Market selection
  • Content creation…content with enough value to warrant the $25 (or$200) fee
  • List building (because more than likely only a percentage of people on the list will sign up)
  • etc.

Okay, you probably get it by now. 

But notice the question is "What Would it Take" not "Can This Be Done". 

It assumptive in it's wording - that whatever you're considering actually CAN be done and that it's just a matter of figuring out the pieces of the puzzle. 

And notice that it's not "What Would I Need to Do"…you might need to rely on others to help you with some of the things you come up with.

If you have a goal you're shooting for and you know where you are right now, the answers to the "What Would it Take" exercise help you bridge the gap  between point A and point B.

So when you stop and think about it, "What Would it Take"  is a very powerful question.

Popularity: 66% [?]

The Most Popular Posts in the Last 90 Days

I always find it interesting to know what others find interesting. 

So here's a look at some of the most popular posts available here in my little neck of the woods.  I excluded stuff like the "Weekly Roundup" posts and others that were just good info, but not articles per se.  Anyway, here's the list in case you missed one of these:

1. Just amazing…and another reason to have a blog
2. Can You Really Make Money Showing People "How To"?
3. Another Way to Stop Wasting Time on Mundane Tasks
4. The Most Bang for Your Buck Tasks
5. Another Great Reason to Have Your Own Products

I'm using the Popularity Contest Plugin by Alex King which allows you to set how posts are ranked in terms of popularity.  Then it gives you a ton of stats in the backend about the posts on your site. 

You can pull similar data from your log files (like AWStats) or from Google Analytics but those methods don"t allow you to assign weights to different types of posts.  For example, it might carry more weight if a post was reached via a direct link specifically to that post versus it just being one of the 10 posts on your homepage.  Interesting stuff…check it out.

P.S. - A quick tip of the hat to Terry Dean for posting a similar tip on his blog awhile back…prompted me to grab that plugin and take a look at my own stats.  Should be even more interesting once it's been running for awhile.  Thanks Terry.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Whoo Hoo - I Made It

I made it into the latest Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship this week!  And as an Editor's Pick no less.  (Thanks Amy)

You should definitely head over and check out some of the other articles.  Lots of good stuff posted, including articles from some folks you've probably heard of.

Here's the link:

http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/carnival-of-business-and-entrepreneurship-2/

Popularity: 76% [?]

The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Starting Their Online Business

Starting an online business can be a fun, nerve-racking, exciting, frustrating, profitable experience.  And yes, some days, you'll feel ALL of those things!  But when people first get started with their online business, there are some common mistakes you see them make over and over and OVER again…trust me, I've been there too.  Here are a few of the biggest mistakes you should avoid as you get your online business going.

Thinking they don't know anything someone else would be willing to pay for

You know, it's a shame that most of us don't have the confidence that we should.  And I think that's what this mistake boils down to…a lack of confidence.  I'd be willing to bet that there's something just about EVERYONE knows that someone else would be willing to pay for.  Will it be a $1000 product?  Well, maybe not.  But one of the goals is to get out of the mode of trading hours for dollars.  So if your idea, know-how or product only ends up being a $47 product instead, no big deal.  That's just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Setting prices too low

Some people are way too price sensitive and end up transferring their ideas about price to their customers.  As longs as you can honestly say that you're able to provide $x amount of value with a certain product, you should be totally comfortable charging (and being paid) that amount.  Also, keep in mind that the larger the transaction size, the fewer transactions you need in order to hit your target goals.  So if you can do just a little bit extra or add just one more thing to your product to give it a bump in value…do it, then RAISE YOUR PRICES.

Not aggressively testing and tracking

This ties in with the last item somewhat and with just about everything you do to market your business online.  If you're not testing and tracking your results, you have no baseline to compare to and no measure for how much you're improving (or getting worse) over time.  Simple things like split testing Adwords ads or headlines can lead to huge leaps in performance and take close to ZERO time to setup.  So why not setup a quick test for one of your sites today? 

Moving from one strategy to the next

There's no lack of ideas for making money online or starting an online business, that's for sure.  But you can never get good at them all if you're doing everything at the same time.  Sure, there's something to be said for having infoproduts in a market, being an affiliate for other products in that market, having content sites in that market and so forth.  But you can't work on your products, affiliate offers and content sites all at once.  Get one thing working, then roll out the rest.  But don't bounce from one "latest, greatest idea" to the next just because you think the grass will be greener on the other side.

Buying product after product with ZERO implementation

This ties in with the last one because if you bounce from one thing to the next, it almost certainly leads to wanting more information about your newfound moneymaker of the week.  And in the end, you end up with a shelf full of products and a lighter wallet.  Again, the key is FOCUS.

Spending too much time studying, in forums, on blogs, etc.

I was only guilty of this one for a couple of months and then I realized how futile it was.  You simply can't spend all your time reading posts in forums, bouncing from blog to blog, or doing other so-called "research".  That's why I only post to this blog a couple of times a week and hopefully, you're just getting an email notification when it's updated rather than popping back by just because.  Get out there and work, don't spend hours on some IM forum - which is probably feeding you doubt, negativity and confusion more than answers.  Granted, you can find good info and the occasional good deal, but keep it to a minimum.  Get an egg timer or something and keep the forum stuff under control.

Taking someone's opinion, test results or other opinions as fact

I don't know how many times I've heard someone say "such and such" doesn't work, or "x" is a bad market.  Unless you test it for yourself, you're never really going to know.  Just because something didn't work for one person doesn't mean YOUR results will be the same.  I went to college and was an engineering student.  I was horrible at it…but I finished.  But would I discourage someone from pursuing the same degree?  Nope.  Different strokes and all that.  Same holds true for info you get from forums and elsewhere.  Trust but verify.

Not building a list

I'm definitely guilty of this one.  If you're going to be working in a particular market, do yourself a favor and head over to AWeber right now and start building a list.  There's no reason not to and that's where a lot of the value in a business is stored.  Imagine having a list of 5000 people that have visited your site.  You find out about a really great, free service that they could benefit from - maybe a new website or something.  So you send it to them…no pitch, just a good recommendation for something they can all use.  Then let's say you're providing them with good content periodically, again information they can use.  If you do happen to come across an affiliate offer or some other type of thing that can make you money (but it still USEFUL to your list), why not send it to them.  You want to build a responsive group of online partners in your market rather than just a bunch of names on a list.  That's the key.

Staying on lists where they only get pitched

Directly related to building a list, if you're on a list where you're continuously gettin pitched, time to pull the plug.  I do this at least once a year, sometimes more often, and IMMEDIATELY if I start getting too many hyped up emails from any particular person.  The best ones, the ones I model and the ones I'd never unsubscribe from send an enormous amount of free, "just thought you should know" type info when compared to the number of offers I get.  I'd have to take a look to know for sure, but I'd bet it's something like 3-to-1 or 5-to-1.  As they say, success leaves clues.

Popularity: 65% [?]

« Previous Page — Next Page »