Archive for October, 2007

At last we can start.

I think it’s better by answering the number one question in minds of most subscribers. Many did not know what blogs means. How it’s different from website?

Actually, I have answered the question in my post on best way to build website  check the post for my explanation on it.

You also read this post on problogger’s website.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/02/05/what-is-a-blog/

Until tommorrow which you success.

Lateef Olajide

People are judged by what they think and what they say. But the true measure of their character is what they do. Anyone who has achieved success and fortune in the world has done it by ACTION. 

William Jennings Bryan wrote, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice’ it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” 

The choice of the path you follow is often put before you as opportunity. “Few people recognize opportunity,” said Cary Grant, “because it comes disguised as hard work.” 

Don’t let opportunities slip past while you’re still considering them, and create new ones as you see them. “Wise people make more opportunities than they find,” said Francis Bacon. 

What opportunities can you act upon? 

Woolworth saw a desire for small inexpensive items and opened the chain of stores that grossed billions. Wrigley started giving gum away as a bonus from supplies wagon he sold from, and saw the opportunity to make money from the gum that became highly demanded. 

All successful people the world over have found the opportunities for their own special talents and acted upon those ways to achieve. Why wait for the time to pass? There’s never a better time than now. 

“Sometimes,” wrote Lewis Carroll,” I have believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” 

Take your own impossible dreams and make them become reality. 

  culled - the internet marketing dirt

This is to notify you that the free blogging course will start tomorrow. You will get to know how we come up with niche market that is loaded with lots of hungry and passionate people with money that are trying to solve a problem.

How to research this market and get to know exactly what they want now. How to set up your own blog site. How to create content for your website even if you can’t write. How to promote your site using web 2.0 technology. The lectures will be a bit of text, powerpoint and multimedia.

Everyday for next 60 days we will be posting lots of using information. Make sure you visit daily and share this resources with people as well.

Lateef Olajide 

for SB team

Attention: Invitation to two days website owners round table/workshop.

This message is for only those that we helped install their website and those that recently took our website designing service in the past few weeks. If you get this message and you do not belong to this group, just ignore this message.

This is to invite you to a two days free workshop on how to manage your website without knowing html, or any website designing skills, how to get thousands of visitors to your website a month, best affiliate marketing monetization strategies, how to convert your website visitors to paying clients and how to sell your website.

The workshop will take place on Thursday 8th and Saturday 10th of November. You have  the opportunity of attending a session only. It’s your choice to choose from either of the two days.

To confirm your participation call -

01-8500619
07027950689
08063121325

You will have to provide the following information when you call;

1. Your full name.
2. Your website address (i.e www.yoursite.com)
3. Day of your choice.

Thank you very much.

Lateef Olajide

for SB team

P.S - In case you still want use to install your won site too you can get in touch with us.

How to Escape Your Day Job, Pay Your Bills, And Make Progress Towards The Ideal Lifestyle by Marlon Sanders

There are 6 basic ways to get dough online:

1. Promote affiliate products

2. Google adsense

3. Sell a service

4. Sell advertising

5. Sell physical products (think eBay)

6. Sell information

You’ll notice that the last 4 all involve selling something. That’s the approach I wanna talk to you about today.

I did a survey with my Milcers and Alist members. I found out that most of them are still stuck to a degree in getting things going.

I want to give you an abbreviated action plan that I spend 100 pages elaborating on in “Gimme My Money Now” and that the icons walk you through in “The Marketing Dashboard”.

There are MANY Formulas out there. Here’s the Marlon Sanders Formula in a nutshell. So many of you have written and said, “I need a Formula. I need step-by-step.” This is the big picture:

1. Find demand

2. Write sales letter

3. Create info product to meet demand

4. Roll out with affiliate program

Here’s what I found out from my survey. Most of you guys and gals have jobs that you want to escape from. You have bills and debts to pay.

And most of you are coming into this without a lot of prior knowledge of marketing and some of you have limited computer skills.

Based on that, do you think it’s safe for me to say it’s unrealistic to think you’re going to quickly and easily become a zillionaire? Well, it’s true. If you have no background in sales and marketing, and you don’t have very good computer skills, you have a learning curve ahead of you and that takes time.

HERE’S HOW I PERSONALLY DID IT

I remember when I was broke and bought deodorant with all pennies. But what I did was kept learning and didn’t expect easy nor overnight results.

I kept buying books when I could afford them. There were no cheap and easy ebooks back then. I could have done it
10 times faster if I had access to all the information available today.

Anyway, my way out was self education. And action. I kept doing little projects to put what I learned into ACTION.

I ran this one little business where you sold booklets using answering machines. You didn’t have voice mail then. So I had 3 answering machines hooked up in my home (my friends hated it).

I ran these little ads in what we call in the U.S. “penny shoppers.” These are little papers given away for free that are all classified ads.

I ended up running ads in 72 cities! And people would leave their name and address on the answering machines. I shipped the books C.O.D. Half the books came back. It was sorta like paying out 50% affiliate commissions.

You didn’t have Paypal or easy merchant accounts in those days. So you had to do C.O.D. I sold $12,000 of books via “mail order.” And I was exhilarated to do so. I think at the end of the day I probably LOST money.

But I sure learned a lot.

Then AOL and CompuServe came along and I started writing sales letters and running ads on there. You’d run a little classified ad (they were free on AOL). People would email you.

Since autoresponders didn’t exist, you’d personally email them back your “free report.” Since there weren’t any PDF’s then (at least, that I knew of), the free report was a long email.

The “big trick” my friend Jonathan Mizel taught back then was to put their name in the return email! That was a big secret back then.

Mizel, me, others all learned copywriting from Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. That was like one of 4 or 5 books on copywriting. But you know what? We wrote some pretty good sales letters back then. I first met Jonathan Mizel ’cause he sent me one of his sales letters, and I thought it was good. So I wrote and asked him where he learned to write copy.

Of course, he said “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. So we were immediate friends.

AOL was great. You could test out your little ads, emails and sales letters. I don’t even think in those days we sent out follow up emails.

As far as I know, my friend the late Corey Rudl created the demand for autoresponders when he wrote about how he brought in all this money by automatically emailing buyers 4 days later.

It was only after that someone was smart enough to create an autoresponder. Corey’s stuff was hand coded. Gosh, I miss Corey. And I reckon you’ve been in this business a long time when you see your friends move on to the next great adventure.

Somewhere in this time line (it all escapes me), I had a little retail store selling self help books and tapes. The first thing newbies think to sell online is either diet stuff or self help.

Man, self help is a tough sell. Both Dan Kennedy and I had self development stores. And we both lost bux on ‘em. But I did have the chance to write and send out a few sales letters. And since I often didn’t have the money to print and mail letters, I’d call ‘em on the phone.

I found out that just by calling people, I could say ANYTHING and I’d STILL get a lot of people coming in for the next 3 weeks.

That’s the power of staying in contact with your customers.

Anyway, I could go on with this story. I’ve told the rest of it in bits and pieces in different places.

What are you supposed to get out of this?

Dan Kennedy I think had a path kinda like mine. And what he said once is profound. He said, “I became an overnight success after 20 years of effort.”

Now, I’m NOT saying you need 20 years of effort. You don’t. But neither is 20 minutes a week gonna do much for ya.

Most of the people I’ve seen make it in this business do so after trying things that didn’t work. And they kept on trying. And sooner or later, somethin’ clicked.

I think I shoulda called this article, “Sooner or Later, Something Clicked.”

So you got a job that sucks. You got bills that are stacked up. Hopefully you can buy deodorant with something other than pennies like me in the old days.

So what do YOU do?

My friend, I’d personally tell ya to do what I did. Fall in love with the process more than the immediate fixation of “I gotta make this work now or the whole thing is a scam.”

What you’re learning is marketing.

And that’ll benefit you your whole life. It can help you get your son or daughter or friend a job. It can help you raise money for your Church or charity. It can help you promote an idea whose time has come.

See, a LOT of people say, “I feel like I’ve just wasted my #*$&* money on stuff.”

I my response is, “Then you don’t understand what you’re learning. No wonder things haven’t clicked for you yet.”

See, this isn’t about gimmicks. It isn’t about you figuring out how to trick people into buying with magic words. It isn’t about fooling the search engines into stickin’ your stuff at the top. If you do this business the way I teach it, it’s about learning marketing. And yeah, I said the dirty 5-letter word — LEARN. You can paint it up. You can put perfume on it. You can sell the sizzle not the steak.

But my friend, what you’re doin’ is learning. And like my friend Jim Edwards says, “That isn’t something you microwave.”

“So Marlon, tell me how long this is gonna take and how much I’m gonna make when I’m done?”

Rule 1: People learn at different rates, so no one knows.

Rule 2: You’ll never be done.

Rule 3: It depends on what you sell, who you sell to, how much you charge, what your margin is and how often they buy.

Some people like Russ Brunson get in this business, do it part time between classes in college and go great guns with it. Russ was one of my top affiliates. But he figured out this business so quickly, before I knew it he had his own line of highly successful products. More power to him!

Others are like me and take like 10 or 20 years to learn it. What’s average? Average is not doing anything, therefore not learning anything, therefore the bills pile higher and the job gets tougher.

“Well, if you can’t tell me how much I’m gonna make, how long it’s gonna take and how much it’s gonna cost me, then I think this whole thing is a scam.”

To say that is to say you believe marketing is a scam. Because at least the way I teach it, that’s what you’re learning.

What’s my advice?

Think of the best info product idea you know how to come up with. Interview some experts and record it. Or have a friend interview you. Do a little 3-hour product, write a sales letter for it. And see if anyone buys.

If they don’t buy, guess what? You asked the market a question and the market answered.

You asked the market, “Do you want to buy this?” And the market responded, “No, not in the way you’re presenting it to me.”

Your choice is to present it differently or do another product. Along the way hopefully you learn some things about how to find out what people want, how to get ‘em to buy, how to fulfill products, write letters, create sales pages and so forth.

Honestly, in the DOING, you’ll learn a lot more than you’ll ever learn in the reading. You ask. The market answers. You learn along the way.

But if you’re a spectator and you never get in the game, I can guarantee you one rock solid thing: You’ll never win the game if you aren’t in it.

This is a great business. It isn’t for everyone. It sure isn’t a way to become a zillionaire overnight. Maybe after 5, 10 or 20 years you hit that zillion and you’re the next John Reese or Jeff Walker.

I don’t think everyone should be in this business. If you don’t wanna figure anything out yourself, if you don’t wanna learn how to solve problems, if you don’t wanna learn more things about html and the computer than you really wanna know, if you can’t tolerate risk, if you need your first attempt to be a success, or even your first 3 or 4, then I don’t know, if you can’t afford to spend money on learning and education, if you can’t afford to try things that don’t work, if you think it should all be simple and easy, I don’t know if this industry is for you.

A lot of people get seduced by the lure of ez dough. The promises of zillions without learning. Just connect the dots and you too can be John Reese, Marlon Sanders or whoever you wanna choose.

Here’s the deal: People WILL sell you a turnkey system to escape your job, make zillions or whatever. They’ll give you the fish. I want to teach you TO FISH.

I have a strong belief that unless you buy a franchise, in most cases your going to better off learning marketing than “buying a fish.” There are exceptions. But more often than not, buying a fish doesn’t serve you well.

Some of my friends would disagree with that premise. I happen to have a strong conviction that you are better off learning marketing. My friends are RIGHT in that people DO want to buy the fish versus learn how to catch it. So oftentimes, you’re best off selling a “fish” product.

But everybody has their perspectives. And for me, my criteria for buying a product: If whatever “IT” is doesn’t “pan out” for you, are you STILL better off from having spent money on it? Will it continue to benefit you, your family or your friends in the future?

If the answer is NO, then think twice before spending your money.

You have a job you wanna escape, bills to pay off, retirement to prepare for. Or special needs like a sick loved one. Or a sickness yourself.

I can’t promise you ez zillions. There’s no integrity in that.

I can’t promise you 6 figures a year ez as pie.

What I CAN promise you is that selling products works. It’s no scam. People been doin’ it for thousands of years.

I can promise you that marketing works. Always has. Always will.

I can promise you that money and time spent learning marketing can pay off in many ways.

I can promise you that if you find demand, meet it with products and well-executed promotions, and you do that over time, those bills will likely fade away.

I can promise you that everybody on the Net selling you this or that “dough making system” ALL have 1 thing in common — THEY are selling you a product, service or seminar.

They have a target market.

They have an intro offer.

They have a back end.

I believe in paying more attention to what people DO than what they SAY.

People get all confused what to DO. And there’s a new system invented every day that’s the next big thing. Thank God. I love commerce.

But to remove the confusion, understand this:

They all may disagree on HOW you make money. But one thing is certain: They’re making bux selling a product to a target market — YOU!

Go and do thou likewise.

I remember back then. When I bought deodorant with all pennies.

I remember the date I had with a model in a car that smoked like a bomb.

And to me, there’s no confusion. It’s all crystal. It’s all simple. Take away the smoke. Take away the mirrors.

You need a product. You need people who want it with the money to buy it. You need some great promo out there.

There’s only ONE method people having using to pay their bills and quit their jobs for the past 1,000 years –

Selling products and services to a target market with a great sales pitch that presents benefits and solves problems.

You wanna quit that job? You wanna liquidate that debt? I don’t have an ez zillion for you. But I do have a crystal clear answer.

Find a group of people. Find out what they need and want. Meet those wants with a product. Provide great service.

And who knows. Maybe. Someday. If the stars shine down on you, you’ll hit that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.marlonsblog.com

Hi there,

Today, I will like you to get yourself accustomed with terms that you will be coming across in my coming posts. If you understand what it means now it will be better.

So spend few minutes today to review internet glossary section of this website.

The main lessons about blogging, affiliate marketing and how to earn your first internet income starts on monday.

Stay Tunned.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Lateef

Hello fellow informed leaders,

I am glad you are following this online course. Just like I promise you yesterday, the preparation course continues.

Today tips are from online forum thread posted in warrior forum by one of the my favorite marketer Josh Anderson. 

Help I ned to make $5 in the next 10 minutes! (jk)
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=170857
Niche, Niche, Blah, Blah…. I am new and broke
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=64624

Till Tommorrow.

Stay Focused.

“What is the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month on the Internet and the ones that make big money?”

 By Jim F Straw

The answer is simple. — Well, maybe not so simple - but - over the years, I have observed that one of the greatest differences between those who achieve mediocre results … or no results … and those who start a small business and build an empire is that they have developed a …

“Tunnel Vision Approach”

Although “tunnel vision” … represented by a closed-in and very narrow view of the objectives of the company; like looking through a tunnel … is one of the curses of big, bureaucratic businesses, it is an absolute necessity for the beginning entrepreneur.

Too many people who want to become rich and successful never reach their goals simply because they do not develop a tunnel vision approach to their goal. Instead, they are constantly searching for that one perfect business; that one BIG deal, that will put them on Easy Street … overnight … for the rest of their life.

One week they are trying to get into the export business. The week after they want to own a franchise, or buy an apartment building, or start a mailorder business. Each new book they read creates a greener pasture for them to explore. They don’t miss out on trying any, and every, new opportunity. They may eke out an existence, or even achieve a modicum of success - but - they never make any real money.

Most of them keep their “day-job” while they explore opportunity after opportunity … never making a true commitment to any business … just dabbling in the business world; looking for that one big deal to give them “overnight success.” — If it wasn’t for their “day-job,” they … and their family … would starve to death.

The beginning entrepreneur who, on the other hand, develops a tunnel vision approach to making money usually makes it.
As an illustration, let me tell you a true story about my first successful full-time business … the business upon which I began building my empire.

Since the age of nine, I have been an avid reader of “how to make money” books. — Each time I read a new book, I discovered a new opportunity and chased around trying for a time to make my fortune in that field. The grass was always greener in this new pasture. After all, I had been trying my current business for a couple months and hadn’t yet made my fortune.

Back in the mid-1960s, as a result of some of my reading, and with my wife’s urging, I had opened a small retail Women’s Wig Shop. — There was supposed to be a real fortune to be made in that field.

In a few months, I had read another book and was ready to get started on yet another quick fortune. After all, I had opened the Wig Shop, like the “book writer” told me, and the world had not beaten a path to my door.

While I was explaining my proposed plans to my wife, she nearly floored me when she said, “Why don’t you just give up and let’s try to at least make a living from this Wig Shop.” (By the way, nobody ever becomes rich and successful until they “give up” and quit chasing non-existent rainbows.)

Her comment cut deep into my male ego. It intimated that I was less than a good provider and hadn’t really earned a living for us. It made me mad … mad enough that I told her, “All right, if that’s what you want, I’ll do nothing but run the Wig Shop. If it fails, we can starve together.”

In other words, I was going to show her that we couldn’t make it in the wig business. I would be right, and she would have to agree that we should have gone ahead with my latest plans.

Since I was no longer spending my time developing or investigating new plans, I had plenty of time to get involved directly in the sale of wigs in the shop.

In no time at all, I learned that I couldn’t answer the questions the customers were asking about the wigs. This led me to start reading everything I could about wigs. How they were made. Where they came from. The differences in construction. The tests of quality … what made one wig worth more than another. — All so I could answer the customers’ questions.

While I was learning these things, I also discovered that I was buying from third and fourth party dealers, and was paying entirely too much for my inventory … only allowing me a gross profit of from 25% to 40%. I found purchasing directly from the importers and manufacturers … importing the wigs myself … reduced my costs, and increased my profits.

Every time I got side-tracked and started working on a “new” project (outside the wig business), my wife would put it down by saying, “Look, we’re making money in the wig business. Let’s stay with it.” — Slowly but surely, with my wife’s urging, I developed that all-important tunnel vision.

To make a long story short, in less than three years I was one of the largest wig dealers in the southeastern U.S. My fortune was made. — I had bought a new Cadillac, a 14-room mansion with five bathrooms and a 20′ x 60′ swimming pool.

If you are now, like I was then, I can just about hear the comments running through your mind. — Hey, I’ve been there. I know what I was thinking at the time. — If your reasoning process follows what mine was back then, your thoughts are most likely something like this …

“If I put all my eggs in one basket, I could lose everything.”

Or …

“What if I get so involved in only one business that I miss that really big, one-time break that might come along?”

Or …

“What if the business only pays me a living wage? I’ll be trapped. I want to make a fortune, not just a living.”

Set your fears aside. If you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in any business, you will eventually make your fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

I didn’t make my first fortune by only operating one wig shop. In less than six months, after I started really concentrating on, and dedicating my time to, the wig business, I had two shops, then three, then four. Each one producing more revenue, income and profit.

Then I discovered that I could buy-out whole wig shops that had bankrupted for pennies on the dollar and resell the inventory through my wig shops … at full retail prices. — I even exported some of the wigs … made in the orient … to wig dealers in other countries (at prices lower than what they would have paid if they had bought the wigs directly from the manufacturer).

Later, I began selling the bankrupted inventories to other wig dealers before I ever owned then. I didn’t even have the wigs shipped to me. I bought them on the West Coast, sold them on the East Coast, had them shipped direct, and pocketed the difference in prices. — In some cases, I just introduced the buyer to the seller and pocketed a fat finder’s fee … without ever buying or selling anything.

What I did was to take the techniques and ideas I had learned about in other businesses in which I had been involved and applied them, while staying within the scope of my tunnel vision … the wig business.

If you’ve been reading “how to make money” materials for any time at all … whether you realize it or not … you have soaked-up literally hundreds, upon hundreds, of business ideas, techniques and applications you can use in your business (no matter what that business may be).

As an example: At one time, I had thought about getting started in a “Party Plan” business. It didn’t pan out, but I applied the party plan idea to the wig business by going back to the party plan book and adjusting everything to fit my wig business.
It wasn’t unusual for one of my “wig parties” to produce from $300 to $500 in one evening. — More that a month’s salary back then.

Another book I had read told how a restaurant had increased its business by painting its building bright colors, adding banners and hand-painted signs.

So, I had the outside of one of my wig shops painted yellow, orange and red … using “Day-Glo” paint. The windows were painted red, green, blue and yellow in a carousel pattern. Hand-painted, brightly colored signs were everywhere … inside and out. — The business doubled overnight.

Reading about a novelty shop franchise, I had learned that they used a “loss leader” … an item they offered at cost; or less … to bring customers into the store.

Beauty salons in our area, at that time, were charging from $7.50 to $15 to style women’s wigs. So, wig styling became my “loss leader.” We did wig styling for $2 … if the woman bought at least one wig from our shop.

When a woman left a wig for styling, or picked one up, we could show them new styles. They just kept buying. One lady bought over 50 wigs from us in less than 2 years. — We did all of her wig styling at $2 each … saving her a fortune in styling charges alone - plus - she was a walking advertisement for our wig shop and referred countless new customers to us.

Once I learned, developed and used a tunnel vision approach in my wig business, I made my fortune through a logical progression of accumulation, leverage and natural diversification.

If you’re interested in learning the “natural diversification” that catapulted me from a successful business as a wig merchant to world-renown as a writer, publisher, mailorder marketer, buy a copy of my Mailorder Marketing course … “Own Your Own Mailorder Business” — http://www.businesslyceum.com/mailorder.html … turn to page #64 and read the story starting with the last paragraph on the page.

Throughout the years, I have observed that all successful business people … especially my most productive dealers … have developed that all-important tunnel vision approach in their businesses.

My all-time best, most productive dealer … may he rest in peace (he died in 1995) … became a dealer for one of my products in 1978. — I remember it well because his first check bounced and he had to pay for his future orders with Money Orders … after he made his check good.

At first, his efforts were sporadic. — Some months, he would make a couple thousand dollars. Then, he might go 2 or 3 months without producing an order … followed by a couple months when he would pick-up a few hundred dollars per month.

In mid-1983, his orders leveled-out at about $3,000 per month … by the end of the year, his monthly order volume was just over $5,000.

Five years later, he was earning over $20,000 per month … selling over $40,000 worth of my products each month. I met the man for the first time when I attended a seminar in Chicago.

After we laughed about his first check to us bouncing, I learned that he had retired … with a reasonable pension … a couple years before he became a dealer for my products. At that time, he was dabbling in a number of small businesses and thought mailorder might be a money-maker for him. He chose one of my products to start - but - kept looking for other … better … opportunities.

At the end of 1982, he had looked back over what he had been doing and … to his amazement … discovered that he had made more money … dollar for dollar … selling my products, than from any other opportunity he had pursued. So, he decided to put all of his efforts into selling my products.

In 1991 … his last year in business with me … he was earning over $100,000 per month from my products - plus - however much he made beyond that on the other, related, products he sold for other drop shippers.

So, the major difference between people making an extra $1,000 per month on the Internet and the ones that make big money, is the same as the difference between beginning entrepreneurs who just eke out a living in business and those who build empires. Those who succeed are those who develop and use a tunnel vision approach. The others keep thinking there has to be something else … better, more profitable … that they could be doing, so they keep looking-for it, instead of using what they have to achieve the success they want.

Give up on finding a better, more profitable opportunity. Apply yourself to the opportunity at hand … whatever it may be. — Give-up spending your time developing or investigating new plans. — Make what you have work for you. Accumulate, leverage and diversify logically. — You won’t succeed in anything until you develop and use a tunnel vision approach in your business endeavors … as all successful business people have.

Editor/Publisher: J.F. (Jim) Straw

From recent edition of Business Lyceum Newsletter (October 2007)