Goals Of This Section

• To share the base need to know knowledge before moving on to specific & detailed online marketing techniques.
• To induce the correct mindset for success through answering three quick questions about yourself, instead of long drawn out positive thinking and goal setting processes.
• To make sure you know exactly what you’re letting yourself in for, why you’re doing this, where you are now, and where you want to be in the future.
• To decrease anxiety through opening up your mind to doing the opposite of what you’ve probably been doing for most of your life as far as deadline setting is concerned.
• To show you what to do with ideas for products or services that come to you that are not viable to complete at the present time.
• To lay down on the table the two most important things you should have in your mind and be carrying with you through everything you do related to your business.
• To explain how we as online marketers are all multi-skilled masters of creation, even if you don’t feel that way.
• To demonstrate that it’s far easier to move your business forwards, and in the direction you want it to go, than many have lead you to believe through other guides and scare tactics.

Online Marketing, An Overview

I’d like to take the time out to talk about what you’re getting yourself into. Not just what you’re getting yourself into, but what we’ve all dived in to headfirst; the fascinating world of online marketing.

Let me tell you, since 1999, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen people that seem to know almost everything, I’ve seen friends have amazing successes starting from the very bottom and working their way up. I’ve seen people succeed in achieving their dreams and goals, and I’ve seen people fail and just give up, not to mention countless methods and guides for success, new systems of all sorts.

Looking back, it’s been one heck of a ride with ups, downs, major ups and major downs. When I first got going with marketing I noticed something a little scary, and that was the high rate of failure. As I progressed building my business, testing my own methods, and moving up the ladder as it were, I started to realize things.

People were going about their online business totally blind to the fundamental flaws that they were creating for themselves. I started to look back at the people I’d met that had dropped out early on before achieving their goals and a few things started to jump out at me. I then decided, that the day that I write an info product, the first things that I’m going to talk about, are the fundamentals of business.

This is a really important section. In fact, I remember back in the day saying to myself ‘When I make it and reach my goals, if I ever write an info product, I’m going to include a report entitled ‘Things I Wish I Knew Before I started’. Everything you’re about to read is very background like information. Things you should always have in your head while working your business. Kind of rules that you shouldn’t deviate from, but aren’t necessarily practical jobs that you can get on with right now.

Everything here I’ve seen and learnt at various stages of my business’ development and would like to pass directly to you before we even get started to provide you with a base for your knowledge. Real facts that you should keep in mind while doing business online, or even offline, if you decide to go that way in the future.

The Fundamentals Of Online Business

The thing with online marketing is that anyone anywhere can start his or her own business. You don’t need a huge amount of cash to put down for a property, and you don’t need to buy stock, or put down a large sum of money for storage, and so on. This is great, but somewhere along the way, the basics of business have been forgotten.

Of course I won’t bore you and relay everything that I learned in college and uni, because to be honest, barely any of it applies to the real world of business. What I really want to get into in this section is you. Why you’re doing what you’re doing, what to expect, and most importantly how to go about this correctly on the ground floor, because of course building a strong base is extremely important for the short term, just in terms of survival, never mind total and utter success.

One thing that I find with online business is, people see the opportunity there to make a whole load of cash, quit their jobs and live the good life. In a way, this is true, but they forget about themselves. They see the money and their eyes light up. This is why I want to talk about you, what you want and how you plan to get it before going any further.

Why Are You Here?

First up, why are you here? Really ask yourself that question. Why have you decided to start your own business? Why online? Maybe it was the promise of some extra cash, a little extra free time. Do you want to go all the way and quit your job in the future? Or maybe you have some other motivation?

This is the basis of setting goals. Why are you here? When you’ve answered that question, remember it. Keep it filed, updated and well a truly embedded in your mind. Any tough times you come across, or any problems that may arise with your business in the future, remember why you’re here and why you’re doing this and why it is worthwhile. The answer to this question is what’s going to spur you on and keep you going and moving on up the ladder.

Some people like to create whole elaborate plans around their goals, but for now we’ll leave it at that. Quick and simple. It’s not hard, it’s not time consuming but it is an extremely important part of your success. All you ever need to do is ask yourself those three questions. Why am I here? What do I want? How do I plan to get it? Basic? You may think so, but look at it this way, without this motivation, you may find yourself waking up in five years time, sitting in the same chair, in the same place, in the same situation and wondering why you haven’t moved forward. It’s likely because you didn’t set yourself a goal, which is done simply by answering those three questions. Don’t let this happen to you.

This Is Real Business

Next up, I want to touch on something that I still see every day, and to be honest, it does make me wonder. I want you to remember what you’re doing here. You’re starting or building a business. The problem I see every day is, as we already mentioned earlier, the opportunity is there for everyone, but it doesn’t seem to sink in that they’re actually starting their own business.

I can understand how you’d be a little miffed about someone starting a business that didn’t know they were doing so, but let me explain. I’m sure you’ve seen those websites with links all over the place, totally disorganized, a page full of pretty colors telling you click on one and you’ll earn thousands of dollars an hour, or a lovely free hosted site with ten pop ups on each page and a pretty floral border with bright pink animated background of happy little bunnies prancing around the place.

It’s not just the layout of sites either, it’s the customer service, the quality of the sales letters, the quality of the product, the price, the presentation, everything, every single aspect.

It really makes me think when I land on these pages. Do these guys know that they’re supposed to be running a business? Don’t hate me yet; I know that sounds very opinionated, but its roots are based in fact. Would you buy from these sites even if the product sounded totally amazingly great? I sure wouldn’t. There are too many things on my mind. Too many questions I have to ask myself.

A good marketer knows that as well as having a good product, the worries of any visitor to your website need to be squashed as quickly as possible. All the questions you ask yourself before buying something about the person that’s selling to you and the product itself need to be answered and answered well, or you’re just going to click off and move along. The major point I’m trying to make here is understand fully what you’re getting yourself into. With the anonymity of internet and the people selling products on it, you have to remember above all to be business like and professional at all times. If you create something and don’t feel totally comfortable with it, chances are it’s not up to scratch and it’s not going to do you any favours, money wise, free time wise, long term, or short term.

Here’s a good example. During the planning stages, this very report that you’re reading has gone through no less than six drafts and different versions because it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t professional enough, it didn’t hit home the points strongly enough. This site has gone through many small changes, including three designs, one total overhaul, four versions of the scripts running in the background, two different affiliate scripts and some custom work.

I’m not saying you have to go overboard, but my personal belief, based in fact is that if you have put in the extra effort with something, customers will notice, and they will remember you, most importantly though, they will buy from you in the first place. Always, always keep your work professional and top quality if you want to get off the starting blocks, or it just won’t happen for you.

Your Personality Gets You Noticed

Here comes the fun part. Taking the above idea of being professional at all times, you may feel that this next point is a contradiction in terms, and that is inject your own personality. This is really important for the success of any online business, and it sure helps get to know people and meet new contacts and form business relationships.

Professionalism is all good, but on it’s own, it’s just not enough. I see this more and more, everyday with the e-zines I get through my mail, the reports I’m sent by people, and the sales letters for new products or services that I read on a daily basis.

As far as I’m concerned right now, you’re reading this, and having read the introduction so far, you have some insight into us and who we are, what we sound like and it gives the course some personality. You know the source of them. If we didn’t do this, you would just be reading another boring bundle of text that didn’t have any background or meaning.

Here’s a slightly more direct example for you. Right now, and throughout the rest of the course, I’m writing to you, and talking to you as if I was talking to a friend, but in a professional sense. We didn’t want to create a tedious experience for you, otherwise it’d turn into another random and boring faceless block of text telling you what to do, and that’s the last thing we want. We’d lose out, and you’d lose out, get bored, stop reading, and take away a negative experience with our names attached to it. Not good, not good for either of us.

I’m sure you’re getting the idea now, keep that in mind when you’re writing your own sales letters, your own reports, publishing your e-zine, creating your info product or membership site, in fact keep it in mind whatever you’re doing, along side the professionalism. Remember, being a professional and respected businessman or businesswoman doesn’t mean you have to go about your work in a boring way. Inject your own personality. It will not only help people remember you and build your personal brand, as well as your business, but it will keep your customers reading and coming back to you for more.

Your Personal Resource Reserve

The next important section I want to talk about is your resources. How much time do you have to devote? Do you need more? How much cash do you have to put down? Do you need more? In this short introduction section, just for examples purposes, I’m going to give you some insight as to my own personal working time table and how much cash I spend on what, so that you can see how similar products sometimes require diverse panning and bring up very different situations.

Something that’s very important to me here is that in light of the last section on professionalism, you don’t misunderstand what I’m showing you as ‘do everything a hundred times over and spend a week on every little section until it’s perfect’. Every single product and service that you create, or decide to sell for someone else is going to bring it’s own revelations with regards to cost and the time out of your schedule that it takes and this is something very important that should be taken into account in the planning process, because lets face it, you don’t want to find yourself three quarters of the way through a product, just to find out that you’ve run out of time or cash.

Here’s an example of my personal schedule for you. Bear in mind that my business is my job, and I don’t do any outside work aside from freelance affiliate promotion for others. For this reason, I don’t expect you to follow this, or ours to be the same. This is here for one reason only, and that’s to give you a heads up. Ok so, week one, I’ll do general admin work of the business and sites, keep on top of accounts, make a few new contacts and generally talk to a lot to people and current customers. Read feedback, make small adjustments and so on, less than an hour a day if I can help it.

Week two; along comes one of the contacts I made last week who suggests an idea for a new site. This is where things go crazy and I’ll spend pretty much the whole of the week and every spare hour planning and crafting this product and it’s sales material, the follow-up, site graphics and preparing any scripts etc.

Week three comes the launch, and aside from spending a few hours a day on admin duty and making sure everything is functioning correctly, and arranging, preparing and getting the launch promotion drive going, this is all that’s going on.

Week four, with everything running smoothly again it’s back to the admin, meeting people and planning new products, and analysing and, most importantly, improving the way things are at the moment. This process of easy laid back work, onto major hard time consuming stuff, then back to the slower pace seems to be a pretty regular pattern you can rely on when creating your own sites.

Here’s another example for you. The secondary affiliate promotion that I do with other people, removing the need to create my own products takes a big chunk out of that time. I may spend an hour or two a day in total creating promotions for others, writing new ad material and general business admin, but that’s it.

When you consider not all websites that you create have a time limit, which is especially apparent when creating sites with a partner we’ve done with this one, and you can spread that work load out over the course of a week, two weeks, a month or maybe more, the answers to ‘How much time does it take?’ is easy; as much time as you can spare.

What I want to show is that something that could seem too huge to comprehend having the time for to start with can be spread out over time. Creating your own products does take longer, however, I don’t want you to think that you’re restricted to affiliate promotion just because you have other real life engagements such as work. This is by far not the case, and something that you have to pick up on right now if you’re going to be a success when we move onto the practical sections.

The same is true for the financial side of things. How much cash does it take to start an online business? Well, to be honest, not a lot. You could easily get going for maybe $50. Get a website, create a product and get hosted.

I want you to know though, that you’re not gated from creating something big, something profitable and a business to be proud of because of small time constraints or budgetary concerns. A little of each is good to start out with.

Onto The Good Bits - How Much Money Will You Make?

Next up something that we all enjoy talking about - Money. Not money you’re spending however, but how much you are going to earn with your business? This is something that’s no doubt of at least some importance to everyone reading right now. Let’s talk cash. I’m sure you’ve seen all the big marketers out there earning huge wads of cash, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and so on. I’m also sure you’ve heard or seen many people struggling to make just five hundred dollars per month too.

All too often I see too many marketers trying to fit into the top group when they’re really in the bottom group, kind of like climbing a ladder, but totally missing out the middle rungs. Don’t worry yourself too much. There is an ‘in the middle’. As much as some sales letters would like you to not believe this is so.

You’ve Got All The Time In The World

I know many people that earn between thirty and eighty thousand dollars a year. They’re not super rich, but again they have a great base to work from. My point here is don’t set yourself a target of earning a million dollars a year within six months. This isn’t to say it can’t happen, this isn’t to say it can’t happen real quickly, but you have to stop setting yourself time limits, because all it does is add to your frustration and anxiety of only having so many days or weeks left to reach your goals. Just work towards it, and you will get there. Throw all your time limits out the window right this moment.

Don’t try to be the richest person out there. Remember the first point we talked about? Why are you doing this? This is your primary goal, and don’t be downhearted if you’re not as rich as you hoped within the first few months. To sum up, you will earn as much as you want to earn if you take the professionalism point into account at every turn. Whether it’s a thousand a month, a thousand a week, or a thousand a day, I want to reassure you now that it is achievable and you’re not wasting your time reading this, but if you’re going to make it, you need to stop setting yourself deadlines right now.

Why We’re All Special

The fourth fundamental I want to talk to you about is generally only related to online business, and not so much for off-line business. That is about our skills. You may not think it if you’ve been on the scene a while, but we’re special. Yep, you are. All of us are special in that we are so skilled and probably don’t even notice it. Take a look at what creating the average product takes us through.

We Plan the product, we create a product, we design and build a website and we get it hosted, we set up affiliate programs, payment processors. We write our own sales material, we advertise our own products, we maintain our own lists, follow-up, backend sales, business admin, customer service. You name it. We do it.

Granted you can have web designers build your graphics for you, copywriters write your sales material and so on, but if you’re just starting out and don’t have that kind of cash to spend, it all falls to you.

This isn’t a problem, but the one thing I want to get across to you before moving on to the next sections is to keep things structured. Information overload is bad, and if you try to be the best at everything, you’ll end up tired, run down, confused and probably still no better off. Go easy on yourself.

Here’s a nice example for you. My specialty definitely isn’t designing graphics for websites, (far from it, believe me) which is exactly why I hired someone to do this one for us. It didn’t cost a huge amount, the whole site in fact, aside from the built in affiliate system, cost under three hundred dollars.

The above example included the whole of the members area, the log in system, the graphics, and outside the members’ area, so that’s not a bad deal. This is true for every skill we have and obtain. If you have the skill go for it, if you have the cash and you’re not so good (like my design skills) hire someone.

My second point here is it’s very rare that you’ll want to have something done and there isn’t someone out there to do it for you if you can’t do it yourself. Don’t give up on ideas because they seem too out of your league.

Ok one final point to make before we finish with today. It is all worth it. Whether it’s more money you’re after, or more time to spend with your family, there is a business size, type or way of doing things that suits you. The above section may have seemed a little messy and a little jumpy as far as subjects are concerned, however, if someone took my business away today, and told me to start again, they would be the number one things I’d be happy to know this time around, that weren’t so apparent last time.

If the reasoning behind this report isn’t immediately clear, let me explain. If you really did look at yourself, everything you want to achieve, everything you’re doing, have done and will do, I now know for sure you are 100% totally and completely comfortable with your position. You know where you’re going. You know in a very general format how you’re going to get there, and you also know what you’re capable of.

If some things are still unclear, feel free to go over the report again, but this time really ask yourself the questions and have answers before moving onto the next one.

A space filler this is not. Read it over again if you have to, or maybe at a later date. Everything here is I believe a great base of knowledge for your business. Want proof? Try it, and watch what happens.

Summary

• It’s important to understand all of these ideas before diving headfirst into creating your own business. If we’re going to be successful at anything we need some background information first, and to understand how it works.
• Online Marketing is no exception. I’ve seen many things, lots of ups and downs. Amazing successes, massive bankrupting failures, I’ve seen, read and indeed own masses of guides, how to’s, and online marketing information.
• One of the main problems is, people were going about their business totally blind to the fundamental flaws of what they were creating for themselves. This was easy to see by examining the people that had failed and comparing them with the people that succeeded on my journey here. This is when I decided when I reach my goals, I’m going to write a course based around the title: Things I wish I knew before I got started. This is that course.
• Nowadays anyone can start their own business online. All they need is an idea, and a very small amount of cash. There’s no longer any need for large amounts of investment. Looking around, it’s obvious to me that for this reason people forget that they’re running a business, and just look at it as a quick way to make some extra cash. Let me tell you now, you are a businessman, or businesswoman. Never forget that.
• No matter how much people don’t like the whole positive thinking and goal setting frame of mind, you have to do it. Goal setting at least, because this is going to be your driving motion that’s going to push you towards success. No goals means no motivation, no motivation means waking up in five years time and wondering why you’re in the same place. Similarly, no set goals means chasing something that you want that’s always getting bigger and better, and further away, which means you’ll never reach it. You need a set goal.
• Setting yourself some goals doesn’t involve positive thinking, it’s not a lot of work either. It just requires you to answer a few questions. Think about these right now. Why are you here, and why are you doing what you’re doing right now? What do you want to get out what you’re doing right now? This is all goal setting requires. Nothing boring, nothing elaborate, but it’s the difference between you moving forward, and staying where you are right now.
• Coming across tough times, or a problem that you don’t know how to solve? Not a problem, refer back to your goal for some motivation. Why are you here? What are you doing right now? And what do you want to get out of what you’re doing right now? That’s all it takes, nothing more.
• It has to sink in that you’re starting or building your own business. This is not a game; this is not a toy, or something for you to show your friends. It’s entirely your creation, and it’s there for one reason and one reason only, and that is to achieve your goals and improve your life.
• It sometimes makes me wonder if people realise what they’re getting in to. Professionalism is a must at all times. I’m sure you’ve seen the sites packed with affiliate links, pink fluffy floral borders with bright flashing lights that talk to you about making millions overnight. It makes me wonder, do these people even know that they’re running a business? Would you buy from these sites even if the product sounded like the best thing ever to land on the Internet?
• It’s not about site design either. It’s about professionalism. You have to have this with you in everything you do. It has to be the best work you’ve ever done. When I say everything I’m talking your marketing, your joint ventures, your sales letters, your ad copy, your follow-up, your product, your affiliate system, any contact that you make with your list or any other resources you may have, in fact anything and everything that you’re going to do that’s related to your business.
• A good marketer knows that as well as having a good product, to make any sales at all; they have to eliminate any worry from the customers mind when they land on your sales letters. These need to be squashed as quickly as possible. Without this level of professionalism it just won’t happen for you. Always think business, always think business owner, and always think one hundred and ten percent professionalism if you’re seriously looking to get anywhere.
• For example, take this product. It’s gone through six drafts and several planning stages over a period of time, simply because it wasn’t good enough when it started out. It wasn’t professional enough, and it didn’t hit home the points strongly enough.
• Don’t go overboard with this, otherwise you will never get anything done, but keep it with you, keep it at the front of your mind at all times and you’ll do just fine.
• Inject your personality. This may sound like a contradiction in terms from the above advice that I gave you about being professional, however, being professional on it’s own just doesn’t cut it. If you want to stand out, if you want to be noticed and remembered, I don’t want you to be afraid to put a little of yourself in there. After all, if you’re remembered, you’re trusted. If you’re trusted, you’ll make a bundle more sales.
• Being professional doesn’t mean being boring. For example this report, I’m talking to you as if I were talking to a friend. You’re getting a whole bundle of information, and a little bit of me at the same time, something it’s unlikely you’ll be forgetting in a hurry. Keep this alongside your professionalism.
• Think about your resources. How much time do you have? Do you need more? The answer is you can put in as much time as you have to spare, even if it’s just seven hours a week to start with. You can spread the work over a longer period of time. Don’t throw a good idea out the window just because you can’t finish it in a few days. You’re not gated from creating a cracking product just because you don’t have masses of time to spare or have budgetary concerns.
• Try not to get frustrated because you’re not rich. There is more to this than being rich and broke, and in monetary terms there are plenty of comfortable in the middle stages, where you may not have reached your goals yet, but you sure are moving towards them and in a much better position compared to when you started.
• Don’t get too hung up on setting yourself deadlines. Deadlines equal anxiety, frustration, and will slow you down. Set a goal and work towards it, and you will get there.
• We are all special. Jack-of-all-trades, we don’t have a massive staffing base to do stuff for us. We write our own sales material, we advertise our own products, we maintain our own lists, follow-up, backend sales, business admin, customer service. You name it. We do it.
• You will pick up many skills along the way, but again, don’t throw away an idea just because you don’t know how to do something. It’s highly likely there’s going to be someone out there that you can hire for parts of the project that you can’t do. For example, I ‘m terrible at designing website graphics but that doesn’t mean I stopped putting sites up. I learned at the start, and nowadays have someone to do this for me.
• Congratulations, because if you can now answer the three questions: What am I doing here? Why am I doing it? What do I hope to achieve? Then you’re in the prime mindset to continue, we’re both on the same page for maximum efficiency, and more importantly, probably without even noticing it, just by doing this, in the past thirty minutes of the course, you’ve started to move forwards already. Lets keep it going.

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