Posted January 31st, 2010
Many people struggle for years with one unsuccessful business attempt after another. Lots more have already given up. But mistakes aren’t bad. Not even failure is terrible. Both are temporary conditions, conditions that you can change. And they’re inevitable, too… but you can get them out of the way, learn from them, and apply your new found knowledge to the success of your business.
Probably one of the biggest mistakes made by “newbies” is trying to be everything to everyone — that is, trying to find or create a product that everyone’s going to want to buy.
Instead, the focus should be on creating a product or service that’s going to appeal to a specific group of people.
Lots of people who start businesses on the web get into the whole, “sell information about how to make money to make money on the internet”.
Please… don’t. Consider this:
* Loads of people who have never made any money online themselves — or never made any significant amounts — claim to be able to teach others how to do the same. Think about what this does to the credibility of the whole industry. Without credibility, your job is going to be much harder.
* The market is saturated with a bunch of garbage products. Again, that makes it harder to convince people that your product is top-notch.
There are easier ways to earn money than to provide yet another “how to make money on the internet” product. What’s your passion? What special skills or knowledge do you have?
* Construction workers may have inside knowledge of what ‘flaws’ to look for before taking possession of a new home.
* Stay-at-home parents may have some great tips on how to find, trade, or barter for good-quality children’s clothing, cheap.
* Hairdressers may be able to provide easy hair styling tips that can be done from home, without expert knowledge, and without any fancy tools.
Many resources are available to help you evaluate business ideas. Two of the better-known resources are:
* WordTracker (very popular, limited free trial available)
* NicheFinder (neat software, useful charts)
An ideal niche would be one where there is lots of demand, but not enough supply to meet that demand. In other words, that means:
* A lot of searches for a key phrase (and related key phrases)… BUT…
* …NOT a lot of results/sites that cater to that search.
People who are just starting out online, or those who have been struggling for years, often start businesses by trying to figure out what’s going to make them the most money (and in the shortest period of time!).
This is a losing strategy for most people. Business is hard work… and even if you’re fortunate to have great success relatively fast, you will go through bad times. It’s inevitable. But if you hate what you do, it’s going to be a lot harder to stick with it. Besides, why be miserable? Find a way to make money doing something you love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The Online Business Basics website offers free marketing tips and articles for beginners to the ‘net. Visit www.onlinebusinessbasics.com for more tips on how to effectively market your business on a limited budget.
Originally published in April 2004
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Posted January 31st, 2010
You know that question that asks, “If you could have dinner with X number of influential people who would you invite”? Well, for me one of my top choices would be Dr. Mya Angelou.
Ever since I read “I Know Why the Caged bird Sings”, I have been an admirer of her work and character. He practical and classic wisdom is such that we shut up and listen intensely when she speaks. As we celebrate black history month and all the phenomenal men and women who paved the way for us all, let’s not forget to celebrate ourselves as well.
I have been blown away by some of the talented brothers and sisters I have met in my journey as an entrepreneur and as you listen to this, inspiring clip by Dr. Angelou, take note of the manifestation of her message.
Dr. Maya Angelou: “I would say to young people and to old people or upper middle age, that we have seriously crippled ourselves and our children by telling people, ‘don’t try all these different things. You’ll become a jack of all trades and a master of none’. That’s ridiculous. You can become the master of everything. The best you can be.
As, we move through our week and this month and even the rest of the year, let’s remember that we are only limited by our imaginations.
I’ll be chatting with you soon!
Posted January 19th, 2010
I don’t know about you but over time my closet can get pretty messy. Whether it is due to running late or flat out laziness, it is apparent that there needs to be some system in place to restore order and flow to my closet. Likewise, we accumulate lots of tools and processes that accessorize our online business and make it pop. And more often all the different pieces get buried, misplaced or lost in a pile of information.
So we find ourselves searching for logins, recreating documents and making things complicated all of which costs us more time and money than we bargained for. However, now all that is about to change with one simple acronym “S.O.P.”.
It’s never to early or too late in the year to get your “virtual closet” in order. by “virtual closet” I mean the internal processes of your business. Having a Standard Operation Procedure Manual (S.O.P.) in place can do wonders for your business.
Here are four ways you can benefit from having your own SOP in place.
- Systematize your business and increase profits: Lack of documented systems plague both online and offline businesses and become a drain on your time and profits. An online S.O.P. allows you to smooth out all the different processes or “hows” in your business and houses them all in one convenient place.
- Hire and train new team members in a breeze: Document your hiring procedures and cut or eliminate training time. New team members can simply log on to your S.O.P. workspace to learn the ins and outs of various organizational tasks.
- Take a ‘real’ vacation and relax: With processes documented, you won’t have to worry your pretty little head as to whether things can get done without you!
- Operate your business outside of your head: Get all the sorted details of your business out of your head and into a place where delegation is made easy and seamless. If something happens to you, can your business move forward?
Click the image below to watch this video tutorial on how to “Set Up” your S.O.P. Manual for FREE online!
P.S. I am working on adding audio for those of you who’d like to follow along audibly. My kids just would not allow me the quiet to record for this release…boys will be boys, right?
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Happy Wishing
~Kenya
Posted January 11th, 2010
By Nicole Dean
Wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places. Today, wisdom bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea. I suddenly realized that everything you’d want to know about writing articles for your website can be taught by SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends.
When you write for your newsletter, blog, or website, which character are you most like?
Mr. Krabs: This crustacean is focused on one thing and one thing only, making more and more and more money. Only a cartoon could actually have dollar signs drawn in his eyes. He thinks of no one, only how he can benefit. Are your articles focused on you or on the reader? Are you providing information or do you have blinders on, thinking only about how you can make money from the article you are writing? If your article reads like an ad or is self-serving or full of affiliate links, you might write like Mr. Krabs.
Plankton: The smallest creature in the sea is also the sneakiest. He’ll do anything and hurt anyone to steal someone else’s work (the Krabby Pattie secret formula). Write your own material. Don’t be Plankton. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s work, edit it, and try to pass it off as your own. You will be caught, and it just isn’t worth it. Take the same amount of effort and work on your own thoughts and ideas. Plankton never gets away with his schemes, either. He’s on Plan “Z” and is still pathetically failing at his attempts to steal the secret formula.
Patrick: SpongeBob’s best friend, the starfish, has a good heart, but isn’t the brightest creature in the sea. Do your articles make you sound like an expert? Are you providing valuable content or just pushing out sloppy articles as fast as you can? Always double check for typos and grammatical errors. If you’re challenged by spelling and grammar, hire a Virtual Assistant or Copywriter to proofread and submit your article for you. Or slow down, set your article aside for a day and then reread it before you click the “submit” button.
Squidward: Squidward is B-O-R-I-N-G. When writing articles, are you a Squidward? Do you just get the words down on paper or are you finding a fun twist to entertain your audience and keep them coming back for more? Take time to make your articles stand out from the thousands of other dull articles out there by including personal stories or just having fun while writing. For instance, this article could be entitled “How to Write a Good Article”, but would it stand out from the hundreds of other articles about article writing? Probably not.
SpongeBob: This little guy always tries to do the right thing, and is a hard worker. He may not always end up getting the results he hoped for, but he bounces back and tackles his work with a renewed vigor. SpongeBob works very hard, he’s a good friend, he always thinks of others, and tries to have fun no matter what he is faced with. Hardworking, friendly SpongeBob is the guy to be when writing articles.
Although this is a silly lesson in article writing, I hope you’ll remember the important messages our underwater friends have taught us.
1. Write articles to help others, not with dollar signs in your eyes.
2. Write your own material. Don’t copy others.
3. Proofread your articles carefully, and provide valuable information.
4. Be entertaining. Not boring.
5. Be a SpongeBob! Hard work and persistence pay off.
Before you know it, you’ll develop a following for having informative and entertaining articles and you’ll be King or Queen of the sea.
Author Resource – Nicole Dean is published all over the web, under numerous pen names. She welcomes you to visit http://EasyArticleMarketing.com to get started using article marketing to boost your business today.
My Virtual Genie is an Affiliate Endorser of Easy Article Marketing
Posted January 11th, 2010
I recently posted a discussion “WHY BUY THE COW WHEN THE FREE MILK IS SOUR?“where I warned not to give away your “ninja secret” to your product recipe. The concept goes that instead of giving a way a full e-book on the “7 ways to do “X”, you simple reveal ONE powerful step in the seven step process and either have the visitor trade their e-mail or purchase the remaining piece. Some savvy participants asked how we could think outside this piece meal method and still deliver value to our prospects and customers.
The answer lies in your funnel. When you have a well developed product funnel, you have the leverage to move and shift things where they are the most effective. Not only that, you have the content to manipulate as well.
As early as 1996, savvy webpreneurs have been banking millions simply by employing this funnel method. By harnessing the power of the free offer, they have been able to achieve six, seven and even eight figure success while reciprocating with REAL not perceived value to their buying audience.
Who can resist a FREE smorgasbord especially if the grub is FREE! Have you ever gone to a catered event where the food spread was so unbelievable, you ended up patronizing the restaurant that provided the service? This is a simple example of how funnel marketing works. People get a free and/or reduced cost taste of what they can expect to get from buying at higher and higher levels. If what you are offering is good, they feel comfortable buying from you no matter the cost.
We all posses a certain power within us, a magic that not genie or magician can manufacture; this power is called determination. If
This Just In…
no one is going to buy from you if they are not convinced that your product/service will work for them.
It may take someone 7 – 8 times or more of visiting your site and nibbling on your free goodies before they whip out their credit card and buy some goodies. Even then, they may not feel comfortable jumping from FREE to a huge FEE. So, not only do you need to offer free things of value to your target audience, you need to have several different price points in between to give your visitors options that may fit more with their budget and circumstances.
In the world of online business you can find FREE stuff everywhere. The question is, as an online business owner are you providing an opportunity to get to know, like and trust you and your offerings?
Let’s walk you through the process of building your product funnel starting with the FREE TASTE.
Evaluating Your Funnel
So, let’s start with what ya got!
If you are a little lean on some or even all of the levels, not to worry, as you work through this process, you’ll have a solid funnel of products to get started on or even completed.
Unleashing Your Loss Leader
Your FREE offerings are represented at the opening of the funnel. Here is where you want to offer something of high value to your visitor for free. This product will be your “Loss Leader” or a product sold at or below cost.
Now why in the world would you want to do that? I mean after all you are trying to make money here, right?
Absolutely.
Stay with me now, because what we are creating here is a pricing strategy. Your loss leader will stimulate a hunger for more of what you have to offer. This is the first step of your visitor’s know, like and trust journey. Trust me this is a mutually beneficial process that will allow a deeper relationship to develop between you and your customers; here is where the real treasure lies.
Deciding on a Free Product
There are a number of ways to deliver your information for free. Here are a few digital formats to choose from.
- E-book
- Short Report
- Audio Interview
- Mp3 & Podcasting
- Mini-Ecourses
- Teleclass or Teleseminar Recording
- Top # List (You choose the number)
- Informational Video or Webinar Presentation
Of course you can offer other tangible free products. However, you will most likely fair better with something instantly downloadable. Otherwise, you could things could get expensive and complicated. That is if you don’t have the proper systems and team in plane to manage the back end. Try shooting for this a little further down the road.
Dos and Don’ts When Considering What FREE Product to Develop:
- Don’t use E-zines or Newsletters only for your freebie. Requires too much time to build and does not deliver instantly which could cause you to lose your moment to make an instant impression or connection.
- Don’t use your “FREE Consult” as your freebie. It may be awesome to chat with you. However, this is not appealing enough to get visitors to bite. Plus, even if they did, imagine 100 people scheduling a free consult…not such a good idea huh?
- Don’t spend more than 4-5 hours creating your free product. If you spend too much time on a free product, you may want to take a step back to ensure you aren’t giving away the cow. Consider giving a piece of it away and developing it as a paid product. This way you can kill two birds with one stone!
- Do choose a format that brings out your inner gifts and talents. If you are a closet actor/actress try a product that incorporates video, if you got the gift of gab, try audio. Just make sure you enjoy the process!
Do poll or research your niche to find out what format they are most responsive to. This may even be a case of test, track and repeat until you find the on switch. If you can, it would be great to ask them directly (i.e through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc)
Next Post…
We’ll take a look at how to create an effective written free product . Stay tuned.
P.S. Just so you know…My Virtual Genie is a compensated affiliate of the products/services mentioned in this post. They are either used in the development and operations in my business or and endorsement of a trusted partner and market leader.
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
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Posted January 10th, 2010
If this seems like a weird title, it did its job. It’s a twist on a familiar concept I’ve adopted to make a point about an important aspect of online business development.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
Forget the shacking up parallels for a moment and consider how this question applies to your online business. When prospects/customers sample your “pink spoon” or free offers, do they feel they can go on without you? It’s a very important question. You may have heard that giving away something of value to prospects for free will help you build your marketing list. And, it is true. However, if you give away your “ninja” secret, why would they want or need to buy your cow?
In this case, letting people taste test your “milk” is fantastic! Just make sure you are giving them a small sample that’ll make em’ say “Man I need to have that cow”!
Why buy the cow when the free milk is sour?
Catch 22 here is to make sure you are not giving away a sour freebie. Just cause it’s free doesn’t mean it is automatically valuable. On the front end,even though a prospect isn’t pulling out their wallet for your offer, they still need to be persuaded to part with the other web currency…their email address. On the backed, once they have downloaded your product or report, they need to be blown away or at least convinced that you know your stuff.
So where’s the happy medium?
One simple and quick mind shift change will take care of this fine line:
1. Protect your farming secret: Meaning if you want to give away “7 ways to do _______________, STOP! Choose the first, last or some juicy step in between and do a webinar, teleclass, report…etc…on that One tantalizing step then up sell the remaining steps as a product or service.
This will give you a powerful tool to create a “hot list” from which to build a relationship and market to, as well as provide you with an additional path to money that can be automated for painless passive income in the future.
Okay, I’m done giving you my ninja recipe for milking a cow…what? Never mind. I’ve lost myself a bit in this metaphor. (lol)
If you want to know more about how to begin laying the foundation of a multi revenue generating business online, Follow this link to my blog and plug in to this month’s “The Joy of the Free Taste” Series http://myvirtualgenie.com/?p=1590
Let me know your thoughts on this post. I’d love your feedback.
Until next time…
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
Posted January 6th, 2010
What are you serving your prospects for free that they’d gladly pay for?
Baskin Robbins has the perfect ‘pink spoon’ both literally and figuratively. You go in and in order to help you figure out what you want, they delight you with the opportunity to taste a variety of flavors for free. And-after your heavenly taste testing, there is no way you are leaving the store without a cone a pint or an account to have ice cream delivered to your door! Taste testing free ice cream is an automatic draw. But, what about in your web based business? We are gonna identify the 8 ingredients that make up a tantalizing ‘Pink Spoon’ recipe.
What is a ‘Pink Spoon’?
I must admit this was a concept lost on me when I put up my first website. It was beautiful to look at. However, it had the virtual window shopping effect;It was nice to look at but not worth taking the time to stop in for a closer look.
I spent, what seemed like, millions of hours trying to get it up and running for customers to preview my products and services. And guess what…they did not bite. Even when I learned more about marketing online and revamped my site, I was missing a critical piece…My Pink Spoon!
The ‘pink spoon’ is a clever play on a best practice process that goes by many names (funnel marketing, free line marketing etc…). Whatever you call it, it is a strategic process that compels customers buy by moving them through a series of offerings from free items of value, nominally priced products to high-end assets. The purpose of the ‘pink spoon’ is to establish the “know, like and trust’ relationship with your audience.
There are eight ingredients in developing an effective Pink Spoon or Sales Funnel:
(As outlined in the “Pink Spoon Marketing” System)
- Identifying Your Niche Market: Who are they? Where do they hang out? A good niche is specific and narrow. For example, “women” is not a great niche. “women business owners” is better. “women who own business coaching practices” is great!
- Elicit the Problems: Once you know who your target audience are, you can survey and engage them to find out what’s really bugging them in their market, what barriers they need to get over, and what’s stopping them from getting what they want out of their life or business.
- Find the Solutions: Craft ‘hardcore’ and ‘softcore’ products that resolve the challenges your research revealed. We’ll talk more about these later in the series.
- Choose Your Products and Your Packaging: Now, this is the fun part. Here ‘s where you will productize your solutions and decide what format you’d like to deliver them in. We’re exploring this piece later in the series as well.
- Generate Traffic with Integrity: Leverage cost effective and proven traffic generation methods used by the gurus. Over the course of this series we’ll take a look at what these are and provide you with some of the tools I use in my own business. (You’ll need to subscribe to the ‘Virtually Chic Newsletter’ to get the inside scoop).
- Continue to Convert Traffic into Prospects: Your we presence is all about driving ‘targeted’ traffic to a specific location,preferably a sales or opt-in page and trying to convert them into buyers.
- Strengthen the Trust Relationship : Once your targeted traffic takes the desired action via opt-in to your list or making a purchase, you want to nurture the relationship through consistent email messaging. The best thing to do here would be to use an autoresponder like aweber.
- Pursue a Bold, Outrageous and Provocative Position in Your Niche Market: Do you have a position, slogan, methodology that can turn heads or makes people think “What”? Explore what upsets you or what quirky personality traits you can inject into your marketing message to ignite interest, draw a tribal following AND STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.
Next Post…
We’ll take a look at how to create an effective pink spoon and product all at once! Stay tuned.
P.S. Just so you know…My Virtual Genie is a compensated affiliate of the products/services mentioned in this post. Both are used in the development and operations in my business.
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
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Posted January 4th, 2010
QUESTION: WHY BUY THE COW WHEN THE FREE MILK IS SOUR?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Okay, so the cow…yeah– not all that chic, but I thought he was cute! Anyway, it really drives home the message of the month which is exploring the art of the “Free Taste”. To break in the brand new year, I thought I’d start off showing you how giving away FRESH AND VALUABLE stuff can propel you to multiple stream success.
First, we’ve all heard the saying ” Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? Well, in the online world, the virtual “free milk” is what fuels your prospects and customers to buy from you. The “free milk” I speak of represents your free giveaway. What are you providing your prospects to motivate them to buy from you? I should point out that it is important that your “milk” or freebie be something fresh and rich enough to fill your audience with useful information without rendering yourself and your products and services useless.
Now, if you have grasped this concept already, then stay tuned in this month for tips and tricks on making your offerings even more tantalizing for your list.
If you don’t have any “milk” to give away, Don’t fret. I’m here to help you milk your cow and quinch the thirst of your niche. Stay plugged in this month as we explore…
The Importance of the Free Gift in Your Online business:
Pink Spoon Marketing, Funnel Marketing, Lead Loser Marketing… are all fancy names to describe the free giveaway, which is the foundation of online business. As you’ll find if you follow this series, there are many other elements that accompany this feature. However, the free product is the draw.
Creating Your Free Sample
When choosing your freebie, remember strategy is key! Don’t go for a format just because of all the bells and whistles. Look for ways to create a sense of value. How do you do that? It varies. You can do polls, surveys interviews, contests and more to find out what’s really buggin’ your target audience. You can even draw on your own experiences. Whatever the means, the end should equal real value for your prospects and customers.
Building Your Relationship
Don’t expect people to buy something when they visit your site for the first time. It’s important to establish the “know, like and trust” factor in your communications. If your customers love you they will not only follow and support your message, they will WANT to give you their money! Think about the brands you swear by. What are the characteristics that compel you to buy only their products/services. Is it quality, service delivery, customer service, dependability…? Try making a list and determine how you can apply those characteristics to your own business.
A new author puts up a site to promote his book. He has a about me, product, and contact page.
What’s Missing?
Many beginning webpreneurs make the mistake of just thinking a contact page is enough. Having a site without any candy to engage the visitor can lead to you losing a potential sale forever. What’s more, a stale and ineffective “pink spoon” is another way to let a prospect escape.In the case of the author, even if the description of the book’s content is enticing, odds are it isn’t enough to convince the visitor to part with their hard earned dollars or even their precious e-mail address.
We are gonna be delving deeper into each of these issues this month. To be sure you don’t miss out, make sure your signed up for our monthly “Virtually Chic” Newsletter.
Next time we’ll explore the art of developing a compelling pink spoon and how not to give away the cow!
The Art of the Free Taste Series Blog posts will be delivered Mondays and Wednesdays.
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Happy Wishing
~Kenya
