Here is a post that was made by Josh Spaulding. He is one of the internet marketers that I follow and highly respect. He is down to earth and just makes sense. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
You Do Have Value To Offer
Just a short one today on two things that held me back for a while when I first got started online… things that I believe hold many others back… the fear that your product, website or whatever it is you’re working on, won’t meet the expectations of your target audience and the belief that you don’t have much value to offer.
If it’s an ebook it may not be long enough and people may complain about it. If it’s a website it might not look professional enough. If it’s a service you might not present it in a professional way. These are just a few of the worries people have when getting started.
If you’re teaching people how to make money and you’ve only made $100 then you shouldn’t be teaching people how to make online, right? WRONG! There are millions of people out there who would LOVE to learn as many ways as they possibly can to make $100!
If you are one of those people, stop, right now! As the Nike slogan goes “Just do it!” Just do your best and concentrate on providing value!
If there was a line of 100 people in front of you and you sat down with each and every one of them I guarantee there is AT LEAST one thing you could teach them that they didn’t already know. That one thing may be small, but I bet you have many of those small things and I bet there are thousands, maybe millions of other people out there that are looking for that little piece of info as we speak.
Understand that you DO have value to offer! It may not be valuable to one person, but it IS to someone and most likely thousands or even millions of people. Once you understand and truly believe that take action and don’t worry about getting it perfect. As long as you’re providing value things will eventually work out! Once you have started providing that value, in whatever way you choose, THEN you can start learning how to improve on how you do it.
That’s it. Just a short one.. This post is a perfect example. Some people will read this and think “Duh, come on Josh.” And others will think “hmm, he has a point.” =)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A Post From Andrew Hanson On Narrowing Your Focus
Andrew Hanson is someone the I have been following for a while. He always has great content that is actually helpful to people. He is one of those down to earth online marketers that believes providing value to his subscribers.
In his article he focuses on keeping your focus narrowed down to one or two things in order to get better results. It reminds me of the saying "Jack of all trades but master of none". What this means is if you focus on a bunch of different things you will know a little bit about all of those things but you won't be truly successful at any one thing.
Anyway, enjoy the article:
Through our different products & memberships, through events & through meetings in person, I get a chance every year to interact with a lot of people who want to start, or want to rapidly grow their online businesses.
These are people with dreams, people who envision something better for their life, even if only in small ways, and they want a business online to be a vehicle for that.
The sad part is that most of these people don’t make it. Those dreams never become a reality. Some do, but most don’t.
It seems almost a cliche to write an article on the most common reasons for people not reaching their goals in online business. But at the same time, it’s endlessly relevant and important. If you’re reading this post I’m guessing it’s because you want to make more money online this year. And if that’s you, I know there are things you’re doing that are hindering your progress toward that goal. There are also things you aren’t doing but could be, that might accelerate your progress.
These are some of those things that if you change them in 2011, you just might look back on it as being YOUR year:
1. Narrow Your Focus
I started out in business so young that I didn’t have enough experience to demonstrate to me the power of consistent concentrated effort. I kind of thought – personal development background and all – that if I just took BIG ENOUGH action, it’d work. Now that I’m so old and experienced (note sarcasm) I’ve come to really appreciate that most things get achieved with consistent, small amounts of progress that come about through CONSISTENT, FOCUSED action.
Widely spread focus means slow results. Tightly focused action means faster results.
Practically this means that if in 2010 you worked on 5 projects or 5 websites… in 2011 you’ll cut it down to 2. If you follow 5 different gurus, unsubscribe from all but 2. If you monitor a handful of forums, cut it back to 1. If you have 5 social media accounts, cut it back to 1. If you’re focusing on 5 different online business models, cut it back to 1.
Keep your best 1 or 2 of everything and commit all your energy to them, at least until you can afford to outsource on a bigger scale. You’ll think you’re losing out on “opportunities” but you’re not. You’re gaining ground on the opportunities that currently aren’t getting enough attention.
I guarantee with an intense feeling of conviction that if you do this in 2011, you will make more money than you ever have before.
2. Believe In Yourself (Eww…)
That sounds tacky, I know. What I mean is this:
Instead of asking “Is this right? Should I do this? What about this?”…
Just do it. Do it and learn for yourself. Try. See if it works and if it doesn’t, move on and try something else. So many people who are trying to start or grow their online business have so much hesitation, so much concern that they might get something wrong. Newsflash: You’re going to get things wrong. Forever. Your mistakes will never end no matter how successful you become. In fact the more successful you become, the more mistakes you’ll make. Get used to them. Let them be a part of your life. Love your mistakes. Trust yourself and be persistent and mistakes will become irrelevant.
3. Take A BIG Step
I don’t know what your goal is, but if you’re trying to get to a point where your online business sustains your life, keeps you and your family safe and secure and fulfilled for the rest of your life, it’s not going to happen with only baby steps. A baby is a good analogy actually. When you start to crawl, you can get around fine. You could, theoretically have the benefit of movement if all you ever did was crawl. But at some point, you have to take a BIG leap forward in your progression. You have to stand up. It’s unknown, it’s scary, you’ll fall down at first if you do, but if you don’t, you’ll only be crawling in your life, and in your business until. You’ll keep crawling forever.
There’s often one action that represents this big leap. For some people it’s quitting their day job to pursue online biz full time. For some people it’s making one big uncomfortable investment in their business that they want to pay off after time. Maybe it’s finally hiring a second person for your business to scale things up. For some it’s just stopping learning and pulling the trigger to start that first website.
Whatever it is, there’s a big, bold piece of action that you could take this year that would make it a turning point in your business. Think about what that is and make this the year to freakin DO IT.
4. Remember What Worked
Alot of us working online have had at least one success. You made a sale with something. You got some adsense clicks with something. You got some opt ins with SOMETHING.
Often – particularly in online marketing where we are distracted so easily – we forget about the things that we’ve done that have created success. Maybe it wasn’t a success as big as we envisioned, so we cast it aside. I am a perfect example of this.
At the start of my business I did a lot of things wrong, yeah… but I also did a couple of things right. They worked and it was great, but for a number of reasons, other things took my attention, some things seemed to make me more money in the short term, so I forgot about what I’d done initially that created success. Recently I remembered how cool those old things were, started doing them again, and had a huge boost in our revenue.
In 2011, stop to have a look back at the things you did in the past that worked. And when I say worked, I don’t mean, made you a million dollars. I mean every time you generated a single website visitor, ask “how did I do that? Could I do that again but better with the extra information I know now? Could I do that in a different market that might be more profitable?
Could I do that but monetize it in a better way?”
You know what I mean? We all have SOME success that we can point to, analyze, and try to replicate and improve. I believe most of us know more than we think. More than we give ourselves credit for.
5. Feel Your Goal Feelings Now
There’s one thing I know for sure. If you can’t feel happy, grateful, fulfilled, excited, secure, proud or whatever it is you think having a successful online business will make you feel NOW… then you won’t feel it when you have your “big success” either.
If you’re reading this post, you have things you can feel happy about now; things you could feel grateful for now; things you could be proud of now. And if you can’t acknowledge that fact, more money in the bank isn’t going to make a difference. Incidentally, neither is more free time.
Happiness breeds happiness.
Enjoy your journey. Get excited about it. It might be frustrating at times but it’s going to be the story you tell when you make it big! I remember many years ago, driving home from a stupid “all nighter” work session at about 6am, just totally wrecked, but thinking “When I’m a success, I’ll tell people about this”. And I do.
That’s all my friends.
2011 is going to be a big year for me and I hope for you too. I can’t wait to see your progress, and I can’t wait to share with you mine.
To your success!
In his article he focuses on keeping your focus narrowed down to one or two things in order to get better results. It reminds me of the saying "Jack of all trades but master of none". What this means is if you focus on a bunch of different things you will know a little bit about all of those things but you won't be truly successful at any one thing.
Anyway, enjoy the article:
Through our different products & memberships, through events & through meetings in person, I get a chance every year to interact with a lot of people who want to start, or want to rapidly grow their online businesses.
These are people with dreams, people who envision something better for their life, even if only in small ways, and they want a business online to be a vehicle for that.
The sad part is that most of these people don’t make it. Those dreams never become a reality. Some do, but most don’t.
It seems almost a cliche to write an article on the most common reasons for people not reaching their goals in online business. But at the same time, it’s endlessly relevant and important. If you’re reading this post I’m guessing it’s because you want to make more money online this year. And if that’s you, I know there are things you’re doing that are hindering your progress toward that goal. There are also things you aren’t doing but could be, that might accelerate your progress.
These are some of those things that if you change them in 2011, you just might look back on it as being YOUR year:
1. Narrow Your Focus
I started out in business so young that I didn’t have enough experience to demonstrate to me the power of consistent concentrated effort. I kind of thought – personal development background and all – that if I just took BIG ENOUGH action, it’d work. Now that I’m so old and experienced (note sarcasm) I’ve come to really appreciate that most things get achieved with consistent, small amounts of progress that come about through CONSISTENT, FOCUSED action.
Widely spread focus means slow results. Tightly focused action means faster results.
Practically this means that if in 2010 you worked on 5 projects or 5 websites… in 2011 you’ll cut it down to 2. If you follow 5 different gurus, unsubscribe from all but 2. If you monitor a handful of forums, cut it back to 1. If you have 5 social media accounts, cut it back to 1. If you’re focusing on 5 different online business models, cut it back to 1.
Keep your best 1 or 2 of everything and commit all your energy to them, at least until you can afford to outsource on a bigger scale. You’ll think you’re losing out on “opportunities” but you’re not. You’re gaining ground on the opportunities that currently aren’t getting enough attention.
I guarantee with an intense feeling of conviction that if you do this in 2011, you will make more money than you ever have before.
2. Believe In Yourself (Eww…)
That sounds tacky, I know. What I mean is this:
Instead of asking “Is this right? Should I do this? What about this?”…
Just do it. Do it and learn for yourself. Try. See if it works and if it doesn’t, move on and try something else. So many people who are trying to start or grow their online business have so much hesitation, so much concern that they might get something wrong. Newsflash: You’re going to get things wrong. Forever. Your mistakes will never end no matter how successful you become. In fact the more successful you become, the more mistakes you’ll make. Get used to them. Let them be a part of your life. Love your mistakes. Trust yourself and be persistent and mistakes will become irrelevant.
3. Take A BIG Step
I don’t know what your goal is, but if you’re trying to get to a point where your online business sustains your life, keeps you and your family safe and secure and fulfilled for the rest of your life, it’s not going to happen with only baby steps. A baby is a good analogy actually. When you start to crawl, you can get around fine. You could, theoretically have the benefit of movement if all you ever did was crawl. But at some point, you have to take a BIG leap forward in your progression. You have to stand up. It’s unknown, it’s scary, you’ll fall down at first if you do, but if you don’t, you’ll only be crawling in your life, and in your business until. You’ll keep crawling forever.
There’s often one action that represents this big leap. For some people it’s quitting their day job to pursue online biz full time. For some people it’s making one big uncomfortable investment in their business that they want to pay off after time. Maybe it’s finally hiring a second person for your business to scale things up. For some it’s just stopping learning and pulling the trigger to start that first website.
Whatever it is, there’s a big, bold piece of action that you could take this year that would make it a turning point in your business. Think about what that is and make this the year to freakin DO IT.
4. Remember What Worked
Alot of us working online have had at least one success. You made a sale with something. You got some adsense clicks with something. You got some opt ins with SOMETHING.
Often – particularly in online marketing where we are distracted so easily – we forget about the things that we’ve done that have created success. Maybe it wasn’t a success as big as we envisioned, so we cast it aside. I am a perfect example of this.
At the start of my business I did a lot of things wrong, yeah… but I also did a couple of things right. They worked and it was great, but for a number of reasons, other things took my attention, some things seemed to make me more money in the short term, so I forgot about what I’d done initially that created success. Recently I remembered how cool those old things were, started doing them again, and had a huge boost in our revenue.
In 2011, stop to have a look back at the things you did in the past that worked. And when I say worked, I don’t mean, made you a million dollars. I mean every time you generated a single website visitor, ask “how did I do that? Could I do that again but better with the extra information I know now? Could I do that in a different market that might be more profitable?
Could I do that but monetize it in a better way?”
You know what I mean? We all have SOME success that we can point to, analyze, and try to replicate and improve. I believe most of us know more than we think. More than we give ourselves credit for.
5. Feel Your Goal Feelings Now
There’s one thing I know for sure. If you can’t feel happy, grateful, fulfilled, excited, secure, proud or whatever it is you think having a successful online business will make you feel NOW… then you won’t feel it when you have your “big success” either.
If you’re reading this post, you have things you can feel happy about now; things you could feel grateful for now; things you could be proud of now. And if you can’t acknowledge that fact, more money in the bank isn’t going to make a difference. Incidentally, neither is more free time.
Happiness breeds happiness.
Enjoy your journey. Get excited about it. It might be frustrating at times but it’s going to be the story you tell when you make it big! I remember many years ago, driving home from a stupid “all nighter” work session at about 6am, just totally wrecked, but thinking “When I’m a success, I’ll tell people about this”. And I do.
That’s all my friends.
2011 is going to be a big year for me and I hope for you too. I can’t wait to see your progress, and I can’t wait to share with you mine.
To your success!
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