Then there was another learning curve and yet another and another..

And you know what..

It never ends!

If you are inclined to learn and implement..

Learning is a never ending process. You can always learn and apply more. But there comes a time when you have to stop kidding yourself and actually implement what you have learned already and start enjoying the journey.

It’s a known fact that most people who buy books don’t read them all. People who like to read probably buy more books than they have time to read. And others may not always read a full book.

People who do read books and learn something new, probably never take action on what gained from the book. The knowledge is stored but never acted upon and most books are left to gather dust and usually forgotten about.

This is a generalization of course.

But the fact is that to enter ANY market you have to implement. You need to take action and you need to have something unique. Even if you take action and you don’t know if the action you are taking is the right one, taking some action is better than taking no action.

If you do actually take action and follow through you are probably 90% ahead of everyone else, because based on the 80/20 rule, most people simply don’t take action.

Compare this to learning to drive a car. You can read the books, watch videos and be an ‘armchair expert’, but you won’t actually learn to be an expert driver let alone a competent driver unless you actually get behind the wheel and do something.

So whether it’s selling on eBay, Amazon, through ecommerce channels or through other channels and in any market, you need to walk before you can run and actually do start doing something. I’m sure you’ll agree you can learn basics but you can’t become an expert or even proficient unless you start doing something and actually start ‘trying’ stuff.

Here’s something else I hear often..

“If every market is already too competitive then why even bother trying”.

Here’s why..

Take music for example..

I’m kind of eclectic so I tend to like all kinds of different music. But what if every musician out there said..

“I’m not going to write or release a new song because there are already too many musicians in the world and the market is already flooded with music”.

Of course that wouldn’t happen, because in reality there are so many different kinds of music styles and unlimited possibilities for new music to be created and people who like ‘creating’ and ‘adding value’ do it because it’s in their blood.

I have always said that the key to winning is having something different to offer. You don’t have to be radically different, you just need to be at the least fractionally different. Just different enough so that you, your music or your products are unique.

The same can be said for any market you enter on the internet. Be unique and make your products stand out – they only have to be slightly different to existing products to be unique enough to be winning products in their own right. This actually works better in competitive markets.

The good news is that it doesn’t take long to discover new ideas and strategies once you immerse yourself in a market.

What can you do to make your products that little bit different and what actions you will you commit to this week and actually complete..

It would be interesting to know!

Of course customer services is an extremely important part of eBay and ecommerce and it needs to be supervised and managed however you shouldn’t be the one doing it.

If you are serious about your business, your time is worth much more.

I can’t tell you how much time it has saved me and to be honest how much of a weight was lifted from my shoulders. Customer service is not difficult (no disrespect to customer service people), because it is time consuming and requires effort and can drain your brain when you are constantly keeping customers pleased.

That brought me to another problem. I have customer services covered and as I mentioned in a previous post ‘How much is your time really worth’ my fulfilment is managed externally. That leaves me with more time to grow my business. I’ve had success with a customer services manager however finding and keeping a good web developer is another animal altogether.

I have hired and fired 4 web developers in one month and hopefully the guy I have working on my websites now will be the one, ‘fingers crossed’. Apparently it wasn’t totally the fault of the 4 guys I had to let go. You see hiring employees was relatively new to me and I was looking in the wrong places for that type of qualified worker who I could rely on.

How do I know?

Because I asked an expert. I asked a mentor and coach who had already been there and done it a successfully a thousand times over.

Did I pay for that advice?

I certainly did.

I believe there is a lot of good free information floating around out there, but how do you know who to trust. How do you know they really have been there and done it. Another thing is valuing your time. I value my time and instead of wasting hours trudging the forums, I would much rather pay up front for the right information when I need it.

I wish I had taken my own advice and asked an expert BEFORE attempting to hire 5 web developers.

OK, so my point is..

Save time and pain by asking an expert who’s been there and who can answer your specific questions right when you need them answered. There are many eBay sellers and e commerce businesses who ‘spin their wheels’ far too long and the Personal One-on-One eBay coaching is available if you find your climbing boots are glued to the starting line.

Like I do, If you need a question answered that could save you months and want to get traction, find a coach and get the answers you need right there and then. A coach not only provides the answers, an accountability partner can prevent temporary insanity in the sometimes ‘crazy’ world of the internet!

To Your Success!

I also have an SEO Hosting account which allows you to host different websites with different IP addresses so your websites are not all linked together with the same IP (Internet Protocol) address.

SEO Hosting belong to Hostgator, the best hosting provider in my opinion.

I’ve never used any automation software except I must admit to using an article spinner on a few occasions. Anyhow, I’ll get to the point. I found this information over at the warrior forum..

http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/196883-search-engine-optimization-frequently-asked-questions.html

It gives you a complete run down on search engine optimization and I thought it would be useful to share this with you.

You have to be careful on the warrior forum because you can end up buying lots of stuff you don’t need but some of the information is really useful if you are doing anything online.

The second thing I wanted to share today is the importance of having Googles plus one button on your site. This is something Google is trying out a bit like a Facebook ‘Like’ button. My prediction is that once Google has enough data from the ‘+1’ button’ votes this will play a part in how Google arranges it’s most popular pages in the search engines.

If you have a blog you can simply install the ‘Googles Plus One Button’ widget.

To try it out, and If you think this information is useful, hit the + 1 button here on the left..

There are a a tonne of ways ‘you can do’ internet marketing and a tonne of ways to make money. There’s even more ways to fail. I’m going to be totally open and just tell you how I do it. I am confident of being able to tell you this and be totally honest about how I do it because it’s no big secret. You just have to DO IT!

If you know it already then great I hope that what I am about to tell you helps keep you focussed, if you don’t know how to do it then this is how. These are the actual steps you can take to grow a business to make money online..

- Research Keywords with Googles Keyword Tool

- Check SEO page rank for competition

- Research eBay Pulse /Amazon reviews / Clickbank/Kindle reviews etc..

- Check Google trends

- Check commercial intent of keywords

- Check PPC ads for competition

- Choose one Bullseye keyword and a few similar keywords as your main keywords.

- Buy domain name

- Setup a website WordPress is the best platform as I write this. the quickest way to setup wordpress sites is to use the best web hosting Hostgator and use fantastico to install wordpess with a few clicks.

- Setup your website for SEO (Read Googles Guide for Webmasters)

- Setup analytics Google Analytics is free. I also use Getclicky with a ‘spy’ feature so you can see visitors interact with your website    in real time.

- Setup your pages – include a sales page and a lead capture page

- Write your first and second post

- Start a PPC campaign.

- Start getting a few links and push marketing by:

- Blogging, article marketing, directory submissions, high page rank links, social media, video marketing, and the list goes on..

- Improve and constantly test your sales pages and ads with Website Optimizer

- Build from there. Whatever you are selling or marketing for affiliate revenue.

If you are selling physical products sell them in more places: eBay, Amazon, Bonanza, Google product search, ecrator, Shopping Comparison channels and the list goes on.

- Create your own affiliate program with 1automationwiz.com.

- Sell related products/services to your successful products/services, also promote other products as an affiliate, cross sell-upsell.

- And start all over again building your websites, linking your websites etc..

If you manage to do this and you are making money, keep feeding content into your system, keep building traffic sources, keep posting articles, keep talking about your products and services, keep growing your email lists.

After you’ve done all that without getting distracted along the way or without being diverted without you even knowing it, and you are still making money  – well done you’re a star!

You then have more choices to make..

You can sustain and continue to grow your business yourself, or you can hire people to help you or do it for you – and start new seedling businesses.

You have to keep reinvesting time and /or money into your business to keep it growing.

Each and EVERY step above is a potential road block. Each step can take months of training if your are new to the area. Each step can be a potential mine-field and most people stop because they get stuck, get lost somewhere along the way or diverted without even knowing it.

So I made this post to remind both you and myself not to get distracted from a time-tested process for building businesses online and making money. Even if the tools change or the platforms change or more marketing platforms are added over time, this is the process no matter what new shiny object or latest marketing platform is released.

AHHH, I feel better already for writing that.

Now back to work!

Do you have a road map..

I often wonder why people don’t ‘protect’ their internet marketing business better? If you were running a bricks and mortar business you would have the building and contents of your business insured, right?

That’s something I learned the hard way when I first started online marketing.

So, there I was busy pounding away on the PC feeling great about building my online business when suddenly WHAMM…

The PC hard drive failed and everything STOPPED and I was looking at the blue screen of death!

The cheap hard drive installed in the PC seized to respond and crashed, only to crash my entire business along with it. Yes I could easily access my eBay accounts, websites and blogs from another computer but all the precious data, images, bookmarks, tools, software, and files were gone forever.

I did eventually get all my passwords back that I had stored on the hard drive, but I was still entering my email address in the ‘recover your password’ forms for months to come. I also did have an external hard drive that I used to backup my data once in a while but I only backed up maybe every 6 months or so. I lost 6 months of files I had stored and lots of TIME!

You can imagine the nightmare of the blue screen of death!

So I now use 2 tools that prevent such a disaster ever happening again and they are..

1. Roboform

I can’t imagine being without this tool. Every time I need to login to a website I simply hover the Roboform link installed in my web browser and Roboform shows me all the websites that I have login information stored. I click the website I want to login to and Roboform automatically logs me in. I don’t have to remember the login details and it even stores my address details to fill sign up forms. It saves me so much time and it’s security protected. Oh, and there’s  a 30 day free trial to test it out.

The second one is..

2. GoodSync

If I had used this tool BEFORE my hard drive died I would have saved so much time not having to recover important information (some of which I will never get back). It’s like the ‘It will never happen to me’ lie we all fool ourselves with until after the disastrous event. Using GoodSync, in 2 clicks I can now backup any important files and synchronize between my PC, laptop, server, external drive and phone.

These are the tools that stop me guessing if and when the next blue screen of death will appear, not to mention the amount of time saved trying to recover and remember passwords.

If you have lots of time spare and don’t have important documents on your laptop there’s no need to know about these tools. Or like my friend, if you don’t mind pouring coffee into your laptop and losing everything!

I have built a few wysiwyg ecommerce shopping cart websites and I was recently looking at the pros and cons of using an all in one ecommerce package like 3dcart or, to build a website and add links to a back-end shopping cart like 1shoppingcart.

I’ve always had a problem with the limitations of not being able to change the layout or positioning within an all in one ecommerce software package so I have always used wysiwygwebbuilder to make the website and then used 1automationwiz.com to manage orders, the customer database, email marketing and affiliate program.1automationwiz is the same software are 1shoppingcart but at the time of writing this you get a 4 week free trial if you sign up through 1automationwiz.com

This way I have total flexibility of the layout and style of my website and my website is not ‘tied in’ with an all-in-one package in the event I ever wanted to move my website to another shopping cart platform or even sell it on.

I have included a free WYSIWYG shopping cart template for you to download and use with wysiwygwebbuilder. Most of the templates you can get for free are simple one page samples but I have created the entire website for you. Actually it is a website I built for one of my shopping cart stores.

So, to save you all the time and hassle of building a wysiwyg shopping cart template from scratch you can download your website template below totally free.

You might be asking why am I giving you this for free?..

Well, the templates are totally free for you to use to create your shopping cart websites. All I ask in return is if you do use the templates, that you simply leave a comment below and if you do use the back end shopping cart software like 1automationwiz or ultracart that you use my affiliate link so I would receive a small commission for recommending their services.

You can even use Paypal to add your shopping cart links.

Here are the template screen shots..

Download the templates in a zip file here

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The first EVER listing I posted on eBay was oh so completely rubbish. I took a picture with the first mobile phone that had a camera function (That’s how bad the image was).

I listed at 99p and I can’t remember what I wrote in the item description but I’m sure it would have been a complete disaster.

And I can also remember some of the products I’ve purchased and new ideas I’ve been involved with that looking back – were a complete waste of time. I would get the new ebook or new ‘product’ and run with it, only to find it didn’t work out and that it only made the person I purchased it from richer!

But that was way back when I was a ‘Green Internet Marketer’ or what is known in the industry as a ‘Newbie’.

It’s a funny thing how you never stop learning as you ride the emotional roller coaster that internet marketing will inevitably force you to ride.

This is one of the reason’s I only produce products that I know work!

The days of Green newbie impulse buys are now behind me and the more you know, the more you can implement, but there comes a point where you can only implement so much. There are only so many hours in one day and even the most hardened steam train marketers will have to stop to refuel eventually – you become a ‘work-droid’ in your own business.

And that’s why I recently discovered how to actually have more than one of me. You might be thinking I’ve gone completely insane at this point but please bear with me, this is relevant.

I’ve hired virtual assistants and contractors to complete tasks for me before on Elance and Odesk but I recently discovered something with a radically different approach to outsourcing. It’s John Jonas’s Replace Myself system.

I’ve worked through it and I’m having some success at actually duplicating myself in my business.

If you find there’s not enough hours in the day to get everything done, I’d certainly recommend taking a look at ReplaceMyself it’s a bit pricey to join but even the free content is a real eye-opener.

Whenever I take a break at the beach or to another country or to the countryside I always appreciate the break and the time out and I even look forward to returning home and to my work which is more or less my hobby..

So, I returned to my house in Bangkok this time only to find that within just three short days, lot’s of things can happen.

The first thing I noticed is that the foot long Gourami fish in the fish tank was gasping for air..

(I actually bought this fish originally as a small one inch fish to keep the other small fish in my humble little tank company, I bought it from an old lady in a pet store in an ancient looking street in Bangkok, a bit like that store in the film Gremlins where Gizmo was found in that ancient, forgotten store in China Town.. anyhow the old lady ensured me that ‘this fish would not grow any larger’, or maybe  not!)

I’m sure it’s now a potential record sized  foot long Giant pink eyed Gourami probably worth a hefty sum to someone – anyhow this fish was gulping for air at the top of the six foot tank I was forced to find just to house the sheer size of this so called small fish..

It turns out the air pump I purchased only about 8 months ago had taken it’s toil, routinely recycling the gallons of water that runs through it each day. The Big fish and the other surviving little fish around it were all gasping for air and survival.

The next thing I noticed as I returned to ‘home-sweet-home’ was a trickle of water that was leaking through the roof into the living room.. the house next door had been vacant ever since we moved in about 2 years previous and the new tenants had just moved in only to reveal the undiscovered leakage between their shower and our living room.

I had been driving for about 8 hours that day so I shoved the ‘quick fix’ bucket under the drip in the roof and poured fresh water into the Giant Guarami’s tank, and hit the sleep.

The next morning , ‘home sweet home’ I went out and bought a new pump for the fish tank and called in the maintenance guys to fix the leak in the roof. At this point things are looking better and I’m feeling good and looking forward to checking what’s been going on online and getting back to routine and enjoying my hobby/business..

Sound simple right..?

First you turn on the computer, then you turn on the modem..

Easy…

or Not!

The damned internet adsl light was down.. (This is Thailand after all and sometimes Stuff happens, although I must admit you do get a much quicker response to customer service than you would back in the UK or any other country I’ve lived in for that matter)

Anyway, I finally got the internet to work and I was logged on..

The good news was, whilst I’d been away for three days my businesses had grown a little and sales were ticking over and were just as good as if  not better than before I left..

GREAT..

However, like anyone who has an internet business/hobby/entrepreneurial mindset, I always have a few things going on in the background and have a few new up and coming things going on..

However, when I checked the new seedling projects I had planted, they had been trodden by the dreaded Google Slap!

All the new projects I had been investing time , energy and precious enthusiasm into had been halted by the Google Adwords Slap!

You could compare this to snuggling up with someone warm on a cold night, and being thrown over you a bucket of ice cold water with chunks of ice cubes bouncing off your head, spoiling your warm patch.

Hey, I can handle a basting now and again but this is my livelihood I’m talking about and the livelihood of my family, my employees and my affiliates.

Sometimes you just got to take it on the chin..

I recall a saying Dad used to say a lot, I don’t know who quoted this but i just know Dad said it a lot, that is..

‘What can go wrong, Will go wrong’..

So although I had enjoyed a well needed break away, I returned to put it bluntly a pile of crap!

I’s going to happen, it’s life..

It’s not what happens but how you react to it that is really important..

With the title of this post being ‘Google Slap’, maybe you expected to see groaning, moaning

and efforts to grovel to Google..

Well, if this has or does happen to you, the important thing is to keep your composure, because it’s not what happens to you,

but how you deal with it what really counts, keep your composure and you’ll be fine.

The Google machine is truly amazing, however it has some catching up if it is to meet the sophistication and experience of the human brain..

If you get slapped by Google, take it on the chin..

You just have to keep your composure, think it out and get around it..

Keep smiling and relax..

(By the way as I was just about to post this, there was a total blackout.. Not so normal for a metropolitan city or even Bangkok for that matter – as I post this there is power in my laptop battery and the sound of all sorts of animals outside you don’t normally hear, probably reacting to the power outage..)

It just goes to show, If it can happen It’s going to happen and I love the challenge..

I hope you do too..

To Your Success!

Yesterday one of my suppliers called Graham asked me “John, you buy so much of these products from us but how do you actually sell them, your business is selling them on the internet isn’t it?”

I said yes that’s partly right.

I told him, “I actually use these products as ‘marketing widgets’ that lead customers towards my main business which is teaching people how to build and promote their own business on the internet” .

He looked back at me with a blank gaze and probably still none the wiser.

“Ah OK,” he replied..

“So, how do you actually sell these products then?”

In lay man’s terms I proceeded to explain to Graham how you can market widgets on the internet..

“Graham, you can sell your physical products using PPC, SEO, PPV, CPA, CSE’s, Facebook, Email, Blogging, Article Writing, Affiliate Marketing, E commerce Platforms, Video Marketing, Joint ventures,  etc”

He didn’t really understand what I meant so I told him the kinder garden version..

“If you want to start an online business selling something, the best way is to show your product to an already established market that’s easy and low risk, like the eBay marketplace. Once you have proof that there is a demand for your product and you have an offer that sells, you then proceed to expand your marketing efforts to all the other forms of internet marketing. ”

“Oh I see” Graham said, circling his head whilst almost nodding..

“And then Graham, you use..

Pay Per Click Search Marketing (PPC) – This is when you display your ad to a group of people who are actively seeking your product and when they click your ad you pay a fee.

Search Engine Marketing (SEO) - This is where you optimize and increase your websites popularity using on page optimization and link building techniques to get higher organic search engine rankings.

PPV – This is where your ad is displayed and you pay a fee for a fixed number of times your ad has been displayed.

Facebook – This is where you display your ad to a finely tuned demographic and then pay a fee once your ad is clicked on, a bit like PPC.

Email Marketing – This is when you send emails to people who have requested more information about your product or services.

Blogging – This is when you write articles with interesting stories, providing good information about your products, services and your interests to your blogs reader.

Article Writing – This is simply when you write articles about your products and services and post to article directories and blogs.

Affiliate Marketing – This is where you pay other internet marketers a commission to promote and sell your products and services

E commerce Platforms - This is when you list your products on existing websites that are designed specifically to sell your products to potential buyers who are browsing the e commerce website.

Video Marketing – This is when you make videos to market and promote your products

Joint Ventures (JV’s) – This is when you team up with other internet marketers and you promote each others products and services for usually a mutual benefit.

Graham  says, “so it can be quite complicated then..”

I told him..

The best way to start is using one method and then grow your business from there whilst you are making money.

So, as you can see making money on the internet is easy.. (I hope you can see the sarcasm in that)

How many of these methods have you tried?

One method I’m experimenting with at the moment is PPV, and if you haven’t seen this yet I would highly recommend Jonathan Mizel’s course. Within a few hours of implementing this course I had several thousand targeted hits to one of my websites…

Internet marketing is a learning process and like anything else needs constant implementation of marketing strategies to constantly increase your business potential and it does take time to progress.

If you are starting with eBay and ecommerce, you can sign up for my newsletter and video series for lots of useful information you can implement right away..

Sign up for the Auction Guerilla Newsletter and Video Series here

To me, the word ‘cheap’ could be interpreted in several ways.

Cheap could be interpreted by some to mean rubbish! So, is the eBay executive saying that to be successful on eBay you need to sell rubbish tat that falls apart after one use?

I don’t think that’s what he actually meant but I would have thought he would have chosen
his words a little better, don’t you?

What he was getting at is that people want to find ‘bargains’ on eBay, the place to go to
get a good deal.

That’s all well and good, but it inst really the big ‘HURAH’ eBay sellers want to here.

I mean if all the sellers get into a ‘Race to FREE’ price war with each other, profit
margins will fall through the floor and there isn’t be much point selling on eBay..

OR is there..

I don’t know about you but joining the race to FREE is not my idea of good business practices
so I wont be participating in that race. Instead, what I will be doing is ADDING VALUE to
my products and offers. In fact, that is what I’ve always done and I believe is the methodology
of increasing the buyers perception of value in exchange for the price paid.

Whilst everyone else is currently cutting their prices and earning less and less, I’ll be putting my prices UP!

Yes you read that correctly. In fact I increased the price of one of my best sellers just last week and
guess what..

It made just as many sales, If not more sales than at the lower price point.

I also added value to the offer not by sending more products but by amending the image and the
item description. I ‘INCREASED THE BUYERS PERCEPTION OF VALUE’ and the buyers are still coming back to eBay
and getting a bargain in eBay’s eyes.

So, when an exec at eBay mentions the word ‘cheap’ you could look at it in a bad way or a good way, but it’s
how you add value to make your products appear as bargains that will ultimately determine your return on investment.

So no more of this ‘cheap talk’ please Mr eBay executive!

By the way, if you do want to buy products ‘cheap’ to resell on eBay, you will find lots useful information in my newsletter and video series..

Sign up for the Auction Guerilla Newsletter and Video Series here