Entries from March 2008 ↓

OK, well I was going to write about my experiences outsourcing work today but instead I came across an article by Jonathan Leger that I thought was perfect for this blog. The article is called Giving your business a shave with Occam’s Razor.

If you don’t know Jonathan Leger is one of the bigger Internet marketers out there. He is behind one of my favorite products 3waylinks.net. Moreover, he is one of the few Internet marketers who I can honestly call honest.

He actually provides really useful products that actually help you make money. He doesn’t promise things he can’t deliver on. Plus, he provides really good and useful blog posts (I only wish he posted more often).

Basically, this article is about how you should always seek to improve and if possible simply your business. There are always going to be things you can improve on and always things you can simplify. By doing these things you can greatly improve your long term business results.

I highly recommend you read the article since I think it perfectly captures the type of philosophy I am trying to create with this blog. Trust me it is well worth the read.

It has been a long time since I did any product reviews and I thought it was about time I did one again. If you are on a few Internet marketing or make money online e-mail lists, you will have probably already heard about Internet Marketing Annihilation. Here is my take on it.

Internet Marketing Annihilation claims to show you how a 23 year old uncovered 7 secrets that allowed him to earn $1.5 million last year. This is a perfect example of a new formula I have noticed among Internet marketers.

They claim that somebody who is probably younger than you (the ages vary but they are always under 30, sometimes as young as 13) has uncovered/discovered/exploited/found etc. X number of secrets that allowed them to make $Y million(s) last year.

The funny thing is that these secrets are usually not really secrets at all. Often, Internet marketers are just publishing information that is available for free elsewhere. Then they hype it up and claim that it is the next big breakthrough in Internet marketing.

Internet Marketing Annihilation adds to the hype by claiming that the first 1,000 people will have access to the information. This creates a false sense of scarcity, which is designed to get you to “steal” it for $77, (Since when is paying $77 for something stealing it?)

The system itself was created by Rob Benwell, who is best know for his Blogging To The Bank series of ebooks. I bought the first one of those and I although I thought it had a few interesting tips, they didn’t really apply to what I wanted to do online. So, it turned out to have relatively little value to me.

So did I decide to buy?
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Before I explain what I mean by this I will address a very obvious objection to my headline. Why am I telling you not to create webpages, blogs or products about making money online when I blog about making money online?

Very simply, I don’t make my money online through this blog. It currently represents only about 1-2% of my total online income. I assume that this proportion will rise somewhat as it becomes more popular, but I never expect it to be more than about 10% of my total online earnings.

I enjoy writing this blog because it helps me to think through my own ideas about Internet business and because I want to help people improve their lives by starting their own Internet business. Obviously, if I can make money from this blog so much the better, but the earnings from it could disappear tomorrow and I would hardly notice.

OK, enough about me for one post, what does this have to do with you? In fact, I think this point is extremely important, because it is the biggest single mistake I see people online making online.

Why Do People Think Writing or Even Creating Products About Making Money Online Will Make Them Money?

I think the simple answer is that they see other people doing it and decide to copy them and do it themselves. For example, they see supper bloggers like John Chow who report incomes as high as $30,000 a month, writing about making money online and think well that looks like a good idea, so they copy it.
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Just kidding, I am actually really enjoying getting back into making regular posts. In fact, I am spending a lot more time updating it than I thought I would, just two weeks ago. I often have an idea for a post that I think should be about 300-400 words long that turns into a 900-1000 word post.

I suppose it is better to have too much to write about, rather than not enough. But, it is still taking up a fair bit of my time and effort. Moreover, despite the fact that I said that this blog was going to be more about me and less about just making money online; I have found that I have a lot of tips and advice that I enjoy sharing with all of you.

So, it looks as though this blog will continue to be updated on a regular basis, my aim is to post 5-7 new posts a week. Also, once the traffic numbers pick back up again to their fall 2007 level, I am going to start asking you what kind of articles you would like to read about. If you have any questions please feel free to put them in the comment section below.

I think that’s about enough out of me. Plus, you probably want to get back to work working on your own Internet business, rather than read any more from me. Just remember you have to take consistent action towards your goals for you to have any chance of reaching them.

I spend a ridiculous amount of time online. When I am not working, I spend time reading blogs and websites about topics which interest me, such as business, politics, entrepreneurship and financial planning among others. However, many things bug me about how websites and blogs are often presented.

So, I decided I would create a list of 3 common mistakes that I seem to constantly come across. There are definitely dozens more than these out there, but these are the three that annoy me the most. Both new and experienced website and blog owners make them; although I think newer ones probably make them more frequently.

Try to avoid these mistakes when making a new site or blog and you will be way ahead of the game. Moreover, you will stand out from everyone else who is making them.

1. The biggest problem I run across are websites that have too much advertising. I find that this is problem with sites big and small, old and new alike. In fact a great example is super Blogger John Chow whose blog is filled with ads. But he makes great money with his blog so I should just copy him, right?

Wrong! John Chow and other owners of authority websites, can put many ads on their sites because people know and trust them. People want to read the content on the site and thus put up with the ads. Unless, you are an authority site you should not even think about putting up a ton of ads that get in the way of your content.

Work towards building up a solid base of people who like your site and then slowly put more ads on. However, you never want your ads to make your site more difficult to navigate. Again using John Chow’s site as an example you can see that even though there are a lot of ads they do not make it that much more difficult to navigate his site (see point number 2). Continue reading →