Eight Thousand Posts and Here I Am

I don't know if we still do this - I've been away for a while - but every thousand posts or so the old school Warriors used to do this kind of rollup thing where we come in and say "hey, here's my current best-practices advice for newbies."

Basically, Warriors train each other. That's how we all become better at what we do. So I've kind of been musing on what this post was going to be, and there are a couple things I think are the most important elements of operating an online business.

First, the single most important question you need to ask yourself is "what am I trying to do for other people?" - not what you are trying to get for yourself. People get bound up in choosing a niche where there are people, or where there is money, or where the competition is low. None of that matters. Your niche should be something where that you can help other people solve their problems. And since it doesn't happen overnight, it should be something you can keep doing for a long time without feeling trapped or being bored out of your skull.

Second, learn to tell a good story. It's not hard; every sitcom on television tells a story. It goes like this. "Once upon a time, everything was fine. Then it all went to hell! But we fixed it, and then it was okay again." That's when you get to point to the technique or service or product you used to fix it, and tell people if they have that same problem they can fix it too - if they just pull out their card and click that button and it's three easy payments of $29.95 with free shipping and a money-back guarantee. The foundation of the sale is the story. Tell your story. Tell Elon Musk's story. Tell the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.

Third, build your damn list. Everybody here says this over and over again and people still don't do it, because everybody knows that. I was at Marketing Mayhem West last month, and you would not believe the number of people who are having trouble... and we ask if they have a list... and they say "no, I should have one, but I haven't gotten around to that yet." Get around to it. Now. Get a list provider and make an opt-in form and put it on your website. Even if you do a crap job of list building, you'll get a bigger list than you will doing nothing. Even if you are not mailing your list, build a list so you have something to mail when you finally pull your head out.

Fourth, your niche and stories and your list are worth absolutely nothing unless and until you have something you can sell them. You can sit in a room full of millionaires all day explaining what you do and telling your story and getting their business cards, and you will not make a damn dime until you put a buy button in front of them and tell them to give you money so you can do what you do. And they didn't get where they are by being stupid, so when they say "Well, I'm not 100% sold, so can you do a little of it for free before I buy?"you need to say "no" and point at the buy button.

Fifth, and most importantly: engage your customers directly. We live in a world where any two people anywhere in the world can be on a forum, in Facebook chat, on a Skype call, in a Google hangout, the list goes on. Talk directly to your customers. And yes, as your business grows, you will not be able to go follow up individually with every single customer. But engage some of them - the ones you can help the most, the ones who need the most help, and turn those interactions into... guess what? More stories. It cycles around. You iterate across it. Here's a new story. Here's where to join the list. Here's a new offer.

Over time, you have a pack of stories, a massive list, a stable full of products. And most importantly, you will love what you do.

That's all I have to say about that.