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Raving Lunatic Talks About Online Success Principles

by tpw
16 replies
4-Step Plan to Online Success

1. Create or Tweak your offer;

2. Get Traffic;

3. Confirm Results;

4. Repeat Steps 1-3...


Take Action and Roll The Dice

If you find that any part of the process is getting bogged down, remember the golden rule that guides all success, "Take Action..."

Taking action that finds success is good, and so is taking action that leads to failure...

I can hear some of you know, "I cannot afford to lose my money on this..."

My answer to that may seem mean, but I must tell you the honest truth...

As business owners, it is our job to take chances, to gamble on the possibility of doing well, fully expecting we might lose a few bets along the way...

If you don't like gambling, get a job and make room for someone else who is more committed to success than you are...

You will never get truly wealthy, until you are willing to take really big chances...

Besides, what is the difference between blowing $50 a month on snack foods out of the vending machine at work and blowing $50 on your business?

The only difference is the $50 in the vending machine answers the need for immediate gratification, and the $50 in your business might (although not always) pay you back or make you even more money down the road...

Anything we do in business is a gamble... It will pay off or it will fail...

Successes make us happy...

Failures make us grumpy, but failures are also an opportunity to learn what does not work for us...

As with PPC and any other advertising channel, the fact that you lost money on the process seldom has anything to do with the medium, but how you as a business owner chose to employ the medium...

For every experience you have in your business -- good or bad -- you must learn to recognize how that experience came to pass, and then figure out how to duplicate it or avoid it in the future...

When something you do within your business leads to failure, you have two choices:

1. Learn from the experience, and try again with slightly different variables in place; or

2. Quit and go get a job...


Many people who find failures in the course of their business prefer to take up whining, so they can avoid the effort of learning... (Have you any idea how often I have heard: I don't want to learn, I left that behind when I left school...) LOL


People Are Willing to Help to a Point

You can come to a forum like this to ask questions, and we can at our liberty answer those questions...

But here is something that you may need to know:

What worked for me and others may not work for you...

AND...

What worked for me and others could work for you if you invest the EFFORT into making it work for you...

While we may try to be as thorough as we can when we share advice with you, we cannot always be thorough...

Take for example my case...

I cannot summarize more than a decade of experience in 500 words or less...

I can only give you an outline description of what has worked for me...

You will need to invest the additional effort to get what I could not share in five minutes of my day...

The experts who are willing to help you will always help you with an outline of what has worked for them...

The experts will seldom share their websites, target keywords, and products, because although the experts you find here in this forum want to help people, we would be fools to give away our precise business model and the details of how to be successful with it, when we have invested in some cases years and decades to refine our business models...

Think of us like the banker with the vault full of cash...

As a banker, we hope to give you some of the money in our vault as an investment...

But we will never leave you the keys to the bank and its vault over the weekend, while we go to Cancun on our yearly get away...

We might come back from Cancun to realize that the business we have poured our sweat equity into to make a nice living for our families is suddenly gone and we have nothing left to keep ourselves afloat...

Upon giving away everything in the back vault, we may find ourselves beating the street looking for a job... Or in prison when the stockholders figure out what we did...


Meeting Challenges Head-On

As business owners, we find that everyday we must confront challenges in our business...

We must either tackle the challenges as they come to us...

OR...

We must let the challenges defeat us, so that we can go get a job...

If you get knocked down, get back up and try again...

"Defeat" is not in my vocabulary, and success will elude you until you remove "defeat" from your vocabulary too...

Set-backs and challenges are a way of life... And that is okay... Because every set-back and challenge makes me a better person... And that is they way I want it to be...


Your Education Should Never End

If you were glad to leave school, thrilled that the learning was behind you instead of in front of you, then you are in the wrong profession...

You are an employee, masquerading as a marketer... LOL

You should strive to learn something new every week and every day where possible...

Those who are most successful take their information from a variety of sources... They read forums, newspapers, magazines, books, websites, blogs, and anything else they can put their hands on...

Because you never really know where you will find your next insight...

Some of the most insightful learning experiences I have had were found when talking to people outside of my own industry...

For every new thing you learn, you should try to figure out if that thing will somehow fit into the puzzle of your business...

Sometimes, you just don't know, until you try it out...

Always seek to develop "actionable intelligence" that you can employ for the benefit of your business...

And always seek to test all of the variables that could apply, before you walk away from the new things that you have learned...

Few of us will do something right the first time we try...

But those of us who are successful will get knocked down, then get up and try again...

This is the secret sauce for becoming successful online...

We learn, then we attempt to apply these new things to our businesses... If we get knocked down, we get up and try again...


You Can Choose To Join The Successful, or You Can Go Home

I hope you will join us, by making your business model successful, so that one day you will be able to share your expertise with us, in the same way that we are willing to share our expertise with you today...
#4step #lunatic #online #plan #principles #raving #success #talks
  • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
    It's a pity, I think those that do not need the advice as much will read this and use it. Those that need it the most will ignore it and run to the next, make 7 figures in 2 days ebook.

    Thanks Bill for taking the time to write this
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Thai
    This is one of the best thread I have ever read in the WF! The information is GOLD! Many times, the truth hurts but it is the truth that brings us back to reality. People, READ THIS THREAD, accept the challenge and take action.

    Thank you so much Bill for posting this. This is such a great reminder. Appreciate it.
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Bill,
      No one appreciates the dose of reality more than I do, but I think a better analogy than gambling would be 'calculated risk.'

      The 'calculations' are based on 'proven' (through tests) scientific formulas for business.

      Telling people to 'gamble' isn't giving them sound business advice at all.

      Telling them to learn to 'invest/ in a 'calculated risk' teaches them to learn solid business principles first, and then use 'applied knowledge' to mitigate that risk with proven scientific formulas.

      -Dani
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        Bill,
        No one appreciates the dose of reality more than I do, but I think a better analogy than gambling would be 'calculated risk.'

        The 'calculations' are based on 'proven' (through tests) scientific formulas for business.

        Telling people to 'gamble' isn't giving them sound business advice at all.

        Telling them to learn to 'invest/ in a 'calculated risk' teaches them to learn solid business principles first, and then use 'applied knowledge' to mitigate that risk with proven scientific formulas.

        -Dani

        Honestly Dani, do you honestly believe that you will know the outcome for every risk you take?

        Most scientists try to identify and document empirical evidence -- processes that happen on every test, when the variables have not changed...

        While I concur that there is a certain amount of science involved in our businesses, there is certainly an art to it as well, and "art" is not as easily repeated as empirical scientific evidence...

        For those of us who have a long track record in business, it could conceivably be argued that there is more science than art in our processes...

        But for people with no track record of success or failure, there is nothing to measure against other than nothing -- the zero value...

        The post was for newbies, who are happy to sit on their hands, rather than to take a chance on their business...

        For them, it is not a calculated risk, but a total gamble...
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        Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
        Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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        • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
          Bill,
          That's the problem with newbies. Their refusal to learn is what is causing them to keep putting quarters in a slot machine, and when they yank down on the one-armed bandit and aren't rich, they get discouraged and start yelling 'scam, scam, scam.'

          Don't tell them to gamble. Teach them to take the time to calculate a risk.

          In a 'gamble' the house always wins. The only place you have even a remote shot at beating the house is at a craps table, where if you study the science of math, you can calculate the odds a bit to make an 'educated guess' and not just the hope of a wing and a prayer.

          -Dani
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          • Profile picture of the author tpw
            Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

            Don't tell them to gamble. Teach them to take the time to calculate a risk.

            In a 'gamble' the house always wins. The only place you have even a remote shot at beating the house is at a craps table, where if you study the science of math, you can calculate the odds a bit to make an 'educated guess' and not just the hope of a wing and a prayer.

            -Dani

            I speak of gambling as a means to take a chance on yourself for success...

            In essence, the advice I have offered is little different than your craps example...

            Put yourself in the shoes of newbie forum members... They have some education... They know in essence what they need to do to start a viable online business...

            They have enough knowledge to make an "educated guess", but not much more...

            Even at the craps table, you will never win, if you never roll the dice... Of course, you will never lose either...

            Until they have real-world data to work with, the best they can hope to do is to gamble on an educated guess...

            When they have real-world data to reference, then and only then can they consider the more scientific approach to business management...
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            Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
            Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author redfoxseo
    I have bm'd this for inspiration and to share with others
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

      Bill,
      No one appreciates the dose of reality more than I do, but I think a better analogy than gambling would be 'calculated risk.'

      The 'calculations' are based on 'proven' (through tests) scientific formulas for business.

      Telling people to 'gamble' isn't giving them sound business advice at all.

      Telling them to learn to 'invest/ in a 'calculated risk' teaches them to learn solid business principles first, and then use 'applied knowledge' to mitigate that risk with proven scientific formulas.

      -Dani
      Dani, smart gamblers do take calculated risks. There are folks who make their living at horse tracks, sports books and casinos. There's a huge difference between a professional handicapper and the drunken lumps mechanically pulling the lever on the one-armed bandit, yet both are "gambling".

      There's even a mathematical formula called the "Kelly Criterion" to help astute gamblers calculate whether a given proposition is a fair wager. Add a dose of probability theory, and you have a 'calculated risk'.

      Handicappers, professional poker players, sports books and business owners all work in probabilities rather than certainties. Another commonality is that they don't play with money they can't afford to lose. They risk that money on propositions that, based on knowledge and experience, they believe give them the highest probability of success.
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      • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
        based on knowledge and experience, they believe give them the highest probability of success.
        That's what I mean John. They took the time to acquire the knowledge and probabilities first, that's what make them 'professionals' and not 'newbies' just betting on a long shot, hope.

        I don't think starting a business should be considered a 'gamble.' The wording alone implies that it's ok to risk money without knowledge of 'calculating the risk vs. reward' factors.

        -Dani
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        • Profile picture of the author tpw
          Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          based on knowledge and experience, they believe give them the highest probability of success.
          That's what I mean John. They took the time to acquire the knowledge and probabilities first, that's what make them 'professionals' and not 'newbies' just betting on a long shot, hope.

          I don't think starting a business should be considered a 'gamble.' The wording alone implies that it's ok to risk money without knowledge of 'calculating the risk vs. reward' factors.

          -Dani

          Dani, consider this:

          If we are talking about online marketing newbies, don't these folks naturally lack the knowledge and experience you suggest that they should employ in their decision-making processes?

          Certainly they have the basic knowledge needed to make an "educated decision", but each action taken by a marketer still carries a real risk of loss...

          Even experienced marketers like yourself are gambling that your knowledge and experience will lead to more successes than failures....

          There are no guarantees, so there is always still a bit of a gamble in what you do as well...
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          Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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          • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
            I think it's also worth mentioning most newbies don't come into this saying "hey I fancy being an internet marketer" most are lured in by promises of riches and overnight success.

            When I started thats what got me buying stuff until I realised it was like any other business.

            Bill I wish I had read this first.

            In fact I wish I'd come here first.
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            Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

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          • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
            Bill,
            Imagine walking into a bank, with no formal business education, no real world experience in running a business, and asking the banker to back you in a venture based on, 'well, I'd like to take a gamble on this here idea, and if it works out, great, and if not, I learned a lesson.'

            If you find a banker who agrees to back you, I'll gladly take the public flogging while I eat my Russian fur hat and admit I was wrong.

            But the fact is, no one should gamble anyone's money, not even their own on a business venture that is thought of as a 'gamble' as opposed to a studied, mitigated risk.

            -Dani
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            • Profile picture of the author tpw
              Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

              Bill,
              Imagine walking into a bank, with no formal business education, no real world experience in running a business, and asking the banker to back you in a venture based on, 'well, I'd like to take a gamble on this here idea, and if it works out, great, and if not, I learned a lesson.'

              If you find a banker who agrees to back you, I'll gladly take the public flogging while I eat my Russian fur hat and admit I was wrong.

              But the fact is, no one should gamble anyone's money, not even their own on a business venture that is thought of as a 'gamble' as opposed to a studied, mitigated risk.

              -Dani

              I am forced to agree with you on that to a certain point...

              However, if every online marketer had to pass the muster of the the "banker test", this forum would probably be 90% smaller and the number of online websites would be limited to the corporate masters who manage 90% of the online revenues: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ebay, Paypal, Amazon, ZD Net, etc.

              If I would have had to pass the "banker test", when I started my online business, I would still be selling televisions, instead of having had a decade of profits and a business that took good care of my family for the last five years, enabling me to not to have to keep a job since March of 2005...

              But then again, if other businesses had to pass the "banker test" too, we may not have had the Paypal's, YouTube's and Twitter's of the world...

              For that matter, we may not even have Google or Yahoo in the front of our minds, since those businesses were also started in someone's garage...

              This is why the WF and other such communities are attractive to the Average Joe...

              We show people how they can build a business from the ground up, earning a few dollars here and there, until which time their business can be strong enough to support the business owner...

              We show people how to build a sustainable business from a foundation that would give the business owners' banker an aneurysm... LOL

              BOOM... That was the sound of my bankers' head exploding if he had seen the first couple years of my business...

              Let me offer you a challenge...

              How many of the business ideas sold in the WSO section of the WF would pass the muster of a banker and get approved by a banker for a bank loan?

              I would bet on fewer than 5%...

              I would also be willing to gamble that if the IRS set a requirement for all online businesses that are viable today to prove they should be able to prove that a banker would have approved of their business plan when they started -- to keep operating, I am willing to gamble that 95% of websites would be out of business tomorrow...
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              Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
    Hi here is a bump as I don't feel enough people have taken a look and commented on this thread.

    I think that bussiness being classified as a Gamble is an interesting debate.
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Bill,
      95% of them ARE going to be out of business tomorrow due to a lack of fundamental knowledge of basic scientific principles of business.

      Why do you think the failure rate in IM (and most low cost of entry start ups) is so high?

      The lack of need for seed capital attracts people who don't have money to invest in either the business, or the education on how to run one.

      -Dani
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        Bill,
        95% of them ARE going to be out of business tomorrow due to a lack of fundamental knowledge of basic scientific principles of business.

        Why do you think the failure rate in IM (and most low cost of entry start ups) is so high?

        The lack of need for seed capital attracts people who don't have money to invest in either the business, or the education on how to run one.

        -Dani

        Isn't that why people, in theory, come to the WF... To attempt to learn what they need to know to avoid becoming one of the 95% who will surely fail?

        I don't think that the absence of a solid business plan is a guarantee that those who try will fail...

        And I certainly don't believe that a banker-approved business plan is a prerequisite for success online or offline...

        For the person seeking an extra $200 per month, the banker would not even give them the time of day... That does not mean that the person seeking $200 per month should give up their ambitions...

        The banker is not even going to give the time of day to the person seeking a salary of only $4000 per month... The banker will deem that to be an unrealistic goal (too low)...

        I don't think the seed capital investors would talk to me if I took them a business plan that outlined revenues under 7-figures...

        Does that make someone's $100,000 or quarter-million dollar business idea less worthy than another? Certainly not...

        Your argument is a matter of "scale"... And I would not gamble six-figures either or even five-figures...

        But, I remember a day when I had to make a decision to gamble $120 on the start of my business... (the cost of pre-paying one years worth of hosting)

        My business plan was sound in the second year, but it was not sound in my first year...

        I rolled the dice and made my money back that first year, just barely...

        I rolled the dice again for one more year, and I built the foundations of a business that would continue to feed my family for years to come...

        A banker or a seed-capital investor would never had given me the time of day...

        But even going into the second year with a sound business plan behind me, it was the kind of business plan that would have made a banker or seed-investor roll his or her eyes and walk away shaking their heads...

        But my ambition then was never to build the next multi-million dollar start-up...

        I was happy simply having enough revenue to work full-time from home and to provide a nice living for my family...

        I accomplished my ambitions...

        To agree with the premise of your argument would suggest that my goals were not big enough or solid enough to pursue, so perhaps I should have walked away without ever having taken the chance that I might accomplish something worthwhile in my life...

        I look around the forums and I see people who are struggling with the decision of spending $7, $20 or $50 on their future business...

        I honestly believe it is to those people I was talking in my OP...

        When someone is buying their first domain, it is often seen as a real gamble...

        If someone has the drive to make something of themselves as an online marketer, they must begin their climb up the ladder with a gamble...

        Later when they have a business of real value, then they should start to think in terms of the calculated risk...
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