My 2 Year Anniversary...Some Tips For Newbies

7 replies
Today I've celebrated my 2 year anniversary here at the forum. There are
days when it seems like I've been here for a lot longer than that, today
being one of them.

But...I'm not going to let that stop me from doing what I do best and enjoy
most...provide some of the new folks with helpful tips that just might make
them a little more successful. What follows is in no special order but these
are the things that I have been doing the most thinking about lately.

Hope they help.

Tip 1 - Don't fly by the seat of your pants in this business. It's easy to do.
You really don't feel like sitting down and mapping out a long term strategic
solution. But trust me on this, because I learned this from my own shortsightedness.

Map out a plan, not just for a product, but for a whole business solution.

For example: Let's say you're in the music instruction niche.

You might want to go wide and offer a wide variety of products such as:

Ebooks and/or videos/membership site

How to play guitar
How to play piano
How to play drums
How to play fiddle
How to play saxaphone

And so on. Can't write them all yourself? Outsource the creation to people
who can. Then either make ebooks or videos out of them or put them into
a one time fee membership site where people can learn as many of these
instruments as they want.

You might want to also break the training down into genres.

Learn blues guitar
Learn metal guitar
Learn classical guitar

And so on.

The possibilities are endless. You could have an authority site the likes of
which nobody has ever seen. Yes, it will take work, but it will be more than
worth it.

Tip 2 - Prioritize your day down to the hour. I have been running into this
problem a lot lately as I am getting involved in more JVs and other
independent projects. I have to really prioritize my time like never before
and discipline myself to stick to the schedule I set for myself. Naturally,
the less you have to do, the easier this becomes. So don't do like I do.
Don't take on more than any human being can handle, no matter how good
you think you are. These days are real challenges for me.

Tip 3 - Concentrate on your communication skills. You'll hear lots of people
here say that you don't have to write articles to be successful. They're
right...you don't. But you show me one form of marketing that doesn't
require at least some form of communication.

Even those of us who just use Adwords. Well, it may not be a ton of
communication, but it's still a 3 line ad. And if you can't write a 3 line ad
worth squat, you have 2 choices.

Learn how.
Outsource it.

Either way, it has to get done if you're going to be successful with Adwords.

Then there is your email marketing. What's that you say? You don't build
a list? Okay, but what about the people who write to you about the
product they're thinking of buying with questions? Do you know how to
answer them professionally so that they view you as an authority?

Communication is so critical in this business that I honestly don't understand
how anybody can say it isn't.

Bottom line: Learn to communicate effectively.

Tip 4 - Find a balance between jumping in with both feet and getting a
book education so extensive that you never get anything done.

Many people here say, "They heck with reading ebooks. Just get out there
and do something." Others say, "Make sure you have a solid foundation
before you do anything." I'm going to leave my personal beliefs out of this
simply because I know they're going to bring tons of people disagreeing
with them on both ends and thus leading to another senseless debate.

Find what you are comfortable with. If you don't want to read and just
want to jump into something and do it, then do it. You'll probably learn a
lot from your failures. If you want to get a solid education first, fine, but
then make sure you use what you learn. If you want to do something in
between, such as maybe learn a little bit and then start doing a simple
process, that's fine too. But make sure you do what you are comfortable
with.

Why do I say this? Because you can't fit a square peg in a round hole.
Some people just aren't comfortable with a formal education and the
thought of reading anything makes them want to slit their throat. So
forcing them to read a 300 page home study course is insane. They'll
never get through it.

Find your comfort zone and stick with it until it changes, if it changes.

Tip 5 -
Build Relationships as soon as you can. Don't try to build a
relationship with John Reese when you're John Doe. Look for people who
are in your general success area. You'll be amazed at how two people
who are making $200 a month, because one is a great writer and the other
is a tech whiz, can come up with a product that can increase their income
by 100 times. You don't need a mega superstar to be successful. Heck, I
made it to where I am virtually on my own. And now that I've made a few
friends in my general success level area, I'm going to do even better in
the future.

The "guru" JV is overrated. Trust me on this. I am speaking from
experience. Just because a "guru" promotes your product doesn't mean it
will sell off the charts. It may not be the best fit for his list. Maybe your
sales page sucks, like mine did.

Here's the bottom line and this may be the most important thing you will
read in this thread.

You and you alone are solely responsible for the level of success that
you achieve.

Anyway, I hope these 5 tips have been of some help to somebody.

It's certainly been an interesting 2 years.
#anniversarysome #newbies #tips #year
  • Profile picture of the author Leanne King
    Thanks Steve. Loads of useful advice in there. I found I finally got a lot more done with my day when I started blocking out time for certain tasks. At the end of the day I felt that I had acheived something which was a big boost.

    Good luck with the next two years!

    Leanne
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  • Profile picture of the author matthewd
    Some good tips, I especially agree with 1 and 5.

    1) The subgenres are a lot easier to dominate b/c people often over look them. The traffic may not be as high, but it is a lot more targeted person looking at that stuff.

    5) This is important b/c a lot of people try to score JVs with the Gurus and don't even think to look in their own league. In the past 8 months I have quadrupled my income b/c of this in large part.

    I have landed one promotion from a big Guru and it did make me a lot of money, but overall I have made more sustainable money from working with people on my level.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nathan Hangen
      Great tips Steven. Time management and goal planning has been my problem. You are so right about that. Planning is more important than anything and I've learned that the hard way.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Flask
      Thank you Steven,

      Wonderful words of advice and wisdom.

      Definitely find what you are comfortable with.
      No sense in adding more anxiety or stress to
      one's goals and dreams.

      Just makes things THAT much more difficult
      and can tend to create paralysis by analysis.....(from personal experience )

      You and you alone are solely responsible for the level of success that
      you achieve.
      Seems very similar to the quote in my sig....

      All the best,

      Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author Sylvia Meier
    Great advice as always. Congrats on your two year anniversary.

    I too agree with the JV thing. Take a look around the WF, there are sure to be many others here that would be the perfect fit to taking your business to the next level as well as theirs.

    Relationships are very important in this business, you can get pretty far in this game simply by who you are and who you know, but until you are known it will be more who you know.

    As for sub-genres I never knew how powerful they really could be till I took Riley's PCL course and now I am head deep in sub-genre niches that are worth a fortune by giving them what they want. It's really something everyone should aim for. I would rather have all the pie in a smaller market, then an itty bitty peice in the big market. And if you build yourself up enough in the small market you may become well known enough to overtake the larger one.

    Gratz again Steve,
    Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Congrats Steve,

    Two years here is great, but just look at your stats. Thanked almost 1,000 times! That's just incredible! Almost 11,000 posts

    Looking forward to the next two years,

    Matt
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    WarriorForum Rules!

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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
    Steve,
    Congrats on the duece! You've kept up a 15+ post/day average. With the length of some of your posts, that's almost a full time job in itself. This was a great one.
    I dare say that your point #1 is probably the most neglected one of them all. Few business owners, either online or off, bother to do formal planning when building their businesses.

    Silvia, I was in Kevin's workshop too. It was a bit of an eyeopener to what's right next to you sometimes. You only need to open your eyes and see it.



    Great Work Steve

    My .02c,

    Steve
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    After all, you're probably following a few hundred people already that aren't doing squat for you.....
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by opportunitiesaplenty View Post

      Steve,
      Congrats on the duece! You've kept up a 15+ post/day average. With the length of some of your posts, that's almost a full time job in itself. This was a great one.
      I dare say that your point #1 is probably the most neglected one of them all. Few business owners, either online or off, bother to do formal planning when building their businesses.

      Silvia, I was in Kevin's workshop too. It was a bit of an eyeopener to what's right next to you sometimes. You only need to open your eyes and see it.



      Great Work Steve

      My .02c,

      Steve

      Kevin is a great guy and one of the brightest marketers I know. You'll
      learn a ton from Mr. Riley and his hamsters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anthony Smith
    Thanks for the tips as always Steve! Always a pleasure.
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