Brand New Here - In Need of Direction

36 replies
I am new here and overwhelmed! I have a full time job but have had a major life change. My kids were in a car accident in December and I need to make more money and hopefully have more flexible hours. I am not looking to work less hours (in fact I am expecting to work significantly more) just need some flexibility and more income. I have poked around the forum quite a bit but would appreciate some help with the basics. I am getting lost in the lingo and trying to understand how everything comes together. My writing skills are a little rusty from lack of use but I am confident I can hone them and put them to work for me. Can someone point me to a great tutorial or mentor to jump start me? So appreciate everyone's help
#brand #direction #jump start
  • Profile picture of the author edyang
    Hi,

    Sorry to hear about your kids. Can you please provide more detail? For instance, how much more are you looking to earn per month? And what particular skill set or expertise are you looking to offer? It sounds like you reference writing skills, so copywriting?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bob Reynolds
    If you have some skills you can check out the warriors for hire link, or help wanted link.

    If you are referring to actually building an online business then you will need specific skill sets to come to the table to develop a process where you can track leads of traffic flow to an offer, while getting them to give you their email. That brings them into your subscribers base where you will learn the art of email marketing - developing and growing a healthy list.

    It will take time and be dependent on you, your skills, how much you have to invest in yourself, the tools you will need, the offers you run, the traffic techniques you develop or pay for.. and the mentors who try to help guide you. It is not a quick overnight get rich thing. However, if you learn how to grow a list, in the right niche and stick to it, depending on how much you have to grow, and scale when the time is right, will determine largely on your success.

    I was disabled last year with no financial help. I have managed to keep scrapping enough money together and have pushed forward for a little over a year and have not made much money, yet... I have mostly invested in myself, some tools and learning to build my sites, squeeze pages, and funnels.

    If you can do a good amount of research and get an idea where your skill set is, what is needed, and what you have financially you would want to start out writing up a business plan, run an assessment on yourself with a SMART and SWOT analysis to help spot your strength and weakness. Then you will be able to put yourself together a professional strategical management plan to get you the results you will be after.

    hope that helps.. if you have any questions you can keep asking them here, If you want to talk we can always do that as well.

    Information overload will occur as there are many small curves to get through, knowing that and having a plan will help you stay focused. There is a high fall out rate in any business and here on the net it is not any different.

    You can read up on my last years journey through the link in my sig. Hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author ciciwriter
      Thanks for the reply Bob - Sorry to hear about your disability. I will head over and read your story tonight. Am interested in learning the business
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      • Profile picture of the author 7windows
        Glad to hear you like your job. And sorry to hear about your kids, that is a parents worst nightmare. I would recommend list building with your writing abilities. I can see you going far with that. There are great mentors in that field that would propel your business forward quickly. I stumble over ideas and thought processes, but if you can master that you can go far. I wish you the best.
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    • Profile picture of the author ciciwriter
      Thanks everyone - I am planning on staying at my current company. They have been great since the accident and I love my job. I went from full time to 30 hours a week to accommodate appointments and caring for my sons. At the same time our expenses increased which made me start looking at options to make money from home. I would love to make around $800 - $1000 a month. Still trying to determine what skills I have that translate from my job/life to the internet. I enjoy writing and it comes fairly easily to me. I manage federal reporting and reconciliation for pharmaceutical companies in my day job and have a lot of executive assistant responsibilities. There is definitely a huge learning curve with this endeavor for me but I am not easily discouraged and am a quick learner so I am hoping I can make a go of things here.
      I think I am most interested in copywriting since I "get" it more than a lot of the other avenues.

      Thanks everyone - your help will save me hours and hours of research on my own,
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      • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
        Originally Posted by ciciwriter View Post

        Thanks everyone - I am planning on staying at my current company. They have been great since the accident and I love my job. I went from full time to 30 hours a week to accommodate appointments and caring for my sons. At the same time our expenses increased which made me start looking at options to make money from home. I would love to make around $800 - $1000 a month. Still trying to determine what skills I have that translate from my job/life to the internet. I enjoy writing and it comes fairly easily to me. I manage federal reporting and reconciliation for pharmaceutical companies in my day job and have a lot of executive assistant responsibilities. There is definitely a huge learning curve with this endeavor for me but I am not easily discouraged and am a quick learner so I am hoping I can make a go of things here.
        I think I am most interested in copywriting since I "get" it more than a lot of the other avenues.

        Thanks everyone - your help will save me hours and hours of research on my own,
        Hello, and welcome to the forum. You could try offering up a service like ghostwriting, where you do a bit of research and write content for other marketers. Offering up a service like this will enable you to get paid via Paypal. If you're interested in ghostwriting, you might want to check out Ghostwriting Cash: Official Site By Tiffany Dow. The creator really knows her stuff.

        Good luck,
        Joey
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      • Profile picture of the author More Than Tips
        Originally Posted by ciciwriter View Post

        Thanks everyone - I am planning on staying at my current company. They have been great since the accident and I love my job. I went from full time to 30 hours a week to accommodate appointments and caring for my sons. At the same time our expenses increased which made me start looking at options to make money from home. I would love to make around $800 - $1000 a month. Still trying to determine what skills I have that translate from my job/life to the internet. I enjoy writing and it comes fairly easily to me. I manage federal reporting and reconciliation for pharmaceutical companies in my day job and have a lot of executive assistant responsibilities. There is definitely a huge learning curve with this endeavor for me but I am not easily discouraged and am a quick learner so I am hoping I can make a go of things here.
        I think I am most interested in copywriting since I "get" it more than a lot of the other avenues.

        Thanks everyone - your help will save me hours and hours of research on my own,
        Hi CiCiWriter that is a clever name makes me think of Chopper motorcycles.

        Sometimes its the exact personal experience that we are experiencing that can be focused on to find our niche.

        There may be other moms in the same situation and you create a resource where you can all gather and share helpful information...or you can just be the one contributing helpful information while others comment. Almost anything can be monetized...you just have to create a place that gets traffic and make it worth their while once they arrive.

        Moms with kids with disabilities has to be a huge group to focus on...same with moms who work and want to learn how to profit online.

        Use that to your advantage. Help others in the same boat as you.
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  • Profile picture of the author salondemaria
    Yes, it can be overwhelming trying to start your own Internet business from scratch. If you're into writing, you could offer writing services or launch a blog about writing and sell your services through the blog. I'm a writer too and have made my living through blogging and being a ghost blogger for small businesses.

    Best wishes!
    Signature

    What are the 7 things you should know before starting an online business? Visit my blog: onlinebizresources.biz

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  • Profile picture of the author promarketer15
    If we know more about what you are expecting from and how much are you looking to make than we can hell you and give you guide and show you how to make the kind of money you are looking for
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  • Profile picture of the author David Ogden
    Sorry to hear of your circumstance. Earning a living from the internet is not easy and will take time to set up, as others above have said. You say that you are not afraid of hard work, in which case it might be easier to find additional work to bring the cash.

    Look at what skill sets you have, together with opportunities and risks. If you are having difficulty with the jargon it could be that the internet is not for you at this time as you need money now not in a year or more.

    Best of luck with finding suitable work.
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    David Ogden an Entrepreneur at Markethive which uses a suite of free marketing tools to promote his opportunity. Contact:- Telegram @davidogden

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  • Profile picture of the author Valuable Solos
    Probably the best way to proceed with starting an internet business would be list building or affiliate marketing. Check out Tomer's group coaching offer or affiliate marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author C Henry
    As others have stated, a good way to start making money without much of a learning curve or monetary expense is offering a service you already know how to do, such as writing as you mentioned. Start a gig on Fiverr, or make a profile at Odesk, iWriter, etc.

    I don't suggest affiliate marketing if you need "now money", as that primarily entails sales funnel development and driving traffic, which is the main obstacle (both in terms of the learning curve, and financial expense) for anyone new to online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    If you're interested in copywriting, then that's definately something you might want to pursue. Copywriters are in constant need by marketers and they are willing to pay handsomely for this type of skill.

    I would suggest you check out some of the threads in the Warriors for hire section, there's a lot of copywriters there offering their services. You would only need to land a couple of jobs a week in order to make the extra income you target.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author rajivkumar900
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    • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
      Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success. I hope this post brings some clarity. It's so simple when you know it -- and darn difficult when you don't! I owe my mentors a world of thanks for bringing this clarity.

      IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

      1. Products
      2. Services

      That's it!

      And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

      Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

      That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

      But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

      A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

      1. Membership-based model

      A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

      There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

      2. Product-based model

      Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

      3. Service-based model

      Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

      However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

      What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

      The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

      Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

      Pick just ONE!

      1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

      2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

      3. Pick ONE business model.

      Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

      F -- Follow
      O -- One
      C -- Course
      U -- Until
      S -- Successful


      And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

      In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

      Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

      If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

      That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

      The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

      My two best recommendations for phenomenal IM training programs are Ali Brown's Elevate program (ElevateBizTraining.com) and Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula (ProductLaunchFormula.com)

      Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

      Hope this helps!

      Michelle
      Signature
      "You can't market here. This is a marketing discussion forum!"
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    Hi Ciciwriter,

    I imagine you need some specific advice. Given your facility (and interest?) in writing, let me give you a few ideas to research.

    1. Affiliate Marketing.
    2. Content Provision.
    3. Website and/ or Domain Flipping.
    4. List Marketing.
    5. Product Creation.

    It depends how much you like writing. I'll tell you something, though, it's the most valuable asset to have in this business. Don't let anyone tell you different. A strong grasp of the English language has allowed me to excel. It permeates every important aspect of what I do; whether it's writing ad copy, finding valuable domains, creating digital products, or even engaging clients, students, or contacts via email.

    Now, the above 5 are very general. Without knowing you, that's the way it has to be for now, but I'll watch out for you on WF and try to help. I have two daughters myself. I pray everything works out for you, buddy.

    Tom
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    I Coach: Learn More | My Latest WF Thread: Dead Domains/ Passive Traffic

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  • Profile picture of the author nizamkhan
    Sorry to hear about your incident!

    You can try Fiverr.com for copywriting and if you can do it well, you can make it full-time on Fiverr to earn some good revenue.

    - Nizam
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    ciciwriter,

    So sorry to hear that your kids were in an accident? Hope they are OK.

    You are going to get a lot of recommendations from other members here and it will be very overwhelming for you.

    Just know, from my own experience, that if you want to make money online you will want to start small in everything that you try out. Never throw a lot of money into something or anything. Now, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to start so if you do decide to go in this route, start small.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrianhenry
    I think nighengales post is an excellent one. A lot of good info on there.

    As far as writing is concerned. Thats how I got into making money online. I was a student with very little money and not very much time as I was always studying but I managed to work an extra few hours a day writing articles and it grew from there.

    You can start out offering writing gigs on fiverr and as you improve and expand you can take it further.
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  • Profile picture of the author QueenMelanie
    sorry about your situation..

    To get fast money online your best bet would be to so some freelancing.. Are you a good writer ? theres a huge demand for native english speakers. You could easily get $3 - $5 per 100 words if you find the right client..

    If you are wanting to earn by starting an online business, website etc.. it will take far more preparation and planning, so don't be expecting quick profits from that, especially if you are new to IM
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  • Profile picture of the author mikefashen
    Originally Posted by ciciwriter View Post

    My kids were in a car accident in December
    sorry to hear about that.

    I need to make more money and hopefully have more flexible hours.
    Been a lurker for a loooong time (late 2012 or so) but only just now getting around to participating now that I feel I have the experience and real results (and time) to give good information.

    Here is my (somewhat lengthy) advice.

    Don't Make This Complicated!!!
    The biggest problem that I see when people are trying to make it online is that their business is hugely complex. They have far too many moving parts, far too many different things to think about.

    It has been my experience that when you simplify making money becomes easier and occurs faster.
    1. Traffic is driven to lead capture. Basically, an email list subscription form.
    2. Email list traffic is sent to content. (not a sales message ... content. I'll explain why in a bit)
    3. Content moves people to buy something.

    The reason for doing things that way is that it is super simple to setup and manage. Further, it keeps subscribers interested and reading messages. That means higher readership of the people that subscribe and that means you sell more.

    It is very rare anymore that I will send people an email that is meant to send someone from the email straight to a sales page of some kind. Far too many people are sick and tired of being deluged sales messages for the latest product launch or whatever.

    NOT ONLY THAT, by driving people from the email list to content ... it's just easier. I put some good content onto my "unblog", tell people about the content, and they check it out. The post itself will then move from giving good content to saying that someone should check out a product.

    That means that blog post can drive traffic and make money for years and years. If you send an email that is meant to direct people to a sales page, that email has a life of a day or two at the most.

    4 Step Execution Of This Foundation
    Once again, we need to keep this simple. For this foundation to work, you actually work the three steps I gave above backwards. Now I know that seems counter-intuitive but stick with me and it will make perfect sense. Lets look at the graphic again:

    In the model, traffic goes to a lead capture landing page (where of course you give something so people will join your list). From there, that traffic is sent to content, and the content then gives a call to action for an offer to buy something.

    It's three steps, three and only three, don't make it any more complicated than that. However actually executing on this is four steps (you'll see why in a sec). By boiling this down to four easy steps to actually execute (three that you do just once, only one is an ongoing thing) it becomes really, really super simple to actually do. Because it's easy, you can actually do it and therefore actually stand a chance at making real money with it.

    The thing is, the reason for doing all of this is that last step ... the offer to buy something so you can make some money. That means you need to know what you're going to sell first. It does you no good to build a mailing list if you don't have something to sell to that list.

    Fortunately, you can go to clickbank, paydotcom, commission junction, jvzoo, and so on and end up with a ton of things you can sell.

    Step 1: Figure out what you're going to sell
    Now I know there's nine million "gurus" out there that talk about making your own products and how easy it is and all that. But I have seriously never understood the actual benefit.

    I am a huge fan of simply being an affiliate. That way other people deal with customer service and all that. All I have to do is build a list and throw people at relevant offers. I work much less that way and very often I actually get the biggest percentage of the income on top of it!

    Yes, the product owner might make more over the long haul ... but they also work much more. I'm not kidding when I say this, I probably make triple what the product owner makes when you look things from a standpoint of dollars earned per hour worked.

    Long story short, let me highly recommend simply being an affiliate. Once you're making north of 100k per month and you have your own 20k plus person lists, if you want to create your own products then go for it. But for now, to get the ball rolling, lets just sell as an affiliate. Lets get you an email list created and most importantly lets get you earning some real money.

    From there, working backwards, you need to have some content.

    You'll at least need your "lead magnet" which is what you're going to give away to someone for giving you their email address. You're also going to need 5 to 9 more pieces of content you can give them.

    Now here's the thing. Give good content, then just use the content to explain why it is they should be purchasing some kind of product.

    The idea here is that you want to have everything already set up so that you can "preload" your autoresponder. When someone subscribes you give them the lead magnet, then you also set it up so that every other day after that they get the next piece of content, then the next, and so on.

    I know that every friggen "guru" on the planet yammers on endlessly about emailing every day. But again, I'm after a "cost/benefit analysis" here. This is sometimes referred to as Pareto's Law or the 80/20 rule.

    I've found that by setting up the autoresponder to email out every other day, my 5 to 9 pieces of content feels like a lot more to the subscriber and therefore it has more benefit and drives more sales.

    Further, by having 5 to 9 pieces of content all selling the same thing I get the maximum amount of possible people interested in the product buying. To sell more products you just plug 5 to 9 more pieces of content into your autoresponder for each product you want to sell.

    This means that ...

    Step 2: Create Your Content
    The reason you're doing this part now is fairly obvious. Now that you know what you're going to sell, you can create content that helps to sell it.

    And you need the content before you can start driving traffic to a lead capture page. It does you no good to throw traffic at a lead capture page that can't offer anything to someone for subscribing.

    Once you have content you also know what your lead capture page should say.

    It is only at this point here, after you have your lead magnet created and after you have 5 to 9 (I would recommend at least 7) pieces of additional content, that you get the lead capture page created.

    But again, create the content first. It is also in this step that you set up your autoresponder. Now personally I use GetResponse. I really like the fact that they will give you the full use of their autoresponder for one month for free (which if you're just starting out can save you money). They also provide every other single service and feature that I need for free during that period.

    So this one is sort of a step 2, create content; and step 2a to set up your autoresponder to automatically give out the content.

    Step 3: Create Your Lead Capture Page
    Now on the model you are creating 5 to 9 pieces of content. That means you can have 5 to 9 lead capture pages to help you determine what will draw the most subscribers.

    Basically, you created all that content, why not create lead capture pages for it all as well? I mean if you did a good job with them, it's more than a little likely that someone not attracted to your main lead magnet might instead be attracted by what's in the other stuff.

    HOWEVER you start by creating one lead magnet, getting traffic, building a list, and making money. Focus on that first. Focus on a single lead capture page. Then create others and drive traffic to them using the profits.

    Because you see here's the thing.

    All of the steps above, once they're done ... they're largely done. Sure you may want to do some split testing on your lead capture pages and all that, but that's just minor maintenance that you can easily (and super cheaply) outsource.

    But by and large, from this point you have everything in place that you need to make money.

    It's all done. No more work is needed on your part.

    That means you have one, and only one, thing to do now. Your entire "business" becomes simply performing a single task.

    Step 4: Drive Traffic
    That's it.

    You figure out a traffic source, and you use it to drive traffic to your landing pages.

    Now let me be perfectly clear. Free traffic is in my opinion time wasting foolishness. You can't scale up free traffic, you can't depend on how much traffic you'll get from so-called "free traffic" sources, and worse they nearly always take extraordinarily huge amounts of time to actually succeed and begin drawing any kind of decent numbers.

    Now if you don't have very much to spend that's fine. You don't need very much. I've known people that started with $20 that they dragged out across an entire week and they grew from there. You don't need some $5,000 starting budget, but you do need to start with something.

    The bottom line here is that you need to pay for traffic. When you pay for traffic, you can pay for a specific amount of it and therefore your business becomes very predictable and very stable. It becomes easy to calculate out that when you spend a certain amount of money, it ends up giving you a specific amount of subscribers and a specific percentage of those subscribers will on average buy the offer.

    That means you can reliably and predictably grow and scale the business. Your income isn't dependent on vagaries and random moods. Further when you pay for traffic you can split your money across more than one traffic source. Now your business is highly independent.

    Further, and this is the best part ... when you pay for traffic, the process is highly outsourceable.

    In other words you can outsource traffic generation. You can outsource the maintenance of your lead capture pages (split testing and all that to improve results).

    You can outsource the creation of more content to make more offers to your list to further increase your income.

    In other words, you can easily outsource your business and live a fairly comfortable lifestyle where you own your business you don't run it. Individual tasks are outsourced and all you have to do is spend at most an hour once a day to make sure your people are doing their jobs correctly.

    That is what this whole internet lifestyle is all about. Making plenty of money but doing it in a way that gives you time to enjoy your money, your loved ones, and your life.

    The idea is for you to make enough that you can enjoy your life and do things instead of constantly struggle, or worse find yourself shackled by some monster of a business that sucks away your time.

    At this point I'm going to stop here. I think this post has become more than long enough. If you have further questions PM me and I'll help you out.
    Signature

    Stop trying and start DOING

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    • Profile picture of the author 57chevylv
      Mikefashen,

      I am new here and wanted to thank you for sharing your outline!
      It really helps put things in perspective as it can be quite overwhelming for new members, thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrianhenry
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    • Profile picture of the author hatchcrane
      Hello CiCiWriter - welcome to a truly GREAT forum. I hope things are working out well for your kids since their accident!

      If you want to learn how to market online you've come to the very best place in the entire world to learn it.

      I like the wisdom of Mike's post above - He has presented a Marketing Concept that truly works and is virtually guaranteed to help you make the kind of money you said you'd like to earn "online"

      In my humble opinion, you'll need to learn the nuts and bolts of working online before you can proceed. While there are folks here that, (typically for a reasonable price), will do the techy stuff for you - I believe it's better if you learn to do the biggest share of it yourself.

      Things like working in a hosting account Cpanel or installing a WordPress blog, are generally taken for granted by more experienced Marketers. We sometimes forget how hard that stuff can be when first starting out.

      Simple things like setting up a landing page, (squeeze page), to capture email addresses, as well as setting up your first autoresponder can turn into a terrible headache when you've never done it before.

      The "techy" stuff are the things, I believe, you should waste no time in learning - Because the faster you learn to do stuff like that - the faster you can put Mike's excellent principals to work for you.

      The good news is - This forum is an excellent place to learn the technical stuff as well as the actual Marketing "Concepts".

      Best of luck CiCiWriter and wecome to the Forum!

      Doug
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  • Profile picture of the author smoor2012
    ciciwriter, you have plenty to think about with all these posts. You are getting some good advice here.

    This forum is the best place in the world for learning about making money online.

    Yes, I agree with setting up a profile on Elance. I use that myself and do small article writing jobs for people off and on. I could pursue more writing jobs and ongoing work, but I choose to write part time and do quick articles and rewrites and posts that I can do quickly for the quick cash.

    Other things occupy my time at the moment.

    So, set that up to begin with and hone your writing skills for sure. You will create a certain cash flow and get your feet wet learning what jobs to take and what jobs to let go.

    I would also advise you to invest in an auto responder and take the steps to start building an email list.

    You have more to offer than you realize and you can gain more skills and then teach others what you learn. Your email list will be the core of your online business.

    I wish I had understood the power that an email list has early on. I would have started there and been in this forum daily within a week of coming online.

    !. Provide a service to people with your writing

    2. Invest in an auto responder and lead capture page system and learn to set up a campaign. You can find information on doing these things in this forum.

    It's the philosophy here that's important. When you research these things, you will find options and find what is right for you. Just please understand, that building your email list is huge. You will want to establish it for the future.

    For the immediate cash needs you have, writing jobs will help on Elance, odesk, freelance.com and others.

    As far as anything else you may or may not do online, I simply advise you to do your due diligence and ask quite a few questions.

    I hope this helps. Work, learn, and work some more. Don't ever worry about any one failure or thing that doesn't work out. Weed out what works and what doesn't and keep going forward.

    I do want to leave you with this. I listened to a video the other day from a highly successful industry leader that summed things up.

    He said he was asked all the time what is the difference between a professional networker and an amateur. I had an idea he would say it was the advertising or daily routine or something.

    What he actually said was this: The professional has made more attempts at building his business, whatever that is, and been through more ups and downs and rejections and kept going than the amateur ever has. The amateur encounters problems and takes too long getting back up.

    The professional learns to treat a success and a failure with the same emotion, and keeps working consistently regardless on the plan that he has. That doesn't mean that adjustments aren't made at times, it means the professional is constantly working.

    Ultimately, a greater level of success is realized and this philosophy becomes a lifestyle and a mental toughness is acquired.

    I hope that isn't too much straight talk too soon, but I will tell you I wish I had heard it earlier online than I did.

    I understand it now and I apply it daily. It helps to keep working consistently, regardless.
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  • Profile picture of the author robsterhews
    Mikefashen's above post was amazing! Of course, people have different business models, but Mike's post was a homerun.... A must read for new people on the forum and also for those still struggling with this whole how to make money online thing.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Originally Posted by ciciwriter View Post

    I am new here and overwhelmed! I have a full time job but have had a major life change. My kids were in a car accident in December and I need to make more money and hopefully have more flexible hours. I am not looking to work less hours (in fact I am expecting to work significantly more) just need some flexibility and more income. I have poked around the forum quite a bit but would appreciate some help with the basics. I am getting lost in the lingo and trying to understand how everything comes together. My writing skills are a little rusty from lack of use but I am confident I can hone them and put them to work for me. Can someone point me to a great tutorial or mentor to jump start me? So appreciate everyone's help
    Hello ciciwriter,
    As Kay and others have said you ,can definitely make money writing on the Internet. There is an endless number of people who need services of good writing. I would dare say an inexhaustible need .

    Couple of years ago Quality Gal was a place where I heard good things about people making money for their writing services. Not sure about it now, but you might check it out.



    - Robert Andrew
    Signature

    Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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  • Profile picture of the author ciciwriter
    The people on this forum are 100% amazing. I am blown away by the in depth, thoughtful help that I have received. I never expected so much from you guys. I don't have a "thank" button yet but if I did I would be thanking all of you for your support, advice and empathy. Wow.
    I am spending tonight going back and rereading your posts and then digging into the articles, links that you referred me to.
    Again, thank you for your help. It really made my week!


    And for everyone who expressed concern about my boys I wanted to fill you in a bit. They were in a terrible accident in December but are expected to make a full recovery. My youngest (14 yo) spent several nights in the trauma unit ICU. The nurses told me they have never seen anyone with his trauma recover so well so I am one of the lucky moms. It changed my life but not in all the terrible ways it could have. With time and attention they will be just fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jamel Hassell
    My gratitude and prayers go out to you . But hey you are in the right place ;seeing you are around like-minded people with a vision to reach financial freedom.You can live the internet life style and have the luxury of being able to spend more time with your family but it takes hard work and dedication.

    Find a niche to tap into

    Having a genuine mentor is important too.

    You can turn your situation into a wealth of fortune if only you believe and take action needed in order to reach a high level of financial success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your children! I'm glad you posted an update and said they are recovering well, that is amazing!

    Now, on to making some money from home, I would definitely suggest you tart with some freelancing jobs. You say you would be willing to write, well then join freelancing websites (Odesk, Elance, Fiverr, Freelancer), set up a profile and accept any job that comes you way. At first you'll probably work for pennies, but later on, as your portfolio grows, you'll probably get more work and more money. It won't be easy to just earn $800 - $1000 in the first month, but in time you can get there or at lest close to your goal!
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  • Profile picture of the author maxsi
    You can do lots of things on the internet. Probably one of the most easy is create a list of 500 - 700 subs and sell solo-ads (it is an huge marketing with huge potential)
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    @ Mike Fashen




    All I can say Mike, is that you certainly have my attention and I look forward to your emails. I am fascinated by anyone who can take just the raw essence and raw materials of marketing, the most basic tools, and be like JF Straw, keeping it simple! Down to its most concentrated form. You certainly do that. Have enjoyed your concepts and philosophies tremendously!
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  • Profile picture of the author Trey Morgan
    If you like to write, I recommend a combination of blogging and list building. You can also convert your blog posts in to YouTube videos which will boost your traffic and online presence.
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  • You right mikefashen, depending on Free traffic for your online business is foolishness!

    You need to scale up what is working. If 1000 views gets you one sale, then you need 10,000 views to make 10 sales, and 100,000 views to make 100 sales.

    It's your duty to add value and build trust with those 100,000 viewers. If you sending them to just a sales page, then you wasting advertising money.

    You sending the freebie seekers to your squeeze page where you offer them something for free, like an ebook/video/mini-course. then you send them to your affiliate product in your followup email sequences offering them more value

    Paid traffic is instant and your results are quickly visible.
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  • Many good tips already mentioned here. I'll just add this bit of wisdom from my ol' Granpappy, Beauregard Maverick:

    "If at first you don't succeed, try something else".
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  • Profile picture of the author smartprofitmoney
    Originally Posted by ciciwriter View Post

    I am new here and overwhelmed! I have a full time job but have had a major life change. My kids were in a car accident in December and I need to make more money and hopefully have more flexible hours. I am not looking to work less hours (in fact I am expecting to work significantly more) just need some flexibility and more income. I have poked around the forum quite a bit but would appreciate some help with the basics. I am getting lost in the lingo and trying to understand how everything comes together. My writing skills are a little rusty from lack of use but I am confident I can hone them and put them to work for me. Can someone point me to a great tutorial or mentor to jump start me? So appreciate everyone's help
    Hello,

    Ok well reading your post, I will say this,

    Very few people make big money, so don't fall for all the scams you find online, on this type of business. You will need to learn all of it, to make money, no short cuts on this business.

    Ya you could make a little money, but many sales come from experience and testing all products, that we use in this business.

    So I just don't want you to think that this is easy, you must have skills in this business and be good at internet marketing, and lots more to make money, sorry it's the truth.

    I have been doing this a long time, but have also been building websites, online marketing and doing graphic design for years, so this is the only thing that helped me, if I did not have skills, I don't think I would be making money, or I would have a hard time trying to get things to work.
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  • Profile picture of the author anisaaynashe
    This is probably one of the most valuable posts I've written.

    I suggest you read it.

    I wrote this for my one on one coaching students to help them see the big picture of what they're creating and how to reach their goals.

    I thought it would be valuable for all of you to follow so I decided to let you read it.

    I often see people making the mistakes of looking for the next loophole and buying the next course that a marketer sells them on a new angle.

    I've been there and I've fallen for those tricks as well. The key to your success is your ability to focus on the right things and use your time wisely.

    I spent around an hour writing this and I'm pressed for time to take my little ones out for a walk so I didn't have time to edit for mistakes. Here's the rough draft. Let me know if this is helpful to you.

    Amateurs focus on money, Professionals focus on “PROGRESS”.

    In order to make sure we constantly are growing and make this a profitable year I want to share with you the system I follow.

    When I focused on making money I never made much money. I would work hard in shorts bursts and when I didn’t see the results I wanted, I gave up or started a new business thinking that was the answer to my problem.

    The real problem was “Myself” and how I thought about business.

    Our focus to guarantee our success is to measure our small wins, not the big goal.

    Most people set a huge goal and that is what they measure their success against.

    Example: I want to make $20,000 a month.

    They’re overly excited, super pumped and ready to take on the world.

    30 days later they’re no longer motivated, they feel like they’re wasting their time and they begin to wonder why nothing is happening.

    At this point they start looking at other successful people, comparing themselves to others and they become bitter and jealous of their results.

    I had one coaching student in the past who was actually angry at me because he watched one of my other coaching students doing well.

    What he didn’t look at is the amount of work, dedication and time this person put into their business and he was starting from scratch.

    Building a successful business take time, commitment and consistent action.

    “NEVER, EVER, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE COMPARE YOUR RESULTS TO SOMEONE ELSE”.

    This is a horrible habit to get into.

    Most if not all people get into this habit of “comparitis” where they spend their time looking at other successful people and then self-sabotage themselves.

    They say things like:

    - It’s easy for them because they’re smart.
    - They got success because they had more resources.
    - They had money to start so it was easier for them.
    - I could succeed if only “insert excuse”.

    Never make an excuse as to why someone else is successful.

    People often tell me “Anisa, I can’t do what you do”, but really yes they can.

    What people are really saying is “I choose not to do what it takes” to succeed.

    There is a huge difference between want to and choose to.

    Most people want success and they like the idea of success, but they choose not to do what it takes to get the result.

    I had to:

    - Learn how to setup websites.
    - Learn how to setup squeeze pages and web pages.
    - Learn how to write so people resonated with my message.
    - Get over the fear of doing video
    - Learn how to speak and emphasize my points so it speaks to my market.
    - Learn to be consistent in what I do.
    - Learn how to drive traffic.
    - Work on my mindset daily so I don’t quit when things get hard.

    Right now I’m going to share with you the secret to success and give you the permission to succeed in whatever goal you set.

    The secret is that life is freak’n tough and you will face many obstacles in business, your personal life and things will hit you that you never could have planned for.

    Most people are weak and you need to be mentally tough to succeed.

    Don’t try to avoid problems in your life…...welcome them with open arms.

    When you accept that this will be hard, you’ve gained your power and now you can set out to accomplish your goals. When problems strike, you will be prepared to set out to find the solution instead of giving up like most people often do.

    Now I just told you this for a reason before giving you the actual frame work I follow.

    The reason is that it’s going to be tough, you will be tested often and if business was easy…..everyone would be a massive success.

    The good news is if you just keep following through, you have almost zero competition.

    So let’s move on to the frame work.

    Amateurs focus on money in this business. Money is important, it allows us to live a great life and it makes doing business rewarding, but it shouldn’t be your measure for success or you will quit.

    We need to focus on short term goals we can achieve to stimulate your brain to want to do more work and achieve more goals.

    My ultimate goal is $100,000 a month, but if I make that my #1 goal I will never achieve it.

    To reach my goals I set small goals I can measure to ensure I’m moving one step closer to my bigger goals.

    Before I set my goals I can measure I must first get clear with what I want to accomplish and why I’m doing it.

    Your focus should be:

    Building a community- You can’t sell anything without a community.

    One huge mistake I see people doing online is only focusing on making money. They don’t care about the people they’re marketing to and they’re only focused on themselves.

    This is why they don’t make money and if they do make money, they’re constantly grinding to keep the money to coming in.

    They have to constantly generate fresh leads because they only view people as “how much money can I extract from them”.

    People aren’t stupid and if you treat them this way you will constantly be grinding to make your next dollar and you will feel your business is never stable.

    If you follow my frame work you will create raving fans and repeat buyers.

    Your #1 focus should be on building a community of people who know, like and trust you. Once you have that in place the selling becomes easy.

    So do both of us a favor and take your mind off money and switch your thinking to focusing on building a tribe of people you can help.

    We need to focus on becoming valuable to your audience regardless what niche you’re in. When you become a damn good problem solver you will be in demand and people will then see the value in buying your products.

    Building your assets- Think of your business like real estate.

    As I mentioned “amateurs focus on money” and they’re looking for short term wins and quick cash injections.

    We want to think of our business like real estate.

    We invest in assets like our list, blog, social media channels, FB groups, etc.

    In real estate the big earners invest in properties that bring them money every single month.

    We don’t need to spend even a fraction of what real estate costs and we can make a big return, but we must first lay the foundation and put in the work.

    Once we have the list and the community we can then continue to make profit month after month.

    So in order to accomplish this we need to set realistic goals that show we are improving and constantly making progress towards our big objective.

    Depending on where you’re in your career will make the difference of what goals you measure.

    Your focus is to constantly get better.

    If you’re brand new or have very little experience you won’t be measuring how much money you made this month.

    You will be measuring small goals like below.

    Things you will measure:

    - I learned a new skill.
    - I setup my first blog.
    - I created my first landing page.
    - I learned how to do a screenshare video.
    - I learned how to setup my email autoresponder.
    - I learned how to optimize a blog post.
    - I learned how to setup a membership site.
    - I learned how to create a powerpoint presentation.
    - I overcame my fear of doing video and shot my first video.

    Now if you’re a little experience you will measure things slightly different.

    Things you will measure:

    - I’ve got my first email subscriber.
    - I’ve made my first sale.
    - I’ve blogged consistently 2 times a week the whole month.
    - I’ve setup and ran my first webinar.
    - I’ve created my first sales funnel.
    - I’ve setup my first paid ad.
    - I’ve learned how to create my own information product.

    These are all slightly more advanced skills and bigger goals to achieve after you have the basics of online business down.

    Now if you’re intermediate your goals may be bigger.

    Things you will measure:

    - I made 10 sales this month.
    - I’ve ran 4 webinars this month.
    - I’ve created my second information product.
    - I’ve generated 100 leads from FB ads this week.
    - I’ve setup an A/B split test on my landing page.

    These goals would all be farther down the line after you’ve got a little experience.

    Now I want to talk about how you actually measure the goals.

    Focus on your Focus

    The key to achieving your goals isn’t to be a jack of all trades.

    It’s to master your time.

    Time is your most valuable asset.

    Most people don’t succeed because they’re multi-taskers. Let me go on record by saying “multitasking is for the broke”.

    You need to focus on one thing at a time.

    The average person’s day:

    - Wake up check social media and email.
    - Spend more time on social media.
    - Watch Youtube.
    - Text friends.
    - Work
    - Check email and more social media.
    - Read blogs.
    - Study courses.
    - Watch Tv

    The sad part of all of this is that most of us are doing several of these things all at once.

    Example:

    Studying a course to learn a skill, but at the same time you’re surfing your FB feed looking for something interesting.

    You’re not engaged, paying attention or retaining the information.

    You need to set a specific time you will work and shut out all distractions in your life.

    No cell phone, no social media, no watching Youtube videos and anything that distracts you…...CUT IT OUT!

    Here was I do get things done and to measure the effectiveness of what I’m trying to achieve.

    I never look at the big goal. The business I’m working towards right now scares the life out of me if I look at the big goal, but I chunk it down and focus on what I need to do daily.

    Example: Let’s say you’re brand new and learning about business and you want to make $10k a month. It’s not going to happen in 60 days. You first need to learn a few basic skills before expecting to reach your big goal.

    Things you would need to learn or figure out:

    - What product you will sell or promote.
    - How to setup a website.
    - How to setup a squeeze page/landing page.
    - How to setup your email autoresponder.
    - How to create a video.
    - How to drive traffic.

    These are some of the basic skills you absolutely have to learn before you can ever achieve the $10,000 a month because there is no magic secret to skip you ahead of the line regardless what people may try to sell you.

    So you need to ignore the big goal and focus all your energy on learning one thing at a time, setting a deadline of when you will complete each task and celebrating your success when you achieve that goal.

    This is how you move forward in your business, stay motivated to do more and continue to grow as a person.

    As a human being you’re hard wired for success and achievement and when we aren’t moving forward we get depressed, experience anxiety and we get down on ourselves.

    So let’s map out our plan and i’m going to be very generous on the time frame. It could be done much quicker.

    Step 1- What will I promote to make money online.

    Timeline = 2 days if you’re brand new.

    This time is spent 100% focused on deciding what niche you will focus on.

    You would figure out:

    - Who are the authorities in the niche.
    - What products do they promote.
    - What blogs are people reading.
    - Where is your target audience.

    All of this would tell you if the business is viable and what products you could promote or create to sell yourself. This doesn’t take weeks. It could be done in one day.

    Step 2- Setup your blog

    Timeline = 1 week

    You need a home base to create your content and to be able to deliver value and build the relationship with your audience.

    So you could either A.) Learn to do it yourself. B.) Outsource it.

    If you do it yourself you would either buy a course or go to Youtube.

    Learn how to do it and set it up. Don’t waste time making everything beautiful and perfect.

    I’ve seen people in the past spend months doing this and there blog looks better than mine. Design helps, but it doesn’t make a difference if you haven’t learned how to create good content.

    Step 3- Setup a squeeze page and free give away

    Timeline = 1 week

    Now in order to build your email list you need to have something valuable to offer your audience.

    This needs to be something helpful they want. It can be a PDF report, Checklist, video or webinar recording.

    If you’re brand new it will be the easiest to create a PDF or Cheat sheet.

    I gave you one week because you want to spend time researching what your competitors are giving away and then create something awesome.

    I prefer creating 3 day value sequences in video that help people learn the basics of business or a specific skill.

    This is what’s called “results in advance”.

    Don’t just skimp on this and giveaway crap. If you wouldn’t like it then why would someone else?

    First impressions matter.

    Once you have your freebie created you need to setup your squeeze page with whatever service you’re using.

    You can learn how to do all of this on Youtube or in a course.

    Step 4- Sync the squeeze page with your email autoresponder.

    Timeline = 2 days.

    You can reference your email autoresponder tutorials or Youtube and learn how to setup and use your autoresponder.

    Step 5- Drive traffic

    Timeline = 1 week

    You would pick a traffic source and either buy a course or study a free resources of how to do it.

    Then focus on setting up and consistently building that traffic source.

    Now you will notice on all of the steps I set a deadline. The deadline should be an actual date on the calendar.

    Then you focus on nothing except completing that task.

    Nothing else matters except getting that task done. You don’t buy anymore courses, read a blog post on a new traffic tactic or pay attention to anything except completing your task.

    Once you’re done you celebrate your success and be proud of yourself that you made progress for completing the next step.

    You don’t worry about the 100 steps you have to take in order to reach you big goal, they don’t matter right now.

    You just focus on completing one step at a time, remain consistent and celebrate each win and be proud of yourself for accomplishing that goal.

    When you do this it will move you towards your big goal much faster and you will be one of the successful people in business.

    I apply this in all aspects of my life. I only focus on doing what I have to do for that day.

    Final tips:

    Make a daily plan- Each night before bed write down the one thing you need to accomplish tomorrow.

    Not 10 things, just the one thing.

    Everyday I focus on one task at a time. If I have time for something else I can add that in later, but I focus on getting the one thing done that I know must be done.

    Read or listen to motivation daily- I’m not huge on feel good motivation, but some people like that and if you do and it works for you great.

    I personally recommend the book “straight line leadership” which you can find on Amazon. I read one chapter everyday.

    This book is all about holding yourself accountable and getting things done.

    Whatever you do I suggest to read daily to keep your mindset up and your belief system firing on all cylinders.

    We are filled in a world of negativity and your belief system is what will make the difference if you stick with it or quit when things get tough. Trust me, it won’t be easy.

    Focus on one thing and eliminate distractions- The key to your success will be your ability to focus on the one task you need to get done.

    The second key to your success will be to shut out distractions so you can focus on the one thing.

    No one can hold you accountable except you.

    You have to truly want success for yourself and be willing to do the work. Nothing or no one can do it for you.

    Anisa Aynashe
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