How Do You Mark Your 10,000th Post?

It's become something of a tradition around here to mark a landmark
post with a special thread.

It has taken me over seven years at 3.86 posts a day and, during that
time, I've learned a great deal from this community. So, in the spirit of
giving back...

Let me share a few thoughts that might just help a couple of people.

One of the most common misconceptions in this Internet Marketing niche
of ours is that you can set up a website and get rich virtually
overnight. Unfortunately, that leads to the wrong mindset. People who
don't know any better start looking for some sort of panacea that will
make them rich quickly.

In my experience you can get rich, you just can't do it overnight.
There are, of course, exceptions. People like Alex Tew and his Million
Dollar Homepage. (The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!) However, I bet it
took Alex a lot longer than "overnight" to plan, create and promote
that site.

Over the years I have had conversations with literally hundreds of
people who wanted to generate an online income. There is a strange
commonality about almost all of those conversations...

Let me tell you about the XX kinds of Internet Marketer I've got to
know...

1. Rich Quick. Rich read a few ezines, blogs and ebooks and he
believed that all he needed to do is find a hot topic, knock up a site
and he would automatically make money. He was very surprised to
discover that it didn't happen! Rich blames the "gurus" for his lack
of success, after all, he did what they said... he "took action".

2. Hop Scotch. Hop is attracted by "stuff" especially if it's new and
shiney. He's on hundreds of lists and spends a fair proportion of his
time clicking links recommended by so called "experts". When he finds
a new "method" he ditches the last one and, therefore, none of these
methods work for him. However, he's ever hopeful that the next one
will be the BIG ONE.

3. Goldy Locks. Goldy is one of those people who is never satisfied.
He has worked hard over the years to develop the greatest product in
his chosen niche. He's never quite satisfied with his product, his
website or his sales funnel. He's constantly looking at his baby with
a critical eye. Everything has to be just right for Goldy Locks.

4. Buddy Joiner. Buddy is a social animal, he spends hours and hours
on his favourite forums. He has thousands of "friends" on sites such
as Facebook. It's taken him months and months to contact and make
"friends" with all those people. He also has a huge number of
followers on Twitter and, when he's not of forums or social sites,
he's tweeting. Buddy has spent all this time building up his network
but he has yet to find a way of making money from all these
connections.

5. Port Folio. Port now has well over 200 domain names. Some of them
are in use as blogs or mini-sites and some are just sitting in his
registrar's account waiting to be utilized. Port has a wide and
diverse range of websites all in different niche markets.
Unfortunately, none of those sites is generating much cash. In fact
the total income from all of Port's sites barely covers his domain
renewal and hosting costs.


So what do all these people have in common?

Put simply: They don't have a long term strategy. They haven't
established their long term goals and objectives.

This is important: It's not about building a website, it's about
building a business.

It probably won't surprise you to learn that we all know those five of
those characters above. Many of us have been those characters as we've
learned more about what Internet marketing is about.

Yes, it's a good idea to:

Take appropriate action and invest in building websites.

Subscribe to the expert's ezines in your chosen niche and look out for
the latest news and innovations.

Have high quality standards

Build a network on contacts

Create a portfolio of online real estate.

However, all of those things are not mutually exclusive. When you
choose to invest your time in any of those things it should be because
it takes you closer to building your business.

There's a well known and often used phrase... "If you don't know where
you're going you'll end up somewhere else".

In the online world it is very apt.

You need to decide where you are going before you buy your ticket, you
need to wear the right clothes for the journey, you need to set out
the route you will follow and you need to pack the right things to
take with you.

Online you need to know what kind of business you want. You need to
set some financial goals, you need to determine what skills, knowledge
and experience you need and you need to know what tools and resources
are best suited to your specific needs.

Talking about the kind of business that you want to build, here's a
tip...

Don't start with long tail keyword phrases and micro-niche markets.
Think big. Think about a specific topic that interests you and then
consider it's profit potential.

So, instead of looking at building a website on say "Curing fungal
infections in climbing roses" start with "Gardening".

Now, if you look at the gardening niche, you'll see that there are
some real enthusiasts who think nothing of spending lots of money on
tools, plants, seeds, equipment, books, courses and even gardening
holidays.

Obviously, you aren't going to be able to compete at the top level for
the keyword "Gardening". However, when you decide to build an online
business on the topic of gardening, it becomes much easier to
determine what action to take.

Building a list of subscribers who are all interested in gardening
when you have 5, 10, 20 or more sites that are all gardening related
is a much better option than building 200 different lists on 200
different topics.

When you're building a gardening empire, you can build it one site at
a time. It's a question of scale. Find micro-niche markets where you
can compete, establish your presence, develop your sites and then move
on to the next gardening related micro-niche.

Each of those websites will act as a funnel, feeding new subscribers
onto your Gardening list.

With the right targeting, you will be able to find lots of products
that you can recommend as an affiliate.

If you pay attention to your statistics, you'll learn more about your
market and their specific needs and wants. You can validate your facts
and data by running the occasional survey.

When you've honed your data, you'll be in a very strong position to
develop your own top selling product.

So, instead of starting with a bunch of non-related mini-sites. Decide
on the overall theme of your business and build a theme based empire
from the bottom up.

John