My 2 Year Anniversary...Some Tips For Newbies

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.