Success tips from a multi-million dollar selling IM pioneer

Hey folks,

Although I haven't made millions in profits, I have done millions in sales, earning a solid income since the late 90s. I've exclusively made a living online since the mid-to-late 90s, and am a top worldwide recognized authority in my niche. Here's a few insights and tips that can hopefully help you accomplish success as well:

1) Foundations:
- learn effective time management and productivity from people like Brian Tracy (at least watch dozens of his youtube videos, he's great)
- learn web design, video production, copywriting skills from books/examples/micro courses out there, various wsos and reading forum threads here

2) Personal Expertise:
- seems many people here don't "Get it" regarding this. It's not about how to spin articles and longtail keyword seo and blogging; that's bs. It's about become a genuine expert, and publishing via different channels, in a way that genuinely helps people.

You actually need to take the years of hard work to achieve mastery in your topic, then publish on it, and actually help people. That's the price you pay, is become at least highly competent, genuinely, before trying to sell. My competitors thankfully are often "posers" and I tell thousands of shared leads what to look for, in determining the difference between authentic vs "poser"/pretend resources, and earn their customers.

3) IM Work Ethic: Put in the hours/years of hard work to create detailed authentic resources. Whether that's kindle books, sites, dvds, articles (or preferably many channels), you have to take thousands of hours of work to make it. There's no shortcuts. I used to have 4k posts here, before taking a few years off; restarted my nick here from scratch lately... even back then years ago, I still remember telling fellow warriors, it's not about 'bright shiny object' chasing and thin efforts; you have to take massive sustained focused activity to actually make it.

example: for years I tried to get my wife into fitness videos/dvds/aff sales with blogs, she doesn't have the IM work ethic to make it, I can tell, so I don't actively encourage her in that activity any more. She simply won't do the 8-10 hours/day of work needed to make it, so without that, there's no chance. Kind of sad, I'm a top IM pro but the wife won't ever be, but I accept it and am thankful for all the other things she does. IM isn't gonna be one of them.

4) Constant Innovation and Expertise: you need to be a pioneer in your industry, leading the way with proven, actually successful strategies and content. Always be innovating faster than the moron competitors can copy, has been my motto. I'm one of the most widely ripped-off/copied guys in my niche, so I have to always innovate to stay ahead of my dumbazz competitors.

5) Passion for Customer Service: I always personally answer emails/support tickets within hours; 100% within 24 hours, and most within 30-60 minutes. I take a lot of time to help my customers, because I value them. It is thanks to them, I am able to do the magic I do. Respecting them immensely is important.

6) Hard Boundaries for bad customers/jvs: On the flip side, the occasional moocher/bad/evil customers and jv partners I am quick to blacklist/block/never talk to again. I routinely fire difficult/pita customers and blacklist their IPs/emails from doing business with me. I do not suffer fools gladly. My time is important, so I can be of help to the 99% nice/good people out there.

7) Focus on Outdoing Everyone: I produce more sites and content in my niche than anyone else I know, in addition to a busy speaking and webinar schedule (I do hundreds of webinars a year, and have over 2k registered for my saturday weekly free events). I move the free line to infinity and beyond, lol, and that helps earn trust and loyalty from the industry, and my customers.

Notice that a lot of what I'm talking about is about values, ethics, approach to how to work with your market. It's not about technical tips or micro-stuff. It's all about "Getting the big picture right", in service of customers. Of course being a workaholic genius, world-class video producer and copywriter on top of it is helpful too... skills I took many many years to work on, and still work on improving myself, in service of contributing to my customers.

Any reactions or insights? Would be great to hear - thanks!

-ken