On the same day that Microsoft unveiled its new Bing search engine (see upcoming post), Google has announced Google Wave, a new in-browser communication and collaboration tool that is set to change the way we work together online.

Delegates at the Google I/O Conference last week were treated to an introduction to Google’s new market-leading product/platform, due to be released later this year – just click on the screen below to watch it.

In brief, Google Wave is a real-time communication platform that combines aspects of email, instant messaging, online meetings, social networking, web chat, wikis, polls and project management in one in-browser communication system. Business colleagues or friends can come together to discuss topics or share information and files.

You can see more about Wave at About Google Wave or Mashable. Some of the key capabilities and extensions include:

• Real-time: you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.
• Text, Photos, Maps, Polls and more: you can share all these and more.
• Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.
• Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.
• Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook or Twitter application, or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves – anything from bots to complex real-time games.
• Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Wave can be edited by any other participant.
• Simultaneous Translation: As well as an automated spell-checker (‘Spelly’), there is even a robot called ‘Rosie’ who can translate simultaneously between 40 languages!
• Gadgets & Robots: Google’s Wave Gadgets Tutorial and Wave Robots Overview outline what is available and what could be developed.
• Open source: The Google Wave code is open source, to encourage developers to produce new applications and extend functionality. Thus, for instance, you can combine Twitter ‘tweets’ into a ‘twave’, and so on.

I/O Delegates were given access to the beta version of Wave, to help Google develop both the platform and applications for it. Google has deliberately developed Wave as an Open Source application, so there are likely to be a myriad of new applications available by the time Wave formally launches – and over the following months!

So, all-in-all, within the year, Google Wave is likely to become a hugely powerful – and free – open-source collaboration platform with many, many applications and extensions.

Just watch the presentation above and let your mind imagine how on-line interaction and meetings are likely to evolve – and the host of extensions and applications that will be available very shortly – with Google Wave!

And just imagine the whole new ways you will be able to develop leads for your business and then interact with your prospects and customers…!

Join the Wave!

How can you tell whether your terrific new brain-child idea is a killer or a dog?

Well, as any seasoned marketer will tell you, there are no sure-fire ways. There are NO right and wrong answers in marketing – there is not a single expert who can tell you whether your new product will fly or sink!

As an example, a very seasoned marketer and copywriter I know admitted to me recently that he launched a new product last year that he was convinced would sell like hot cakes…

Did it? No – it bombed!

So not even the experienced marketers get it right all the time!

But yes, there is a way of making absolutely certain-sure that you have developed a winning product…

As web entrepreneur Nick James explains, it’s quite simple:

You allow the punters to tell you whether or not they want your product….

And he’s deadly serious when he says that the only certain way to be sure is to test your product in a suitable, email broadcast, newspaper ad or direct mail campaign…

The punters will pretty soon tell you whether or not they want to buy or not…. Either you will get lots of orders, or you will just about break-even, or you will hardly get any orders at all. You just wont know until you test!

Now, do you want to know the single most powerful piece of information in the product development and/or direct marketing business?

This information is worth more than everything I have previously told you, put together. It’s this:

Believe the punters – not yourself.

There. I really don’t like to tell anyone not to believe in themselves…

But in this particular instance, you must put all your faith in the punters.

It doesn’t matter how much of a ‘pet’ your product is. It doesn’t matter how much your old mum and your friends tell you it’s a GREAT product. It is wholly irrelevant that you have seen scores of adverts for similar products at a higher price. – If the punters don’t respond to your advert, then you must drop that product and move straight on to the next one.

The only exception to this is if you have a modest response, and you think you made a slight mistake… (say by advertising in completely the wrong place, or too expensive, etc.).

In this case, it might be worth testing again. If this second attempt also fails, then drop the product immediately.

Don’t try and second-guess the punters.

Don’t worry too much about how or why the punters didn’t buy your product. You will probably never work this out… I never can!

The greatest mail-order gurus in the world often find themselves scratching their heads in disbelief at what works, and what fails. They are continually amazed that their ‘dead-cert’ product flops completely, and their rank outsider, no-hoper product which they whacked-in for a quick test, results in bulging mail-sacks.

There is often no rhyme or reason to this. Who knows why the punters will go for a product, or leave it alone? It could be one word in the copy, a ‘feel’, the picture, the price, their perception of your ability to deliver…. ANYTHING. You’ll never find out.

Now the big difference between a winner, and a loser is that the winner will listen to the punters no matter what he thinks. If the punters tell him that his red-hot favorite product is a lame dog, then he’ll drop it immediately. Losers will back their hunches right down the line until they go broke.

They just know that this product is a winner…. If the marketing fails, then they attribute it to the media, or the day of the week, or the price, or the delivery time. They don’t believe that the punters could ever reject such a super product.

So they promote it again, and again and again until they have lost a very great deal of money. Then they believe. But even after all this, they still harbor a sneaking suspicion that if they’d just altered the coupon shape, or increased the money-back guarantee to 30 days, or…

You get the idea….

To become a direct-response winner, you MUST believe the punters…

The punters KNOW – you only BELIEVE.

This principle can be summarised in this vital concept:

MILK YOUR WINNING PRODUCTS, DROP YOUR LOSERS.

Source: http://www.ebizhelpers.com/article~cat~ecommerce-general~articleid~4047.htm © Nick James.

John Thornely

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Here’s a quick fact: It’s easier to distinguish your business from a benefit and service point of view than from a product or feature angle.

For example, if you sell telephone headsets, perhaps you can distinguish your product by saying it has a mute button, comes in 5 colors, and is lightweight.

So what? What benefit is that to me as a customer?

But from a service/benefit aspect, you can offer these benefits, which are MUCH more interesting to me:

· In stock or it’s FREE

· We never close

· 4-hour guaranteed repair

· Trade up when you outgrow your system

· Order 24 hours a day

· Choose from 100 different systems

· Same-day shipping — only $15

· Order by midnight and get same-day shipping

· Prepayment discounts

· FREE technical support

· Toll-free ordering hotline

· Priority-member ordering hotline

· Order over the Web from your own computer

· Money-back guarantee

· Saves you at least $10,000.00 a year in productivity or your money back

· FREE report with any purchase

· No minimums

· Guaranteed everyday low prices

· Business leasing — $0 down payment

· Expert sales consultants

· And much, much more

So tell your customers about the Benefits, not the Features of your service or product – and don’t be shy!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Only a very small proportion of visitors to your website will buy straight off – experience shows that most will require 6 to 7 contacts before they’re ready to purchase.

So how are you to arrange to be in contact with prospects on a regular basis? The answer is by email. And this is why the whole objective of the initial landing page of your website must be to BUILD A LARGE EMAIL LIST of prospects and customers.

Once you have an email list, you can make regular contact with your prospects and customers and begin to make SERIOUS MONEY.

So how do you capture email addresses? List-building expert Duss Rogers offers you the following suggestions…

1 – Offer A Freebie

You have to give in order to get. If you want people to offer up their email address, you`re going to have to offer up an incentive – it’s known as an ‘ethical bribe’. Nothing works better than something that`s complimentary (you spell that F-R-E-E). You can give away no-cost reports, books, software, or even sample pages or chapters of a book.

2 – Use Pop-Ups

Pop-ups are one of the most common methods you can use to capture email addresses and build your email list quickly and with ease. Simply construct a web page containing code for a form and set the page to open (pop up) when visitors ENTER OR EXIT your site.

Make sure the pop-up offer is something that`s valuable enough to motivate visitors to take time to give you their contact information. Your offer can be a complimentary report, download, or ebook that arrives instantly through your autoresponder to their email inbox when they give you their email.

-Tip: If you need a pop-up, you can find one free by doing a search on Google for “free popup generator”. Many browser systems now block pop-ups but there are many systems which still work well.

3 – Use Postcards

If you have a mailing list that contains snail mail (street) addresses, convert it into an email list by sending out a postcard and inviting people to VISIT YOUR WEBSITE to receive a gift of some kind — a report, a discount coupon, etc. Visitors don`t have to pay in order to receive their

gifts, they simply need to enter an email address.

- Tip: In the US, postage is much less expensive for a postcard than a standard-size letter. (Not only are they economical, postcards are more likely to get your message across since the consumer doesn`t have to open an envelope.)

4 – Subscriber Box On Every Page

This is a clever trick that so many people overlook. Put a RESPONSE FORM ON EVERY PAGE of your website offering a newsletter or other freebie. This will increase the number of email addresses you capture exponentially.

Why? When search engines index the pages of your website, a visitor may come directly to a page other than your home page.

If you only have a subscriber box on your home page, you`re missing the boat, not to mention the thousands of visitors who bypass your homepage.

5 – Contests

Contests very often prove to be a good way to generate traffic and buzz for your business. Create a contest and put a form on your site or in a pop-up box. The entry “fee” is their email address.

-Warning: Not all the people who sign up for your contest are good prospects. Many are just contest “junkies” — people who are only looking for freebies and have no intention of buying a product or service.

-Warning: If your prizes are cash or large-ticket items, you should be sure to check with local agencies to make sure you`re not violating any contest laws.

6 – Display Your Autoresponder Address

Most people give their website link when they place solo ads, ezine ads, or other marketing messages. To be one step ahead of the game in collecting email addresses, LIST YOUR

AUTORESPONDER ADDRESS instead of your URL. This way you can capture email address and funnel them into your follow-up sales letters.

7 – Just Ask

If you`re chatting with a prospect on the phone or a potential customer stops by your place of business, don`t be shy: ask for an email address or business card (which usually includes their email address).

Okay, you know what you want…you know what you need. It`s time for you to set your traps and CAPTURE THOSE EMAILS!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Apply these seven secrets to your mar­keting and see a 200-400% increase in sales per lead.

According to one industry publication, over 99% of small businesses do not consistently follow up with their prospects and customers. Why? Because they don’t have a system, they don’t have time, they don’t know how valuable it is, or they don’t know how to follow up!

Learn from the best minds in direct response marketing, peo­ple like Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham. These guys are masters of the direct response marketing profession and they know how to maximize sales.

There are only three factors that influence the profitability of any marketing effort. The smartest mar­keting minds on the planet have sifted these factors down to this simple, but powerful formula:

1. Send The Right Message… To The Right Market… At The Right Time

Most businesses miss one, two or all three of these factors, and as a result, their marketing and ad­vertising results are ineffective. This costs millions in missed sales every year!

It is CRITICAL that you follow up with your leads repeatedly, incorporating a va­riety of media such as mail, phone, fax, e-mail messages, and voice broadcast­ing!!! Automate your system to methodically, repeti­tively and consistently follow up with your leads – or you’ll be wasting a lot of leads or a lot of man hours!

2. The Three Types Of Leads

Your market­ing campaigns will produce leads in three broad categories:

· Hot Leads – those that are ready NOW

· Warm Leads – those that aren’t ready now but will be soon – these leads are CRITICAL to your success; and

· Cold Leads – that may never be ready

But how do you know which is which?!!! Most businesses follow up every lead once or twice and focus on leads that look like they’re going to close – ie they ‘cherry pick’ the ‘low hanging fruit’!

That’s fine, but the problem is that, too often, all those warm leads slip through the cracks! You must have an automated system to follow up with these leads like clock­work. And with an on-line business, you can use an Autoresponder very effectively.

3. Timing Is Every­thing

Never forget the simple truth: “People will buy when THEY’RE ready, not when you’re ready to make a sale.”

So you have to be in front of folks when they’re ready to buy – in other words, you have to follow-up with them… religiously! Because if you don’t, some­one else will land that business.

So, again, you must follow-up if you are to ‘be there for them’ when they’re ready to buy.

4. Transform Your Sales from Out­bound Hunting To Inbound Harvest­ing

This secret is critical to your success be­cause it increases conversion rates and lands customers quicker. When you’re always chasing prospects in “hunting” mode, there’s resistance at every turn and you can waste tons of time working with leads who simply aren’t ready.

On the other hand, when you’re in har­vesting mode, you’re working smart and focus on leads that you have already ‘warmed up’ with your earlier follow-up. If you close the gap between “getting the lead” and “closing the sale”, you’ll make the shift from hunting mode to harvesting mode… and your profits will skyrocket.

5. Maintain A Living, Breathing Customer Database

You can do this most effectively by sending relevant, valuable information to EVERY PROSPECT on a scheduled, recur­ring basis – using a variety of methods – communicating efficiently and logging all contacts with the prospect in an organized fashion.

6. Use Education, Repetition and Variety In Your Follow-Ups

Education: Your follow-ups must inform and educate your prospects. You need to provide valuable information and convince your prospect that you are on their side and deserve to be trusted. Customers WANT to trust you, so give them information they need and you’ll earn their trust.

Repetition: Human beings have to hear the same thing over and over before it ‘clicks’. Your customers may not “get it” the first time they hear your message – and don’t make the mistake of thinking that if a prospect heard the pitch once, they understood it. Chances are, they didn’t. Tell them again, and again and again.

Variety: You need to consistently tell your message, but your follow-up delivery needs variety. Different people respond to different stimulae, so follow-up with a multi-step sequential campaign that incorporates e-mail, di­rect mail, phone, fax, voice broadcasts, and other media!

When you begin to properly follow up with your leads and customers using Ed­ucation, Repetition and Variety, your numbers will abso­lutely shoot through the roof. You will be completely amazed!

7: Personality, Genuineness and Entertainment

Your prospects and customers need information. They need repetition. They need educa­tion. They need variety and frequency. They need to hear the right message at the right time.

That’s what they need. And if you provide it, if you practice the six secrets, you’ll see great improvement in your business.

But if you want phenomenal results, you need to give them what they want.

What they want is YOU! They want your personality. They want you to be real with them. They want you to be straight up, helpful, sincere. They want your spin, your angle, your advice, your perspec­tive. They don’t want corporate dribble. They want YOU!

Give them what they want, and combine it with what they need, and you’ve got something spectacular, even entertaining. You’ve got permission to converse freely with your prospects and customers, to help them with the things they need, to offer them the products and services you provide that make their life easier, better, more successful.

Only you know how to be you, how to be real but you can inject personality into your follow-ups using conversational language, not corporate speak; by laughing at yourself and your mistakes; discussing the “stuff” of your personal life with your prospects and customers; talking about what you like, what inter­ests you, what annoys you; and so on. View your prospects and customers as friends.

Now, if you’re telling yourself, “I can’t do that,” then I want you to do three things:

Slap yourself for al­lowing that negative thought to take root in your brain and your heart who knows how long ago;

Resolve to give it a shot, realizing that it’s a learning process; and

REMEMBER that while you’re learning how to do Secret #7 well, the other six secrets will drive tremendous re­sults for your business.

But if you want phenomenal results, you need to give them what they want.

What they want is YOU!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Selecting a hot niche is all about finding Customers.

I like the fishing simile. In order to be able to catch fish, you have to work out where the fish (customers) are biting, what bait they’re going for (your ‘offer’) and what tackle to use (your website, marketing methods, etc).

But it’s no good just going and sitting by any old pond and using the wrong bait and tackle… if there are no fish, or you’ve got the wrong equipment, you won’t even get a bite!

One way to make sure you’re fishing in the right place is to look at the water and see where the fish are. But that can be a bit hit-and miss if you’re not sure where to look.

Better to watch those who know – by finding out where the other fishermen (your competitors) are and see what they’re catching and what bait and tackle they’re using.

So, you need to search the market to find where there are lots of ‘fish’ and see where they’re biting.

And don’t try to ’fish’ in a market where there are no other ‘fishermen’ – there’s probably a good reason why, and you’ll need to know exactly what you’re doing if you are to succeed!

This all sounds ‘old hat’ stuff, but it’s amazing just how few people do it right! I find I have to keep reminding myself!

Hot Tip: If you want to short-cut your own learning curve and minimize your costs, watch to see who is successful and what ‘bait and tackle’ they’re using. Then copy them!

Hot Tip: And if you talk to real fishermen, they’ll always speak about how to catch fish by describing what the fish do – where they swim, what they like to eat, what tackle works, etc. So, if you’re going fishing, you need to understand the fish and think like they do!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

“When you have a dream,
you have to grab it and never let it go!”

Carol Burnett – Actress

What is your Life Worth?

Where did the last year go? It’s horrifying how fast life slips by, isn’t it?

Did you notice that the kids had suddenly grown up and you’re worrying about your pension?

And what did you achieve last year? What did I achieve?

Well, I’m not going to ‘wash my dirty laundry’ just here, but I know that I would like to have achieved much more than I managed!

You too? Well, think on this then…

How do you value your life? And your time?

Do you earn what you are really worth? As much as you should be paid?

And just… How Much Time Do You Have?

We all have exactly the same amount of time each day…

Are you spending your time…

…or investing it wisely?

Here’s another thought:

Poor People spend Time to save Money…

…Rich People spent Money to save Time!

Which are you?

How Much Are You Paid?

Please can we play a little game? But one that is DEADLY SERIOUS!

Fill in the numbers below — I think you’ll get a something of a shock!

A: How much do you earn each year? $£ …………………

B: How many hours do you work a day (inc travel)? ……………………

C: How many days do you work a week? ……………………

D: How many weeks do you work a year? ……………………

Z: The number of hours you work a year = BxCxD= …………… Hrs

Now work out your hourly rate = A = $£______ = …………… $£ /Hr
. Z ………Hrs

This is the Hourly Rate which you are selling or trading your time for!

=> And this is your ‘Outsourcing Cut-off Rate’
.     (more on that in just a moment…)

At a recent meeting, one business owner worked out that, although he was on a good salary, his effective pay was just £6.78/Hour!

What is Your Time Really Worth?

Before we go any further, let me just pick up on something Armand Morin pointed out at the Internet Success Bootcamp I recently presented in London.

Armand noted that, using his simple repeated and tested formula, he spends only 15 minutes or so preparing a landing page and Adwords campaign for marketing an Affiliate (someone else’s) product.

And just one such product recently earned him around $22,807 in a year.

On that basis – and let’s be conservative and say it actually took him an hour – he earned something like…

$22,000 an hour!

And that’s how he makes $15M-plus a year!

Now…

How About You?

And don’t think that Armand’s earnings are out of your reach.

Do you see that you – yes YOU – could do this through an Internet Business, an off-line business, Property Investment or other business.

And don’t think that “oh, that’s for the clever people – I couldn’t do that!”

This is for Real People – like you and me – the Internet ‘gurus’ all started with next to nothing – or chucked in well paid jobs to start their own businesses.

So why don’t you invest more of your time building your wealth?

People often focus on the short-term goals, rather than the long term – this can be driven by the need for cash-flow to pay the bills. But it also reflects a lack of focus and priority.

But back to today’s subject…

When to Outsource

· If you can get a job done by someone else for less than your
‘Outsourcing Cut-off Rate’…

· (especially if they’ll do it faster/better)…

· Then you can spend your time on more valuable things…

=> Outsource it!

You can outsource just about anything these days, with the help of the Internet. So which should you outsource?

Well, just think what you’re good at and that will earn the kind of returns we discussed earlier in this post – and focus your time on those activities.

And Outsource everything else!

I’ll show you some of things you can easily outsource and how to do it in future blog posts.

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

Build A Lucrative Relationship With Your Customers!

Profitable Relationships

Building a profitable relationship with your prospects and customers, like any aspect of successful marketing, is like learning to ride a bike or play a musical instrument.

You’ll fall off a few times, or play ‘bum’ notes, before you begin to get the hang of it — but once you do, you’ll go on to do a few cycle stunts and play music that people want to listen to! Practice is important.

Copy!

And as leading copywriter Allan Forrest-Smith advises, the easiest way to practice is to copy the experts. After all, if they can bring in millions with their copy, why reinvent the wheel? And they probably copied it from an earlier success anyway — why do you think the text in the body of an advertisement or web page is called ‘copy’ anyway?

We’re not talking plagiarism here—but many of the most successful sales letters of all time have either taken their inspiration from earlier successes or have themselves inspired others.

And email marketing is just like that. Practice and draw ideas from others’ emails. Use current topics or popular themes, use timeless truths or your latest product as themes.

But this is all about building a relationship with your prospects and customers — and they’ve given you permission to be in touch with them by email (see other posts on this blog).

Five Magic Questions

Michael Rassmussen has carved out an Internet Marketing niche for himself in the

field of Email Marketing. His advice is that you need to address FIVE MAGIC QUESTIONS that the recipient will have when you are crafting emails to your lists:

• Who are you?
• What do you want?
• Why should I care?
• What’s in it for me?
• What do I do now?

Unless you answer these five questions in your email, your target will move on to the next email and you’ll have lost her/him.

Killer Subject Lines

But the body of the message will be wasted if your email Subject line — your ‘headline’ — doesn’t get your target excited or intrigued enough to open your email in the first place!

So your Subject line is the key to getting your email read.

As Allan Forrest-Smith points out, the whole purpose of your Subject line or Headline is to get the reader to carry on reading. And the purpose of each paragraph and sub-header is to get your reader to keep on reading!

Try to make people curious with your headline—and to want to open your email to

find out what it’s all about — ie ‘What’s In It For Me?’ (abbreviated to WIIFM in the

industry)!

To do this your subject line should be benefit oriented — asking a question is often

effective. But your subject lines should be ‘blind’ — they should entice irresistibly

without revealing the content up front.

Opening Up!

So, you’ve got your target to open the email — what now? The Opening section is now vital to keeping your prospect on the page — and to keep him/her reading — so it has to be conversational and interesting. And it MUST grab the reader and involve him/her immediately — so it has to be about them, not you!

Think about the emails you receive… Which do you open? Which do you go on reading? Most of us prefer emails that sound as though they’re coming from a friend with something interesting or useful to tell us, don’t we?

As Michael Rassmussen notes, your opening should be conversational and get to the point really fast. Talk to the reader—not about yourself!

Assuming that your reader is still with you, you now need to keep the content in the body copy super-relevant and focused on the purpose of the email! Don’t go off on any tangents or turn into a blabbermouth! Your target doesn’t have time to waste, so respect her/him accordingly!

Action! And Keep It Tight!

The purpose of your email is to get them to take a specific action — so the whole copy should focus them to this end. The last things you want to talk about are how your personal life is going, your recent vacation or the car you drive, or how much work you put into your product (although there may be a place for these in the ‘story’ you tell on your sales page).

The reader doesn’t care about you — only him/herself!

Bullets!

So keep the body copy of your email relevant and tightly focused. You can use powerful bullet points to hint at the particular benefits the reader will gain — but they should never reveal the content or the secret. Otherwise you’ve given the reader the information to make an immediate decision not to continue reading!

Michael gives an example of the benefit of a blind bullet over a plain one:

· Plain Bullet: “How to make your bullets powerful by making them blind”

· Blind Bullet: “A simple change you can make to your bullets that will triple their power”

I think you can immediately see the difference—and how the second bullet forces

the reader to keep on reading, to find out more!

Use Your Head-ers!

Michael also points out the importance of making your body copy easy to read — split it up into paragraphs of a few lines each and use sub-headings to break your text into ‘bite-sized’ chunks.

Alan Forrest-Smith also points out that the sub-headers in any piece of copy should tell the whole story by themselves — since many people skim through the body.

In an email — particularly a plain text mail — it’s important to make your sub-headers stand out. Use capitals and a line of asterisks or dashes above and below

Bucket Brigade

You’ve probably heard of the ‘Bucket Brigade’ in copy writing. This is the use of little pieces of copy in your email that forces people to keep reading. Phrases like ‘As a result…’, ‘As I said…’, ‘Why?’ and ‘Oh, and let’s not forget…’

Call To Action

But the whole purpose of your email is to get the reader to take action! NOW! So your call to action must be clarion clear! And URGENT!

Tell them exactly what you want them to do and how to do it! And what they should do it now, and not leave it ‘till later!

You can use a whole bunch of incentives to act now, including scarcity (time deadlines or quantity limitations) or bonuses.

PS: Oh, and don’t forget the PS! This is often the first part of a sales letter or email that people read — after all, I often go straight to the bottom of a sales letter to find out how much it’s going to cost me. Don’t you?

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com

How To Make YOUR Business Fly!

Everyone looking to start their own business should think carefully about why you’re starting up and where your focus will be to optimize the returns from your business!

It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘I’ll start a Web business and make a fortune’ enthusiasm, without really thinking about your longer-term strategy.

Once you have established that the business can be profitable, you need to learn the difference between working on your business and working in your business.

As Andy Gwynn, of Action Coach says…”Small business owners can spend 60 hours or more per week just trying to keep their business running. Most often, what we find is that they are working on the wrong aspects and end up spinning in a relentless circle until the business finally folds in on top of them.”

He suggests that, from the start, you should be thinking how to build a profitable business that will have real value in the marketplace — ie it should become an asset that you can sell on and make a fortune.

The same good business principles apply to any type of business — they may look a bit daunting when you see them in black and white, but start by keeping them simple and work up each level as you get there.

The six steps you need to take in building your business are:

1. Niche – You need to think carefully about your business niche, and your marketing and sales. Where and how will you sell your products and services? Who are your customers (at least the ones you want)? How do you reach them with a message that will get them to visit your business and buy?

2. Leverage – You can’t realistically do everything yourself — you’ll need to outsource some of your business. So you need to think how to put systems in the business so that the customer has the same positive experience and you, the owner, reduce the amount of time you spend in the actual business (ie working “on” your business instead of “in” it).

3. Team — If you need other people to support you, or you will be working with joint venture partners or outsourced resources, getting the right team revolves around not only getting the right people on the bus but making sure they are in the right roles where they, and the business, will be successful.

4. Mastery – This is all about understanding and controlling what is happening inside your business. At this level, you need to address processes/production, financials, marketing/ advertising and your team — and how you will manage each aspect.

5. Synergy — the collaboration of the previous four levels moves you to the stage of a commercial profitable enterprise that can operate without you. This is important. Now, as an owner, you have a business that can really deliver some value in the market place without taking your every waking hour — and is based on your exit strategy!

6. Entrepreneur — at this stage, you have built a successful business. The best part is that now that you know the sequence, you can do it again and again in any business you become involved with!

You need to stay focused on your goals, testing and measuring results, working through potential obstacles for growth, systems implementation, etc.

Stay focused on these 6 steps and you’ll have a profitable business!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

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