I just spent an 8 hour day writing out a plan for my outsourcer…

It’s a 4 page PDF of instructions, and those four pages will generate THREE separate income streams for me.

Let me explain…

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The more I’m around internet marketing the more I realise there’s LESS to learn

It all comes down to one thing – if you have traffic you’re sorted, if not you’re struggling.

Yes there are all the little piddly things that most newbies (me included) get bogged down in such as how to install an aweber form on your sales page, how to BUILD a sales page…and even ‘what’s a sales page?’

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I read somewhere this week (can’t remember where so I don’t know if this is true or not) that last year there were 180,000,000,000 emails sent compared to ‘just’ 60,000,000 Facebook messages and status updates…

Personally I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from this BUT here’s my personal opinion… Continue reading →

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I’m never so….driven…as when I’m working on a brand new project.

The idea came to me around Sunday lunchtime while I was stacking the dishwasher so I sent a message to the partner I want to work on with this giving brief details and arranging a Skype chat Monday.

Monday morning around 10.30am I showed my partner the research I’d done and why I thought this could be a killer idea.

We Skyped on and off most of yesterday, ending at 11pm at which time we’d sorted out a product, a supplier, a product name, the platform and our branding.

We still have to research fulfilment and a few other bits and pieces before we start to test the market.

I reckon we’ll be ‘live’ by next week.

It’s not in the IM niche but what I DID want to share is that it’s important to ride that first wave of enthusiasm.

In 24 hours we did almost ALL the research and setting up ‘grunt work’ that was a delight to do because we were excited about the new venture, but would have been an absolute pain and taken days if we’d missed the tide.

When you get something new going you have a window of excitement that you need to hit and hit hard, because it can make the difference between acting on your ideas and never getting projects finished.

Some of you will know exactly what I mean I think

I’m knackered this morning though 🙂

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As online marketers we hear the phrase ‘multiple streams of income’ to the point that it just becomes a sound bite, like ‘passive income’ or ‘leverage’

But the fact of the matter is this…

I know quite a lot of very successful marketers. I know them from a business point of view, and I know them from a ‘who’s turn is it to get the beers in?’ point of view too

And long ago I noticed this:

Almost ALL successful people I know have multiple sources of income.

To give you an example, my income comes from selling my own products, selling other people’s products as an affiliate, from software, apps, coaching, blogging, websites, consulting, offline businesses and a few of other things

If some of the streams vanish overnight and I still have revenue from the rest

“Stating the bleedin’ obvious again Shepherd?”

Well not really because most people don’t really understand the following SINGLE fact:

Business has CHANGED.

I don’t just mean online, I mean everywhere.

Farms near my house are no longer just dairy farms or sheep farms, because if they ARE, they’ve gone under.

The farms that are thriving near my house now make their own cheese, sell free range eggs from a van, run stalls on farmer’s markets every weekend, sell plants, sell rare breed meat, breed rabbits or guinea pigs, have petting zoos and play areas for kids, offer tractor rides, livery stables and a one even has an American style diner.

They don’t ALL do all these things obviously but they almost all DO have multiple streams of income.

And so do the small independent shops in our village – websites that complement the physical shops, pottery classes, hiring out rooms to Ukulele groups, painting days for kids, outside catering, artwork commissions and hiring out display cabinets in their premises for local artists

Multiple streams of income.

Here’s another example. I have a product I sell – an ebook – that brings me around $4,000 a year. It’s an old one but the info is still very valid and I make around half a dozen sales each week from it

Could I make a living from it?

Absolutely not, but combined with the $2,000, $12,000, $30,000 and additional streams of income I have, it adds up to a pretty comfortable income.

So that ebook or plugin or PLR package of yours that ‘only’ sells a couple of copies a week and maybe brings you ‘just’ $5k a year and that doesn’t feel like you’re being successful is just the start of things.

Not everything you do has to be a stunning firework display of brilliance. You just need to make sure that your income mounts up from different sources, slowly and steadily.

It gives you security (there can’t be many people who still think that working for a single wage in a 9-5 job is secure), and it gives you flexibility.

Start with a simple ebook perhaps, then add a paid mastermind group based around it. Add a personal coaching option and maybe a plugin that automates the process and suddenly you’re earning six figures a year from four different sources.

Rinse and repeat.

I’ve over-simplified it of course, but I reckon you get what I mean.

 

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We all have ideas about a business we can create.

As a business owner myself I know that after a few beers at a party when the conversation gets round to the usual ‘so what do you do?’ that when I say I run a business, the other person at some point invariably says ‘Oh I have a really good idea for a business’

…and if you spend 20 minutes browsing the online business forums you’ll soon realise that most people are pretty good at coming up with business ideas.

Unfortunately they’re pretty crap at following through with them, because they all stop and ask permission.

I don’t mean they ask permission in the ‘can I…?’ traditional sense, instead they ask numerous questions, ask forum members opinions (regardless of the other persons background, education, or mental stability) and basically put OFF following through with their business idea because of the opinions and off the cuff remarks of other people.

One comment from a stupid person in a forum can put a newcomer off a business idea. I’ve seen it happen.

If the rest of their lives worked in the same way it would be chaos.

But it doesn’t.

People start families without asking anyone’s else’s opinion (except usually their partner’s) they decide to join gyms, apply for other jobs, make friends, take mortgages and buy ten thousand dollar cars…

…ALL without asking anyone’s opinion. So WHY, when it comes to a relatively minor decision such as setting up a part-time online business (certainly minor when it’s compared to taking out a two hundred thousand dollar mortgage) so rational people feel the need to ASK whether they’re doing the right thing or not?

It’s crazy. Totally bloody mad.

But it’s prevalent. Do you ask for permission to follow your gut feelings? Do you need approval to set up your business or are you looking for an excuse…

Why an excuse? Well because if you follow someone’s else’s advice and your business doesn’t work out, you have an excuse – you don’t have to take responsibility for the way your business has gone

I don’t need to push this point, I think you know what I mean so think about it. You don’t need anyone’s permission, you just need to take responsibility for your own decisions, and take action.

 

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I’m crap at flight simulator games.

I have an app on my iPad called Infinite Flight, which is great fun but I find it really difficult. I’ve had it for months and though I don’t play it a lot I still haven’t managed ONE SINGLE successful landing on the basic Cessna level.

Ayway yesterday I hadn’t even thought about the sim but I found myself watching a ‘how to land a plane’ vid on YouTube. I was stuck, trying to write my newsletter and the one particular article I was working on just wasn’t coming together, so I went YouTube browsing.

After viewing several music vids, one fart-lighting and a bloke climbing the highest tower in the world I came across the ‘how to land a plane’ vid (who says I don’t optimise my productivity eh?)…

…immediately afterwards I jumped on the simulator and landed the Cessna first time. Whoop de do!

Dunno why, it wasn’t a great vid. The pilot was muttering a lot about cross-wind and I didn’t understand most of it, but it got me in the mood and it worked. My first ever successful landing.

Sad eh? – the whole thing. Proper dweeb stuff.

But then I turned back to my article and finished that off too…and it’s a good ‘un.

I don’t know why this approach constantly works for me but it does.

Just going and doing something else for a bit. Not rocket science or anything amazing but it works for me.

It just ‘de-tunes’ my thought patterns by doing something else for a bit and when I come back to my original task it just flows.

Just sharing 🙂

 

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So when you’re an established marketer how and when does the money arrive on a practical, day to day basis?

Well when I first started out and was making a few sales a week I thought that my income would always feel ‘shaky’ and that even when it increased it would still feel very ‘day to day’…

I thought I’d never be able to have any sort of confidence about WHEN my next lot of income would arrive

Truth is it’s not like that at all

All the payments from my various Clickbank accounts arrive like clockwork into my bank account every Thursday

My merchant account payments plop in every Tuesday

I have various other payments that arrive on the same date every month

I receive dividends from my other businesses roughly the same time every month

Of course income from affiliate promotions, random sales and product launches are a bit haphazard by their nature, but on the whole there’s MUCH more regular payment that you think with an online business…

…AND it comes from different places, at different times and from different income streams.

Despite what people STILL think when I go to friends and family gatherings, having your own online business is MUCH more secure (if you set it up correctly) than a 9-5 job is

If you’re not convinced think about your own boss – if he had to choose between not being able to update his car every three years unless he fired an employee what would he do?

Many employers put their employees first…but many more don’t

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You ever sit down and wonder what the Hell you should be doing in your business?

Here’s something I’ve always used to work past those obstacles

So you’ve built or you’re building an online business.

Maybe you’ve successfully launched a product and it went well. or maybe you’re just in the planning stages.

Either way at some point you’re going to hit a brick wall because you don’t have a plan to follow.

I started exactly the same way – creating products and selling them but not too sure where to go next apart from following the same procedure and doing it all again

I had some vague notion that I ‘should’ start a blog, or that it was probably a ‘good idea’ to get some form of recurring income flowing by creating continuity products or sites.

But on the whole, like most people when I first started out I was like a headless chicken, blindfolded, at night, in the fog….with just one eye and even that had a patch over it.

If you’re just as lost and don’t know what direction your business is going in, try the following.

Work Backwards.

Use a pen and paper or mindmap software or a dictation recorder or whatever…

…and just work out WHAT you want to be doing in two year’s time.

If you can see yourself working from wherever you want to in the world, coming up with ideas and then having them made into software, plugins or apps then start working towards that goal today

Build a team and start learning how the process works. NOT the techy side – you’re an ideas person remember not a techy. You come up with the ideas, oversee the process and reap the financial rewards.

If on the other hand you see yourself writing about a subject that you’re passionate about AND making a good six or seven figure income from it, then start an authority blog. Later on your can bring in a team to help with the writing or SEO or monetization.

Simple?

Yes absolutely it is, but it gives you direction.

If you don’t know where your business is going then try visualizing HOW you make your money in two or three years time. Do you have an office? Do you work from hotels as you perpetually travel the world?

Do you simply write about your passion then forward it to your team and they do the rest?

Do you liaise with web designers and techies on Skype to get your latest plugin created and brought to the market?

Visualise your dream, and work towards it.

It’s much easier knowing what you need to do TODAY when you know where you want to be at TOMORROW.

 

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Are ANY businesses one-trick ponies?

I can’t think of any off the top of my head so feel free to tell me otherwise but here’s my question?

Are there ANY successful businesses you can think of that have only ONE stream of income?

As an example I took my little lad to a party today at a dry ski slope. The kids had a great time zapping down the slopes in inflatable tyre type thingies.

As they went inside for lunch I noticed that what used to be just a dry ski slope twenty years ago was now a children’s party venue, offered skiing lessons, sold food, had a huge climbing frame (paid) area and even offered corporate events

Sure it’s all in the same niche but it’s still diversification. if the demand for ski lessons dries up they can always rely on the children’s party events. If the events become scarce they can offer corporate lunch meetings.

How’s your business?

Do you offer products, coaching, a ‘done for you’ service, do you own online assets or operate an offline marketing service to local firms?

The marketers I know who are the most successful have several different streams of income that provide an element of security in terms of income.

I’ve been trying to think of any businesses in any niche that still rely on just ONE stream of income.

Even the accountancy firm I use sells ‘investigation insurance’ and offers book keeping services.

My wobbly little brain is a bit challenged at the moment after spending three hours at an under-7’s children’s party, but if anyone can come up with a good example of a business that relies on just ONE sole stream of income then I’d genuinely appreciate it if you’d share

‘cos at the moment I can’t…

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