Online Marketing From Home

One of the things that really baffled and confused me when I first started doing online marketing from home, several years ago, was trying to figure out the “right” way or the “best” way to operate.

Like many new marketers I would jump from the one thing to the other looking for the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… Experience taught me that there is no best way to make money online, there are many different ways!

There are also many different ways of getting your message across to the market and that is what I would like to focus on today.

I am subscribed to many different newsletters and spend a lot of time every week visiting selected forums and blogs in the online marketing niche. Why? Well, first of all, I like to keep up to date with new developments. However, the main reason is not really to learn new stuff but to observe marketing techniques that I can apply in my own business.

I believe in the theory of the “golden thread”. What this means is that I believe no person knows everything and that real wisdom is right in front of us all the time but it is up to us to recognize and apply it.

For example, assume I get an email from a marketer called Mr. Know-It-All. I don’t only look at what he is trying to sell or promote, if anything, but how he goes about it and if there is anything I can learn from his approach.

Very often I will read a long and boring sales pitch and while wondering why I am torturing myself reading such dribble I will stumble upon one sentence that gives me an idea. That one sentence is the “golden thread”, something that can help my business.

The same happens in many forum posts. Mr. Know-It-All will make a new forum post telling members how they can make money doing say article marketing. Some of these posts are too basic or even downright inaccurate. However, I have picked up very valuable bits and pieces of information by looking for the “golden thread”.

Why am I sharing this? Well, we may all be online marketers but we are not all the same. What works for me may not necessarily work for you. However, this does not mean you cannot learn anything from me that will help you. I learn new things every single day, even from complete newbies. And, I am proud to admit it!

Too many marketers try to copy other marketers that they perceive to be successful. Very few of them are ever able to reproduce the same results. Very few!

What is important is not to try and copy other marketers but to learn from other marketers and to apply various bits and pieces of their techniques in your own business.

Let’s take email marketing as an example. Most successful marketers agree that building a list can be your most important asset in internet marketing. However, very few marketers follow the same approach when sending emails.

Let me explain…

Here are a couple of different approaches I am sure you have also observed:

Send your list an email…

- Every single day promoting a different product.   
- For seven days in a row promoting the same product.   
- Only when you have a new product out, for example a WSO.
- Once a month, for example a monthly newsletter.
- Once a week, for example a weekly newsletter.
- etc. etc. etc. 

I see a lot people that work very hard on building a large list but once they have a large list they simply do not know what to do with their list. Often, they don’t do anything!

The same problem applies to nearly every single aspect of online marketing… There are so many different ways, techniques and strategies on how to build a successful online business that it is no wonder new marketers get totally confused.

You have to do what feels right for you, and works for you. It makes no sense to do something just because someone else said you should.   

I believe that learning is an ongoing process. Learn from the experience of others but don’t try to copy a specific model just because it has worked for someone else. Your whole model will fall flat as soon as you have a problem because you do not have the background knowledge and understanding on how to fix it.

It is much better to take what you can from other marketers and to develop your own marketing model. Try different techniques and strategies. Test everything based on your own personal experience. Work on improving your business model all the time and look for “golden threads” of wisdom from other marketers.     

In order to become really successful in your niche you need to stand out from the crowd. You need to find your own voice. Successful marketers like John Reese, Mike Filsaime and Frank Kern understand this concept very well. There are many marketers that make the mistake of trying to copy them but will never achieve the same success these guys have achieved.

Do not try to become the next John Reese. There is already a John Reese and the world has only got space for one John Reese. His business model has worked very well for him and has taken him years to refine. Yet, I am convinced he will agree that it is still far from perfect and that he also learns new things all the time on how he can improve his business.

Rather strive to be the best YOU can be instead of trying to be someone else. Take what you can from others. Experiment with different marketing techniques.   

By the way, a guy like John Reese was not born successful. He had a very difficult time when he just started online marketing. It was not a smooth road at all! He made a point of learning from other people by listening if he could hear any golden threads. However, he became successful because he found his own voice.

There is nothing stopping you from achieving massive success doing online marketing. Nobody can stop you. There is no reason why you cannot become an internet marketing legend in your own right and watch as thousands of others try to copy you. If that is what you want it is within your power to achieve it!

To Your Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

A couple of weeks ago I posted a very positive review of Kevin Riley’s new step-by-step blueprint for creating video commercials, called Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials.

You see, I really believe that videos can be a very powerful marketing tool, especially when they go viral. Today I came across an excellent case study of just how powerful and profitable videos can be…

The following video, made by Len Foley, called “The World’s First Bionic Burger” has already been viewed close to 1 million times!

According to Len Foley the video is still being viewed between 1,000 and 10,000 times every single day! You would have noticed in the video that he is promoting his website called TheBestDayEver.com – A membership site that currently has about 1,000 members paying $29.95 per month. That is about $30,000 per month!

Although not all of the members joined his site thanks to the “Bionic Burger” video, the video earns him about $11,400 per month in passive, residual income. Not bad when you consider that it did not even cost him $82 to produce the video…

Many people will argue that the conversion rate (views that result into sales) of viral videos are very low, and they are right. However, it is an excellent way of gaining publicity at hardly any cost. Just imagine how much money you would have to spend on Google Adwords to get 1 million clicks!

Now for the best part…

Len Foley and his partners produced an ebook called “Viral Video Secrets” that is currently selling for $47 on ViralVideoSecrets.com. However, you can get this 86 page ebook for free by visiting http://www.viralvideosecrets.com/free/ (Not an affiliate link)

Trust you have enjoyed this case study! If you enjoyed this post and see the benefits of using videos I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy of Kevin Riley’s Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials (334 pages and nearly 500 screenshots!). You will not be sorry!

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit  

First of all, sorry for the blunt title ‘HITS – How Idiots Track Searches’…

I received an email this week from one of my list members about the meaning of ‘hits’ and thought it’s a good idea to post my reply to him on my blog as well.

Many new webmasters are misled into believing that Hits = Visitors. They think that 10,000 hits mean their website will get 10,000 visitors.

It is true that when a web page opens it is considered as a hit. However, if you have three graphics on that page, each of those will be counted as a hit as well. The reason is that each one has to be downloaded separately from the server to be seen. In other words, in this case 1 Click = 4 Hits!

This is one of the main reasons why ‘hit counters’ are so ineffective although I have noticed that a lot of webmasters are still using them.

Based on the above, the number of hits your site receives every day is irrelevant, hence my title ‘HITS – How Idiots Track Searches’. What is important is the number of VISITORS you get!  

I use Google Analytics on my sites. First of all, it is free and secondly, it provides me with some great statistics, such as:

- Number of Visits
- Unique Visitors
- Page Views
- Pages per Visit
- % New Visits
- Average Time on Site
- Traffic Sources

Let’s quickly have a look at the significance of some of these statistics:

Number of Visits, Unique Visitors and % New Visits

Although the ‘number of visits’ is important, remember that one visitor may visit your site several times a month. You need to know how many ‘unique visitors’ you are getting.

A high percentage of ‘new visits’ is not necessarily good… It may be an indication that most visitors never return to your site. This may be normal if you have a sales site and they have bought your product. However, if you have a content rich site it may indicate a problem… Your site may not be sticky enough (no reason for people to return).

In order to get a clear idea of what is happening you have to monitor and compare your statistics on a monthly basis.

Page Views and Pages per Visit

This is obviously not important if you have a one page sales website. However, if you have a 100 page content website it is very important.

Although it is not realistic to expect a visitor to visit all 100 pages you have reason to be concerned if the average visitor only visits 1.2 pages! (For example, when you get 120 page views and 100 visits).

There may be several reasons for this, including:

- Your internal links are not properly displayed.

People do not have the time to search for links! Make sure your links are properly displayed. In addition, include links to other pages in the body of your content.

- Your site content is too wide or not targeted enough.

Assume your site is about pets. This is too wide. You may get a visitor that is looking for information on getting a dog as a pet. However, it is unlikely this visitor will visit other pages on your site about cats, birds, etc.

It is a very common mistake made by new webmasters to go too wide…

Average Time On Site

It is a well known fact that you only have a couple of seconds to grab the attention of a visitor.

If the average visitor only stays 10 seconds on your page you have a problem! It can be an indication that he or she did not find what they were looking for. It can also be a case of your page loading too slowly (too many graphics, etc.). Hey, it is even possible that your page layout is in such a mess or your site is so ugly that nobody likes it!

Use this statistic to make improvements and test the results of these improvements.   

Traffic Sources

I have a problem understanding why so many webmasters do not track their traffic…

I want to know how many visitors I get from Google and what keywords they use to find my site. I want to know how many visitors I get from posting on forums and blogs. I want to know how many visitors I get from doing social bookmarking and what sites give me the best results, etc.

Two more things that I want to mention…

Setting up Goals

It is very easy and quick to set up ‘goals’ using Google Analytics.

For example, if I have a sales page and a download page (that can only be reached after payment has been made), I can set it up that every time someone reaches my download page it is recorded as a ‘goal’. It gives me very valuable information on how well my sales page is converting.

For more info visit Goals and Funnels

Block your own traffic by setting up a filter

Once your site starts getting thousands of visitors every month or even every day your own visits really become irrelevant from a statistical point of view.

However, your own visits can be a problem when you have a brand new site that is only being visited 10 times a day, and 5 of those visits are you!  

I recommend that you use the ‘Filter Manager’ function in Google Analytics to block traffic from your own IP address from being shown in your statistics. It will only take you a minute to set it up.

For more info visit Filters

The next time you hear someone saying how many hits he or she gets every day I trust you will remember this short post about hits - How Idiots Track Searches. Sorry again for the rude title. If you can find a better word that starts with an ‘I’ to replace ‘Idiots’ please let me know. :) 

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

I rarely post any rants. In fact, this will be the first time I post a rant on this blog… But, I have to let off some steam!

John Reese recently made a video where he stated that selling ‘how to make money online’ information is probably the best way to make money online. He made a very convincing argument… In how many niches can you sell a $7 report, followed by a $47 ebook, followed by a $997 study course to the same buyer?

In how many niches can you make in excess of $1,000,000 a week (or even a day) with a new product launch? Yes, I know it is very rare. But, apart from the IM niche I am not aware of any other niche market that can give you these results, selling information.

For what it’s worth, I agree with John Reese. Many people are saying that the ‘how to make money online’ niche is saturated. I don’t agree. It is a huge and growing niche market. Yes, there is some serious competition and I don’t consider it to be an easy niche. But, if you make it in the online marketing niche you can do very well!

Back to my rant…

What I hate from the internet marketing niche is that it attracts so many trolls and bottom dwellers. People that have never made $1 online but are selling an ebook on how to make $10,000 a day while sipping Pina Coladas at the swimming pool! What rubbish!

I saw a thread this morning on a popular internet marketing forum where someone asked the question “How do I generate traffic?” Not an unusual question, apart from the fact that his ‘signature’ says “FREE Traffic…1 Million visitors each month.” Duh!

I consider the online marketing niche a great way to earn an honest living helping other people. It is a shame that the credibility of this niche is so often compromised by shady marketing techniques, spam, misrepresentation, outright lies or excessive hype.

Look what has happened to the marketing of Viagra! In principle, I think it is a great product. Um, not that I have had any need for it! However, I receive so many spam emails promoting Viagra that I actually hope I never need it!

The same can be said for the timeshare industry. In principle, a great concept. I actually own timeshare and love it! However, I probably receive at least two calls every week from people selling timeshare, trying to convince me that I have won a prize and just need to attend a small presentation with my wife to claim it…

Once again, the bad marketing of the product has compromised the credibility and reputation of the timeshare industry!

Many people have burned their fingers with the online marketing niche. Does this mean there is something fundamentally wrong with the underlying products? Sometimes. However, I think misleading marketing plays a much bigger role!

Can anything the done? Sadly I don’t think there is a general market solution to this problem. You will always find people that can only sell a product through excessive hype. You will always find spammers. There will always be good products and bad products…

My advice to you is to always ask yourself the following question: “Do I feel comfortable selling or promoting this product and, in the way that I am doing it, to my own mother?”

Your main motivation should always be to help other people.

I know there are many marketers that will make a lot more money in the short term than I do by promoting junk and by using misleading marketing techniques. I’m okay with that. I believe in karma. You reap what you sow. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but you cannot escape the long term consequences of your actions.

Do not allow the prospect of easy money to compromise your values, beliefs, ethics, morals or principles. Follow your heart. You will sleep better at night AND make more money in the long term.

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit 

EzineArticles launched a nifty new widget on the 21st of January 2008.

Although I was one of the first people that replied to Christopher Knight of EzineArticles saying that this widget looks very promising I wanted to wait a little bit before installing it and blogging about it, just to make sure that any gremlins have been taken care of.

Well, I have finally installed it (in the sidebar) and I think it is a great widget!

Here’s why…

1. Adding it will not cause a possible duplicate content penalty.

Because it’s in Javascript, the search engines will not index it when they find it on your website or blog. This means you cannot be penalized for duplicate content.

What a lot of webmasters do is write several versions of the same article – They submit one to a top article directory such as EzineArticles and then completely rewrite the same article before posting it on their website or blog.

By using the EzineArticles Widget your site visitors will be able to read the latest articles you submitted to EzineArticles. There is no need to rewrite the articles before posting it on your website or blog.

You can give your site visitors fresh content without adding any new content on your website or blog. This does not mean that you do not have to write some unique content for your own website or blog! Remember, Javascript does not get indexed and you still need to provide content that the search engines can index.

2. The EzineArticles Widget is a good marketing tool.

It is an easy way for your site visitors to read your most recent articles, or articles that you do not necessarily want to have on your website or blog.

Let’s look at a couple of examples…

You are promoting a new ebook as an affiliate. How many blog posts can you make about one ebook before your visitors will lose interest in your blog? Not too many!

However, you may be able to easily write ten articles. You can write one article for your blog and nine articles for EzineArticles. If a visitor is curious about reading the articles you submitted to EzineArticles he will not mind if you promote the same ebook in your author’s bio box. He will mind if you promote the same ebook in several blog posts though!

Another example… You may write a great article to EzineArticles and have it shown on your blog or website without having to rewrite, copy & paste or upload your article. Sometimes we just don’t have the time for this!

3. It is quick and easy to install.

It is very easy to create, customize and install the widget. (Took me less than 5 minutes)

For full details visit: http://EzineArticles.com/widget/

As EzineArticles add new articles the widget will automatically be updated.

It is also less complicated than inserting a RSS feed. All you need to do is copy & paste the short widget code.

Remember, by writing and submitting more articles to a top article directory such as EzineArticles you will get more traffic, more backlinks and may even be rewarded with top search engine rankings for specific keywords or keyword phrases.

I have no hesitation in giving the new EzineArticles Widget the thumbs-up!

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

Before I get to my review of Kevin Riley’s latest ‘recipe’, called “Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials” I have a confession to make…

I really suck at making videos! Have you ever seen one of my videos? No? Well, count yourself lucky!

Hey, it is not like I have never tried… It is just that I really dislike reinventing the wheel by teaching myself through trial and error, and, I have never come across a really good resource on how to create profitable videos.

Yes, there are many short little reports on the market about creating online videos. In fact, I even have the Private Label Rights to many of these. Have you ever seen me promote them? No, I won’t even give them to you for free!

Fact of the matter is that I have no doubt in my mind that I can significantly boost my sales and increase my mailing list by using video. There are many things that I am not an expert in and that I am not interested in becoming an expert in either. I either don’t really need to know it or I can easily outsource it.

Video is an exception! Here’s why…

The most important thing you need to significantly increase your online income is targeted traffic! Let’s be honest, the worst sales copy on the net, that gets a lot of traffic, will always make you more money than the best sales copy on the net that gets no traffic.

Pretty logical!   

Now there are many ways of getting targeted traffic. Some are free (bum marketing, posting on forums, etc.) while others can be quite expensive (PPC advertising, ezine advertising, etc.). As a general rule of thumb you will always get more traffic by paying for it. There are a couple of exceptions and video is an exception.

Video is very inexpensive. You may have some initial costs shooting a video but once it is done it is done. A powerful video can send a stampede of targeted traffic to any one of your sites at virtually no cost.  

How would you like to get an extra 1,000 or even 100,000 visitors per month? What impact would this have on your income? How many new prospects would you be able to add to your mailing list?

However, it is not that simple! You cannot simply just add any video to YouTube and expect to retire by next week. You need a sales-pulling video!   

Well, time for my review of “Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials” by Kevin Riley…

“Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials” is not really a recipe… It is a cookbook! In fact, it consists out of three books totaling over 300 pages (334 pages to be exact) and nearly 500 screenshots!

It is the most comprehensive package I have ever come across on how to profit from video commercials.

I would normally review any new product by listing the things I liked as well as the things I didn’t like… Well, there is nothing I didn’t like from “Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials.”

Part 1 gives a step-by-step and fully illustrated blueprint of how to create a video that will attract targeted traffic, pre-sell to them and then send them to your site with credit card in hand.

Every step is laid out in great detail with simple, and easy to understand, instructions.

Part 2 (Two Books) gives you a step-by-step strategy on how your video(s) can rank very well in the search engines. In fact, even dominate the search results.

In addition, it explains how to get your video up on the most important video sites on the internet (not only YouTube!) and how to promote your video using the power of Web 2.0.

Being brand new on the market, Kevin Riley is selling “Recipe For Shooting And Distributing Sales-Pulling Video Commercials” at a special price, for now anyway…

I highly recommend it!

Click here for more information.

To Your Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

I read an interesting forum post recently where someone commented that ‘The Law Of Attraction’ is all B.S. and should rather be called ‘The Law Of Action’.

He made some good points saying that having positive thoughts are good but if you are only going to sit in your armchair waiting for good things to happen you are heading for the poorhouse!

Thought I’d share my view with you…

I have a little framed card on my desk that I received from my late mother a couple of years ago. It is called ‘A Philosophy For Life’ by Gandhi:

Keep your thoughts positive
   Because your thoughts become your words
Keep your words positive
   Because your words become your actions
Keep your actions positive
   Because your actions become your habits
Keep your habits positive
   Because your habits become your values
Keep your values positive
   Because your values become your destiny   

Thoughts set a chain reaction in motion.

I see it all the time… A good example is a recent post on Warrior Forum where someone made a post saying that internet marketing gurus lie to us and that he knows more about online marketing than anyone else on Warrior Forum…

Yes, it was a real B.S. post! However, what I found interesting was observing the chain reaction. This guy basically transformed his negative thoughts into words. To make a long story short he was made n/a (deleted from Warrior Forum) by the moderators. After reading his first post I could already predict his destiny…

Thoughts are very powerful!

A friend recently told me how he had a lot of problems with his bank cashing commission checks from Clickbank. He used to get quite upset and things often got out of control resulting in him getting no support from his bank. This only made him more angry and frustrated.

He used to be negative before even stepping into the bank, fully expecting problems cashing his checks. One day he realized that he should not be so negative. He decided to be positive and friendly, and to find out exactly what problems his bank had cashing his checks and how he could help the bank to overcome these problems.

His changed attitude (originating from having positive thoughts) made a huge difference. Within no time at all be reached a win-win compromise with his bank and has not had any problems since.

If you think that online marketing is nothing but a scam and that you will never earn a good income from internet marketing your negative thoughts will become your destiny!

Fact: There are many marketers that earn more than a $100,000 pa. from online marketing. I am not even talking about the ones earning more a $1,000,000 pa!

The first step is to accept the fact that it is possible to earn $100,000 per year from online marketing.

The second step is to believe that YOU can earn $100,000 per year. Let’s face it, most successful marketers do not have any skills that you cannot learn as well. Many of them used to have very average jobs such as being a school teacher, construction worker or car salesman.

If they can do it, why not you! Think about that… Don’t sell yourself short. Please do yourself a favor and start believing in yourself.

By having positive thoughts you will set a good chain reaction in motion.
      
Let me clarify something… I am not saying that all you need to do is believe you can make $100,000 in 2008 and then go and sit in your armchair everyday waiting for the money to miraculously materialize out of thin air in front of you! This is not what ‘The Law Of Attraction’ means to me. 
 
What I have found is that by having positive thoughts I attract certain opportunities into my life. In many cases these opportunities were right in front of me and I just didn’t see them before.

Let me give you one example that is not related to online marketing…

Several years ago I read Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. I believed what I read AND I believed I could do the same. After reading the book I bought several properties with no money down. I have since flipped (sold) most of these properties and have made well over $100,000 in net profit from this part-time hobby!

Many people said it couldn’t be done. Many financial experts said Robert Kiyosaki was giving out bad advice. Some people even called him a fraud…

You know what, none of these people ever made a dime!

Important: I am not saying that you should go and buy property! What I am trying to illustrate is the difference between being positive and being negative.  
       
One last point… None of us like to be around negative people that only complain all the time. There is a saying that if you lose all your money you normally also lose all your ‘good weather’ friends. I don’t think it is 100% correct.

I know people that have made and lost fortunes and have never lost their friends. Why? Because their thoughts remained positive. It is normally a lot easier for these people to recover from financial failure. Bitter people often alienate all those around them.

Being from South Africa you will excuse me for using the example of Nelson Mandela. Here is a man than spent more than 20 years in jail for his beliefs. I have visited his prison cell on Robben Island. I have seen the limestone quarry where he had to do hard labor.

You know why we all love him? Because he is the kindest, most generous and most positive man I have ever come across. His positive thoughts have become his destiny!

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

I have been spending a lot of time today contemplating why so many marketers fail to achieve success online and decided to share my views with you.

I really trust you will enjoy this post. Take your time to read it with an open mind and please share your own views.

The aim of this post is not to highlight why marketers quit but rather how marketers can succeed.

It is difficult to condense everything in one word, but, if I have to, that word will be ‘mindset’. I sincerely believe that without the right mindset you cannot achieve real and lasting success online. The important thing is that you can change your mindset. Let’s get started…

It has been said people don’t learn to swim from a textbook.
 
One of the things that I have been trying to understand is why people fail to take action. They join a mailing list but don’t even open the emails… They buy a book but don’t read it… They read a book but don’t put what they have learned into practice…

The best way to learn is by doing!

How does a child learn to speak? Yes, by repeating everything he hears. My son Remy will be turning three on the 11th of April and he talks nonstop. It is a natural learning process. His instinctively repeats words and will sometimes say the same sentence ten times in a row (driving me crazy), but that is how he learns.

Confucius once said:

“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”   

This brings me to an interesting point, namely why do people not take action?

I believe there are several reasons. By identifying, acknowledging and understanding these reasons anyone can take the first step towards achieving greater success. 

1. Fear of making a mistake

Most of us were laughed at as children when we made mistakes. Chances are most of us laughed at the mistakes other children made.

However, nobody likes to be laughed at. Feeling ridiculous is not a happy feeling. As adults we often tend to remove ourselves from the scrutiny of others because it is the safe thing to do. We believe that the tallest trees get the most wind and try our best not to stand too tall.

As far as marketing is concerned, it often manifests itself as a fear of rejection. We don’t want to ask questions just in case we may end up sounding stupid and run the risk that other people will laugh at us. We do not want to write a book just in case the market hates it.  

You know what? Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. If you are not going to do something because you are afraid of making a mistake, you will never learn!

I sometimes wonder how many books have been written that will never help anyone because the author has filed it in file 13 on his or her hard drive… He or she is simply too afraid to release it thanks to a fear of rejection.

John Reese once said:

“The biggest piece of crap ever created and launched online makes more money than an almost-perfect project that was never launched”

I can guarantee you one thing… You will make mistakes! However, it is a natural part of learning. Remember that it is always better to try, and fail, than not to try at all!

Do not worry about what other people may say or think of your mistakes. Chances are they won’t even notice them. In any case, it is not like they never make any mistakes. 

2. Not believing…

You have to believe in yourself and in what you are doing!

Many people have problems getting out of a rut. They are disillusioned with their jobs and see online marketing as an alternative way of making money.

However, many of these online marketers end up hating internet marketing as well. Why? Simply because they are not doing something they really enjoy. They end up exchanging one boring unsatisfying job for another boring unsatisfying job!

Let me explain…  

They don’t do what is right for them. Their heart is not in it. They do not believe in themselves or in what they are doing!

As I mentioned in Niche Marketing Uncovered, it is not only a question of finding a niche market but also finding your own personal niche. Something you are interested in. Something you enjoy doing and something you believe in.

This is one of the reasons why I am against books that sell you a couple of ‘researched niche markets’. Let’s assume that ‘herbal tea’ is a great niche market…

Unless you enjoy drinking herbal tea and believe in the benefits of herbal tea you are not going to achieve a lot of success marketing herbal tea online, even if it is a highly profitable niche. In fact, chances are you are going to end up hating it. It is simply not the right niche for YOU!

The same can be said of the online marketing niche. There are many people trying to sell products on how to make money online but very few of them actually succeed. Why? Yes, they don’t really believe in what they are doing, and it shows!

They have been told that it is a great way of making money online but they are trying to sell something that they do not really believe in because it has not worked for them. 
 
I got a phone call some time ago from a person selling software on how you can forecast whether certain stocks are going to be moving up or down (trend analysis). He did not sound very convincing over the phone but I agreed to a meeting. Within less than five minutes I knew he did not have a clue what he was talking about.

When I asked him how much money he has made using this software he replied that he has not actually used the software himself and only joined the company one week ago. I politely told him that he cannot expect to sell me a software program on how to make money on the stock exchange that he is not even using himself…

It was clear from the beginning that he did not really believe in the product and therefore did not really believe in his own ability to sell the product. It is easy for people to pick up on these things!

By doing something that you are passionate about, or at the very least interested in, you will have a much bigger chance to succeed. Never do anything that you do not believe in. If you can’t even convince yourself you will have a hard time convincing others.      

3. Lack of focus
 
I believe that one of the main reasons marketers fail to make money online is a lack of focus. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Many marketers actually try too hard. They try to do many different things at the same time. They try to go in all directions at the same time. The result is that nothing gets done well. 

I often refer to this as the ‘shotgun approach’ – Firing at everything that moves hoping to hit something. Occasionally these marketers actually end up hitting something but more by accident than anything else. In addition, such luck normally doesn’t last long…

You cannot build an online business hoping to get lucky. You need a razor-sharp focus.    

It is very easy to get distracted in internet marketing. Internet marketing is evolving all the time. What might have worked well last year may no longer be that effective this year.

The dilemma often faced by many marketers (including experienced ones) is how to keep up with new developments without losing focus. In other words, you need to be aware of new developments that can add value to your business while at the same time avoiding new developments that will only serve to distract you.

This is not always easy in internet marketing. It sometimes seems as if just about every new project launch is hailed as a ‘must have’. The trick is to avoid stopping and starting all the time. Many marketers end up doing nothing else than run around trying to find grass that is greener than their own pastures!

I have always maintained, and I still do, that there is no ‘best’ way to make money online. There are many ways. The fact that someone else may be doing well marketing on eBay does not mean you should stop what you are doing and start marketing on eBay as well. On the other hand, maybe marketing on eBay can benefit your business in which case it is worthwhile considering.

Try to always do one thing at a time and stay focused!

Thanks for reading!

To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit 

I am pleased to announce that Niche Marketing Uncovered is finally ready!

This is an interesting story! Let me give you the background…

I wrote a blog post back in December called “Niche Discovery And Successful Niche Marketing”. You see, I have some serious reservations about how some marketers are promoting the concept of niche marketing…

I know from my own personal experience that niche marketing is a great way to build a profitable online business. But, I also feel that many new marketers approach it from the wrong perspective.

My blog post attracted some interesting comments. It dawned on me that writing a simple blog post was good but not good enough. I had to explain “how” to do niche marketing and not only “what” to do!

Based on this I made the following commitment, in my blog, on the 15th of December:
  
“I am going to write a step-by-step report on exactly how I go about discovering and researching a new niche. This will not be a theoretical approach - I shall select a niche that I am not currently active in and reveal everything I do.”

Now I have to be honest… I originally intended on only writing a short report of between 10 and 20 pages. I expected that this report would not take me longer than a week or two to write, bearing in mind that December was quite a hectic month with Astrid being pregnant, Christmas shopping, family obligations, etc.

It simply didn’t turn out that way for a couple of reasons…

I read a great report by Patrick Pretty, called “My Secret Identity” about ‘daring to be different’. I decided to do something I have never done before… 

I decided to write an informative book and to spice it up a little by adding fictional characters and fictional circumstances. In short, I decided to combine fiction with non-fiction. (The characters mentioned in the book are purely fictional although the advice and information given about niche marketing is certainly non-fiction).

Furthermore, I decided to write a comprehensive report with many different examples and step-by-step guidelines.

I asked myself the following question:

“If someone (friend, relative or neighbor) would approach me for advice on how he or she can do online marketing from home, without any previous online marketing experience and with little or no money to invest, what practical and step-by-step advice would I give him or her?”

With the above in mind I set out writing Niche Marketing Uncovered. The end result? A detailed report of 96 pages totaling 27,860 words on how to build a real online business while working from the comfort of your own home!

To claim your copy, simply click on this link: Niche Marketing Uncovered

Looking forward to reading your comments!
 
To YOUR Online Marketing Success!

Francois du Toit

They say “sex sells”…

Well this Italian coffin manufacturer takes the cake!

Can you guess their slogan? Yes, “Thinking Outside The Box”!

They even submitted a behind the scenes video to YouTube!
http://www.cofanifunebri.com/calendar_backstage.htm

Amazing! Lol, simply had to share this

Francois du Toit