Aug

31

Use Your Blog to Create Profitable Information Products

Filed Under Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Information Products, Blogging, eBooks, Information Marketing, Internet Business | 3 Comments

Here are some quick ideas for creating a profitable information product from your very own blog…

1. Expand one fruitful post into a much larger piece.
Look for posts that you could easily expand into chapters or subtopics. Perhaps it’s a post you’d love to write more about but felt limited by the blogging medium. Here, you’re putting passion ahead of testing and viability, but that’s not always a bad thing. Remember, you’re just looking for something fruitful to get the wheels turning.

2. Use a post-series and add supplementary materials for added value.
I can think of a number of great series out there in the blogosphere that have really contributed to my life and, frankly, I probably would have paid for the information. Unfortunately, once material is available for your readers, it’s a bit hard to justify simply collecting all the posts into one easy-to-download ebook for a price. But… you might be able to take that series and “repackage” it along with some other additional “exclusive” material.

3. Rank your posts by popularity and create a related product.
Figure out what your readers really like. Then, use that post as a starting point for your brainstorming process. Connect this idea with #1 above for extra punch.

4. Work on a joint venture product or co-author an ebook with regular commentators.
This idea makes the most of the “social” or “networking” benefit of being a blogger. You might find another avid info marketer out there who wants to team up under your lead. Or, you may find a handful of folks who’d willingly contribute to the work for a kickback – link to their site, royalty, etc. Two minds are always better than one. Three or nine are awesome!

5. Review natural search hits to uncover profitable keywords.
Are you using HitTail? Well, you really should be by now. Whatever your method, figure out how people are getting to your site and create a pool of keywords for generating ideas. Sometimes the audience has a way with words, if you know what I mean.

These are not fail-proof plans for creating an information product – just helpful starting points or hubs for creating something truly great.

If you’re a blogger and you enjoy writing and communicating with a hungry market, then information products may be a shoe-in for you.

On the other hand, you may just uncover lots of new ideas for future blog posts. Either way, it’s all right there at your feet. Have fun!

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Aug

29

What is Time? (An Entrepreneur’s Definition of Freedom)

Filed Under Goal Setting, Personal Development, Time Management, Change & Growth, Identity | 2 Comments

Time is money. At least that’s how most people see it. And to a large degree, it’s true.

I’d like to take this concept one step further – time is *everything.* Brian Tracy put it best when he quipped, “It’s not ‘time management,’ it’s ‘life management.’” Couldn’t have put it better myself, Brain. At the end of the day, it really is about life.

During my very early days of college, I had one of the worst jobs of all time: insurance claims processor. At the time, the money was great, but frankly, the time sucked.

This was the first and last time I worked a standard 8-5 job. Never again. Never.

During a break one day at the insurance office, a co-worker (co-slave?) turned to me and he said, “So much happens out there [pointing to the city beyond our fortress-like office building] while we’re in here. So much.” He was right. And I was suddenly very aware of how imprisoned I felt in the routine of that cubicle nightmare.

Two days later, I marched into that office, removed my things from the desk, and walked out – never to return again. Never.

He was right.

That was perhaps the first moment it occurred to me that I really didn’t want to live my life that way. That is, as a slave to somebody else in a never ending time-for-money exchange.

Of course, I soon learned that money was important, and so I soon found yet another time-based job. But I always found a way to implement Jedi-like approaches to managing my time (my life!) on those jobs – from working for more tips to “stealing time” for personal and/or business building tasks. In short, since then I’ve never worked a job where I didn’t make time management a serious priority.

My whole life is really about maximizing productivity, and I think it’s made all the difference. The trick really lies in learning to be uber-productive in one place – almost to a fault – so that you can create more and more time for yourself that doesn’t belong to somebody else. The trick is to seek out and create freedom. Freedom is what we really want.

Even when entrepreneurs go to work on business projects we are still working for somebody else. Sure, maybe we’re creating a business and that’s something we love to do, but so long as the purpose is profit, we’re really working to please the customer. The freedom there is quite slippery indeed.

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Aug

24

Applying Principles of Entrepreneurship to Your Life

Filed Under Goal Setting, Time Management, Creating Wealth, Life Balance, Internet Business, Business Success | 1 Comment

Entrepreneurs use creativity to build something that works. That’s a very general definition. In business terms, an entrepreneur builds something that works, and the measure is revenue, profit, and longevity.

So what are the “principles of entrepreneurship”? How does an entrepreneur pull this off?
The idea is…

To be creative
To take initiative
To stay motivated
To generate profit
To empower and support others
To provide value

Entrepreneurship is a way of life, no doubt. But the context for the entrepreneurial imperative is business. The business world encourages entrepreneurs to take risks with the promise of profit.

I am a firm believer that entrepreneurship is about far more than just building a successful business. (Another way to put this: Entrepreneurship is about more than just making money.)

Let’s transform the concept by applying the verb form of the word – “to entrepreneur.”
How can you *entrepreneur* your life? How can you apply creativity, initiative, motivation, and abundance to everything in addition to your business?

Many entrepreneurs do these things naturally, which is why they become entrepreneurs in the first place. Yet, becoming such a person is a process – not an overnight thing. No one is born a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs come from various backgrounds, family lines, ethnic groups, etc.

There is only one defining characteristic that all entrepreneurs share: the entrepreneurial mindset. And by mindset, we mean: “a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.”

Just one quick look at the above definition provides our answer. Since a mindset is “a habitual or characteristic mental attitude,” then the entrepreneurial mindset must naturally be part of the entrepreneur’s business *and* personal life.

The trick, of course, lies in pulling that off successfully. No entrepreneur really wants to work all the time. That defeats the very purpose of creating your own business!

As Tim Ferriss so artfully explains, virtually all entrepreneurs come from the 8-5 working world and thus bring along an employee mindset into the entrepreneurial world. Working all day comes naturally for most people…unfortunately.

So what are we aiming for in applying entrepreneurship to personal life?

First, not to work. That’s right. We need to crystallize that point right at the beginning.
White sand beaches and crisp, refreshing mohitos are enchanting, but the relaxation phase cannot and does not last forever. Soon enough, the snake charms us again. Really, we do it to ourselves. That’s how we got there in the first place, right?

This is precisely why entrepreneurs are especially prone to workaholism. We love to work because it brings us so much meaning in life. Work is good, but only if it’s the kind of work that truly inspires, enriches, and enhances the quality of life.

Most profit-building projects do not do this for us. We’re only going to find that style of fulfillment in going to work on the self – in pursuing personal passions, causes, growth, and adventures. True, there are the occasional business pursuits or work activities that do create great personal fulfillment. But why limit yourself to only one way of going about this?

The point is simple: entrepreneurs need to plan life in such a way that prioritizes self-promoting activities. And that’s the whole point of becoming and being an entrepreneur: to create the lifestyle of your dreams!

In the end, it really is up to you to *entrepreneur* your own life. You’ve got to discover what it is you truly want to do. This can be hard at first, especially as the impulse to work creeps into every vision you concoct.

I’m certainly not suggesting that work is totally out of the question. Just try to rethink your idea of work. For example, say you’ve always wanted to teach but have avoided the vocation because of lack of pay, poor support, burnout, and all the other things typical teachers complain about.

Why not become a very different kind of teacher? Focus your efforts on being positive and uplifting in the classroom and around colleagues. Remember: the idea here is to be creative, to take initiative, to stay motivated, to generate profit, to empower and support others, and to provide value!

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Aug

22

What is an Internet Business?

Filed Under General, Online Business Ideas, Change & Growth, Internet Business, Business Success, Internet Marketing | Leave a Comment

Let’s take a look at the very concept of an “internet business” to define the term right away:

The typical “internet business” is a company or organization that generates regular profit from sales made exclusively online. Some business components may exist in the “offline” world, but the sole medium for sales processing and customer contact is the Internet.

For a specific look at various types of internet business models – that is, different ways of using the internet to create a revenue stream or to maximize and enhance existing revenue streams – check out “The Top 4 Internet Business Models.”

The idea of an “internet business” is appealing because of the potential for automation and mobility. Without a need for a brick-and-mortar store or a standing warehouse, you can travel anywhere with the business on a laptop, or decide tomorrow that you’d like to move, never once worrying about the impact on your business plan.

So what are the essential elements of an internet business?

Well, like any other business, first you’ve got to have a product or service to sell.

Then, you’ve got to have an effective marketing and promotion plan for your product or service.

And, finally, you need a product delivery mechanism – i.e. shipping the product or providing the service.

To be true to the definition of an “internet business,” you must fulfill all three of these basic business processes via the internet. Your product or service must be presentable via a website. Your marketing and advertising methods must effectively deliver customers to the website. And your product or service fulfillment must be initiated and tracked online.

Some internet businesses can function with an entirely digital infrastructure: websites that feature the product, online advertising that instantly delivers customers to the websites, and even a digital product that can be accessed or downloaded immediately. Classic examples here include digital information products, membership sites, and some affiliate marketing methods.

Most internet businesses will require at least some offline mechanisms: offline advertising, physical inventory storage space, traditional shipping methods, customer service call centers, etc.

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, it is truly impossible to build an entirely digital internet business, as at least some elements will always be handled offline. The internet is, after all, a manifestation of the offline world. (I know some people like to pretend otherwise.)

Still, with the current state of and constant progress in the world of technology, a primarily digital business is possible and comes with a handful of great advantages:

Automation creates less or zero need for permanent employees
Online marketing allows for more focused measuring and testing
Digital delivery can greatly reduce shipping and fulfillment costs
Email communication streamlines customer service requests

Any one or combination of these can lead to reduced overhead and increased profit margins – important attributes of any solid business model!

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Aug

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Use Your Blog to Create Profitable Information Products

Aug

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Aug

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What is Time? (An Entrepreneur’s Definition of Freedom)

Aug

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Applying Principles of Entrepreneurship to Your Life

Aug

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What is an Internet Business?