Month: January 2008

29
Jan
2008

Gosh Aren’t I Lucky? (A Non-Lifeline Service)

It seems I’ve been picked out of lots of other entrepreneurs for an opportunity to contribute to a book about earning my first $100 online.

I can see the benefits to both sides, 100 entrepreneurs contribute 2-4 pages which then fills an ebook. The 100 entrepreneurs then promote the ebook, and make the full $27 in commission earnings (100%) in typical 7 Dollar Script style. The organiser gets buyers signed up to their list. Buyers get to see how a wide range of other entrepreneurs made their first slug of money, which may give them ideas to do the same.

Everybody wins. There’s even a slim chance that someone might spot my story amongst the 99 others and I might get one or two click-throughs.

Yeah, okay I’m up for that. Especially as I’ve already written it up here on my blog.

Hang on! There’s a catch! I have to sign up to a $37 / month membership site.

Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

I need to sign up to a membership site like I need a hole in my head. So I think I’ll pass on this one. It’s not the money, it’s my time is too valuable to waste on a non-essential membership site.

My suggestion to you if offered the “opportunity” to sign up to a membership site with a regular monthly subscription is to ask yourself very carefully!

  1. Do I really, REALLY need this subscription?
  2. Does it add to my bottom line?
  3. Is it a lifeline service (e.g. autoresponder, web hosting) I can’t do without?
  4. Or will I just look at it once and never use it again, but be too scared to unsubscribe in case I miss some “special secret”?

If the answer to the first three is no, then don’t sign up.

Take my advice and save yourself some money.

If you have any non-lifeline memberships, unsubscribe now, stop pouring money away, and likely get some time back in the process.

(Incidentally, now I stop to think about it, I wouldn’t recommend how I made my first money online. I guess lots of other entrepreneurs made their first money by doing things they’d no longer give the time of day to, so maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.)

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
28
Jan
2008

SmartDD v2 Now Live

The new version of my digital delivery solution SmartDD (v2.00) is now “out there” and available for download. V2.00 introduces a number of new features, with many “under the hood” changes to pave the way for future enhancements we have planned.

There have been a number of downloads over the weekend, and so far no real problems. I’ve created the first of the videos – how to upgrade from an earlier version – with more to follow.

I’ll run through the basic usage of SmartDD first, and then go into how you can turn any web site / template into a database driven shopping cart just by pasting in a few lines of code.

Please be patient while I build each of the videos in the set.

The free version of SmartDD is still at v0.98, and I now intend to release a free version of v2.00 limited to 5 products in the inventory. This is still very useful if you’re just starting out as you can install multiple times on different web sites to handle the individual products.

I’ll also be releasing the v0.98 (slightly tweaked) full version, upgraded to v1.0 of SmartDD Lite. This will be a master resale rights product, completely unrestricted, that you’ll be able to give away or sell yourself.

You’ll be able to embed your affiliate ID inside SmartDD Lite, sell or give it away, and if the person who is using your copy decides to upgrade to v2.00, you’ll receive commission on the sale.

Watch out for that, I’ll announce it in the next 2 weeks.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
28
Jan
2008

Chronic Buyers Syndrome – Is This You?

You get an email about the latest greatest new thingy.  You buy the low cost product or register for the freebie, and then you decide you MUST buy the one time offer that comes with it.

You really can’t afford to miss out on it as you’ll be missing out in your education, and you’ll fall behind and won’t be able to keep up with what other people are talking about online. I understand that, those are good reasons to buy in some niches.

So you take a quick look at the freebie, and then you read the first few chapters of the ebook or watch the first couple of videos, and then you get bored.

Then another email comes in the next day, and off we go again!

The act of buying for many people is the temporary satisfaction of that need to feel they’re doing something to get closer to their desire of having an internet business.

But really, it’s the complete opposite.

The more you learn, the more you’ll suffer from inaction.

Why would that be so?

Well…

You’ll start to suffer doubts and fears because you learned you should do it this way in this ebook you read, and that you should do it that way in a video you purchased.

Which is right? What should you do? One of those must be a waste of time, the other one is the right way, the secret you need to know.

So you do nothing, waiting for that extra bit of information that will support one method or the other.

In the meantime, you’re distracted by another email about some other method to “crank out cash faster than a rabbit on steroids”.  What nonsense.  What’s worse is, you know it’s nonsense. But it doesn’t stop you having a look does it?

And while you’re doing that, you’re doing nothing…

It’s a crying shame that 98% of people spend their time doing nothing.

They spend their limited time buying all sorts of unrelated stuff they quickly lose interest in, and wander from site to site, sure that sooner or later they’ll find the secret to making big money online.

You already have that secret. I’ve just given it to you, but here it is again in case you missed it.

#1 – Create a product.
#2 – Write a sales page.
#3 – Get some visitors to it.

-Frank Haywood.

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
25
Jan
2008

The Big Secret

I’ve received an email this morning bringing up the point about “how many techniques that have been taught in the past no longer work”.  It further goes onto say that’s why I should be involved in the newest methods.

I disagree.

A “new” method introduced 6 months ago probably didn’t work then either, or if it did, it had a very short life span as it became widely adopted and then abused.  And todays “new” method won’t work tomorrow for the same reason.

The methods that do work reliably and consistently year after year are no secret and are tried and tested, it’s just that many people think that there is some extra “secret” that they don’t know about, and if only they did it would make all the difference.

So…

Okay, you want THE secret?  The ONE thing that will make a difference?

It’s you.

Look at the top of the screen.  It says “Product Creation, Traffic, List Building, Automation = Internet Business”.

There’s your secret.  That and don’t bullshit people.

I would add to that list “building a relationship with your customers”, but that really comes under list building, and so does copywriting.

If you spend a few hours creating a product that you would buy yourself, you now have something to sell.  Once you have something to sell, you can put up a sales page and start getting traffic to it.  When you have people looking at your product, someone will buy.  You can then build a mailing list of prospects and buyers that like what you have to say and you now have customers.

You automate that entire process, and you now have a business.

That’s the entire “secret”.

Anything else is largely irrelevant.

Sure there are techniques to all of these topics, but you don’t need to learn them to get started.  You’ll pick it up as you go along.

The important thing is to get started, and stop chasing after the “newest thing”.  Let the secret chasers do that while you pull your finger out, create a product, and turn your expensive hobby into your lucrative business.

-Frank Haywood.

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business