list building

20 Minutes A Day…

I just saw this, got excited and thought of you…  😉

Here’s the story.

My eldest lad is almost 15 and is now getting interested in what he’s going to do with his future (apart from girls).

He’s quite passionate about the path he’s choosing and he’s been asking advice from me on how to approach it, and of course I’ve told him I’d help and get involved.  He doesn’t want to work for someone else – he wants to run his own business.

More on that another time.

Anyway…  I’ve been keeping an eye out, and while chatting with an online friend about this, he told me he thought he knew exactly what would help and recommended it to me as being a great process whether you’re just getting started or been round the block a few times.

I bought a copy (which I’ve just finished reading through) and I totally agree with him.  It actually ties in with some of what I already do and in fact I think this is a much better way of approaching it.  It’s a really good process and is perfect for what my eldest needs to give him some direction.

But it isn’t just perfect for my teenage son, this is perfect for you and me too.

I recommend you go grab a copy – at only $9 it’s worth every penny and it’s had excellent reviews.  I also have to say I really like the two guys behind this, they clearly know their stuff.

The only warning I’ll give you is that it does require some effort on your part – you don’t get something for nothing – they reckon about 20 minutes a day after the initial set up.  It’s EASY work once you get into the routine and it’s enjoyable too.

And the rewards for that effort are handsome if you follow their plan.

Go get your copy, read through it and then tell me I’m right.  😉

http://www.frankhaywood.com/20-minutes/

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, list building

Personal One On One Coaching Part 2

I had lots of replies and kind words to my last blog post about my depression a few years ago.

In that post I said I’d tell you why I made it.  It’s important.

With me, it was my trial through depression and the recovery time that followed that bought me to the place where I realised it was time to strike out on my own.  In my case I thankfully had no choice in having to do my own thing as following my depression I effectively became unemployable.

I can take advice, and I can learn stuff just like I’ve always done, and even ask for help.  But what I can’t do is have anyone tell me what to do.  I can’t help that side of it any more, the barriers just go straight up and whoever’s doing the telling is wasting their breath.  It’s quite different if I want the advice or knowledge.

When I finally moved into the digital products market place (in my case software) I believed for a short while all the nonsense I was told about how easy it was running an online business and how you didn’t have to do any work, ha-ha.  I say “nonsense” because it really is.

Running your own business takes work and determination no matter what the business type.

There is no “short cut”, no “magic bullet”, no “loophole”, no “weird solution” or “ancient remedy” that many of the methods sellers would have you believe.  You just need to choose something you’re happy with and work at it until you get better at doing whatever you do.

Obvious really isn’t it?

If you’ve been going through this yourself, or trying to get started at it, then you’ll have found that to begin with many of your days bring new problems to go with the pile of existing ones and the need to discover ways of solving them.  And you find yourself “working” long, unproductive, pointless days when what you really need to be doing is focussing on the money that will drive your business forward.

More than 60% of people give up at some time in the first 6 months for whatever reason, and I suspect the biggest reasons to be a lack of focus and just plain not knowing what to do.  This results in trying out lots of different things – “thrashing about” – until finally throwing the towel in.

I’ll repeat it again in case you weren’t paying attention further up the page, you need to choose something you’re happy with and work at it.  🙄

Usually and in my experience, whatever that something is, then you’ll find there’s always going to be a core set of requirements.

From my own perspective, I chose to sell software.  Some days I wish I’d just gone into ebooks as I’d have total control of my own product creation process, but I don’t see that as being as much fun as working in software.  I’ve always liked computers, but that’s just me.  Something else might light you up in your case, or you may be similar to me.

Whatever it is, you need to do something you enjoy, or at the very least feel confident and determined about.

And I can help if you let me.

In a few days time I’ll be opening what might be my last ever personal coaching programme which will run through January and February 2012.

I say might be last ever because I have a project starting in March that will consume a chunk of my time and may eventually take me in a different direction (still with software).  We’ll see, it’s very early days yet.

The last coaching I did was four years ago so you can see it’s not the kind of thing I do on a regular basis and that’s why I think it’s a bit special.

I won’t be pushing you through a one-size-fits-all sausage machine.  I know that more than a few of the coaching programmes I’ve seen tend to operate on a “come one, come all” basis, but that’s not how I do it.

This will be personal coaching, tailored for you.  The way I think coaching should be done.

There are some provisos that come with it though, and these are only there to make sure you’re not signing up for something that isn’t appropriate for you.

#1 – The coaching will be in the IM (Internet Marketing) niche.

#2 – The coaching won’t attempt to cover things I don’t do myself such as CPA and PPC, or network marketing.  I have very little knowledge of those and I’m not really inclined to find out, it’s just not my bag.

#3 – The coaching will cover things like product creation, traffic, list building and automation by outsourcing.  The stuff I personally see as vitally impotant to most online businesses.  I’ll give you more information on what I will cover with this personal coaching in my next post.

#4 – You’re prepared to work hard at it and work under your own initiative with my guidance.  Yes as your coach I’ll do some hand holding and pointing you in the right direction, but the sooner you take responsibility for your performance the better.  I can help you achieve that very useful attribute.

#5 – You commit to the ethic of product creation.  To be in the “game”, you need your own products to either give away (to list build) or preferably sell, and I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to create or have one created for you after 30 days or less.  Once you know what you’re doing and you’re really cooking with some useful outsourcers, a week or less for product creation is completely do-able.

On that last one, having your own product(s) is vitally important as from that point on you can start list building.  The size of your list bears a direct correlation to the size of your business.  Simple isn’t it?

That okay for starters?

More information on personal coaching in my next post.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, list building, Product Ideas, traffic

2012 Personal Coaching Programme

After many requests for help I’ve received from people this year about how to set up their sites, how to create a product, how to outsource it, how to build a mailing list etc, I’m finally able to offer a coaching programme.

Unlike some marketers who only make their money by coaching others, I’m the real deal.  I’m like you.

On Wednesday 7th December I’ll make an announcement as to how you can sign up for coaching with me.

This will be a little different to the usual “run-of-the-mill” progammes as you’ll be getting direct access to me via Skype or phone. And I’ll also expect you to be open to doing other projects with me under my guidance, as a joint venture partner.

It will be an ongoing 12 month programme, although you will have at least one product and web site at the end of the first 60 days coaching.  Depending on how fast you can work, there’s no reason why you couldn’t have at least two products and web sites (it’s up to you), and you’ll soon learn how you can create one per week with a bit of effort.

One per week?

Well, long time readers of this blog will know that’s almost exactly what I’ve been doing over the last couple of years.  And I also know there are people reading this that have bought pretty much everything I’ve ever released.

You’ll learn how you can move fast and achieve the same kind of results as I do.  There have been many times where I’ve had the idea on Monday and delivered the product on Friday.

The focus will be in the IM niche and will be on product creation, traffic, list building, outsourcing and earning lots of money.

Due to the very personal nature of the coaching, you will be one of only 10 people that I’ll be working with. I don’t believe I can offer you the kind of attention you need to succeed with any more than that.

I know that some people will want to know how much the personal coaching will cost, and my first (and experienced) response to that is if you’re serious about succeeding online it shouldn’t matter.  You’re simply coming at it from the wrong point of view.

This is NOT an expense, it’s an INVESTMENT.  In you.

There’s never been anything more true than “you have to give to get”, so just put it on your credit card and pay it back out of the profits.

Let me put this into perspective.  A few years ago I paid something like $10,000 for coaching, and although I didn’t get everything that was advertised (shrugs) and a lot of it was unnecessary (shrugs again) I still consider that the BEST investment I ever made.

I paid for it on my credit card and maxed it out.  The credit card company being the evil swines they are then upped my limit, but that’s another story.

All I want to say here is, I’m NOT going to be asking you for anything like the $10,000 I paid.

This is SERIOUSLY affordable if you’re SERIOUS about making a go of it online.  I don’t know, maybe you’ve had a bit of a skirmish already with creating a product, but it didn’t go anywhere?

We can fix that.

On Saturday I’ll tell you something very personal about me that I’ve shared with maybe two or three people over the last few years.

I’ll publicly explain how and WHY I got into marketing, and what drove me to do what I now do, and why my options became limited and why I HAD to do what I do.

Who knows?  You may have a similar story.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, list building

Five Minute Reviews – New WSO

Some time on Monday 14th, I’ll be releasing a new WSO and it’s the first of a couple of projects I’ve been working on with Martin Salter.

If you’ve been reading my recent emails then you’ll have already heard me mention Martin a few times.

He is AMAZING.

While people have often told me they’re impressed with the amount of products I put out (yeah I know I don’t always get it right), my output is piffling compared to what Martin can do. He can put together an entire product including videos, ebooks, sales page design and sales copy in 20 working hours (at a push).

I’m 99% certain that there are people reading this who have had Martin create a white label product for them. And I’m 100% certain that there are people reading this that have bought one of Martin’s products and not realised it was Martin who created it.

😉

So you know that when he gets stuck into a longer term project then it’s going to turn out something special.

This is the first of them that we’ve collaborated on and we think it’s pretty damn cool. We’ve both said that if we saw this when we were both starting out a few years ago we’d have snapped it up. But the nice thing is it’s not just for newbies either. Even though we’re the ones creating this, we’ll be using it on our own sites too.

It’s something we’ve both been doing for a few years now in an on-off fashion when it takes our fancy, so it’s nothing new in that respect. But it’s very new when it comes to how it affects you.

We’ve created an easy (for you) way of adding product reviews to your blogs in under 5 minutes per review.

The way it works is we create the reviews at an average 2-3 per month – very probably more than that – and you do a quick copy and paste of a shortcode with your affiliate links embedded inside and create a new WordPress post. This then creates a short pre-sell review on your web site which points to a fuller pre-sell on a completely unbranded white label site.

Pre-sells are a great way of introducing a potential buyer to a product.

All the white label site reviews appear with your name on them and your affiliate links – the method we’ve put in place effectively rebrands the site to appear as if it’s all yours. When a visitor clicks the link on ANY of the reviews on the rebranded site, you earn the commission.

What that means is that even if people don’t buy the product in the review they originally came to read and instead buy something else, you STILL earn the commission on that other product. (Martin and I don’t take any of the commissions – they’re all yours – we earn our money from membership subs.)

Now we know that there are some membership review sites out there already, and that they’re asking for $27+ / month – eventually we’ll be there too when we hit our targets.

But on the 14th we’re releasing a WSO for $7 membership which is a $5 discount on the official launch price. This is a monthly recurring subscription, and we think it’s so low and so easy to increase your income that it’s the proverbial no-brainer.

When you’ve registered and added your affiliate IDs, then it will take you about 5 minutes to add each new review to your blog. Mix that in with some regular blog content of your own and you’ll begin to build and fatten your personal cash cow.

Even if you consider yourself a complete newbie, then you can do this.

And once you have your reviews in place, then all you need to do is make forum and blog comments in order to see traffic clicking through to your blog. Where you could then also make them an offer to join your mailing list.

So not only do you easily build a pre-sell review blog, you also get to build a mailing list. 🙂

I hope you can see the potential in this simple to do method.

I’ll drop you a line on Monday the 14th when the WSO opens.

-Frank

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, list building, traffic

One Door Closes, Another One Opens

This weekend just gone I formally handed over the domain and running of PLR Code Mine (PLRCM) to James Cunnington the lead developer.  James has pretty much been running the site since the end of May / beginning of June and will continue to do so.

As part of this I cancelled all the subscription payments so that members wouldn’t be rebilled to me.

I now have no ties or affiliation with PLRCM, James is the man who will look after you from now on, and if you were a member, he’ll contact you soon if you wish to resubscribe.  He tells me that last months product will be with you shortly, and deeply apologises for the delay.

Okay?

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Well that’s one bit of news, and here’s another.

More than a few people have told me they really liked what PLRCM was doing for them as the products weren’t the usual run of the mill ebooks or article packs.  The PLRCM membership entitled everyone to a new Private Label Rights PHP script or WordPress plugin (often both) each month, so it hit the right chord for many.

And from a personal point of view, I learned a lot about memberships and what does and what doesn’t work.  (Especially about membership scripts.  Some of it painful.)

The core idea is sound.  Supply nice little products to the members for a fraction of the price it would take a member to have them developed individually, and also remove the pain of getting them created in the first place.

As a member, you can then give away (or sell) the products in return for a name and email address and build your mailing list.

In case you were in any doubt about this, a decent mailing list is core to your online business.  Many people say (and I agree) that no mailing list means no business.

This got me thinking about what other Private Label Rights material might be popular with people who were interested in building (or starting to build) a mailing list.

Yes, ebooks and short reports are okay if the material is good, but there’s a lot of those given away already by lots of other people.

It works.  It could work better.  And it does work better if it’s something a little different.  And if the product changes regularly.

People always want something new.  I know I do.  And I’m people too.  😉

I figured it would be good if I could come up with a membership that rotated the type of product each month to offer something new.

These are the (first) product ideas I came up with as I already know these are popular.

  • Web design / sales page / squeeze page templates.
  • WordPress themes.
  • WordPress plugins.

I’m sure that with a bit of head scratching and some feedback I can come up with some other product ideas too.

Okay?

So what I’ve done is I’ve asked my graphics guru (he creates the Multiple Streams Themes) to come up with a sales / squeeze page five-pack.  And I asked one of my plugin developers to write the Redirection plugin which I included in the recent sale of the latest Multiple Streams Theme.

Two things.  Two products.

#1 – I’ve seen the first two sales page designs from the five pack, and they’re gorgeous.  No exaggeration.  They are beautiful.  The other three are being finalised now.

#2 – Version 1.1 of the Redirection plugin has just completed testing with a couple of extra little features, and it’s great.

This coming Friday 22nd October, it’s my intention to open up a new PLR membership where I’ll be including BOTH of the above products at an incredible knock down price as a sweetener for the introduction of the new site.

If you already have a mailing list and you sell just the first product to it for a giveaway $5, you’ll make a killing.  Even one of this five-pack of sales page designs is easily at least a $17 product on its own.

In fact you could give one away as a list building “taster”, and upsell to the other four and make money on the deal that way, or in fact any other way you can imagine.

AND you get Private Label Rights to the Redirection plugin too as an introductory bonus.

Sounds good?

More news and screenshots tomorrow.  🙂

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business, list building, Product Ideas, software, wordpress plugins, WordPress Themes