product creation

Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

There’s a correlation between those people who take responsibility for their lives and those who are successful in all aspects.

There’s an equivalent match for those people who don’t achieve and those who point the finger at everything and everyone else for their condition.

Look, it’s like this. Once you take responsibility for the fact that where you are in your life right now is no-one’s fault but your own, is when you can take the next step and do something about it.

Are you with someone you don’t like any more? Got a job you hate? Feeling sorry for yourself because you don’t have any money and you’ve racked up huge credit card bills?

Whose fault is it?

Go look in the mirror.

And before you respond back and say “ah yes, but…”, well, that’s just an *excuse*. If you’re unhappy, that’s you that’s done that, sunshine, no-one else.

Don’t agree?

Okay, just tell me, who is the person that’s responsible for your life?

Is it me?

Is it your government?

Is it one of your parents?

Did one of the above make the decisions that got you to where you are today? Are the reasons you are where you are, because those things in the past just happened to you?

Or are you prepared to face the truth that your life is your life? And that you are all grown up, and that you are responsible for everything that happens to you?

You make decisions every day about your life, and you should know that you can make dramatic changes with the smallest of those decisions.

Like…

Today, I’m going to accept responsibility for my life. I don’t like my job, and I don’t much care for working for other people, so I’m going to do something about it.

I’m going to create a product, and I’m going to offer it for sale online.

While I’m working on the traffic for that, I’m going to create another related product, and put that one on sale too.

And another, and another…

Trust me. That’s all it takes. That’s all there is to it.

It’s not a secret. If it is, it’s the worst kept one ever.

Make a decision, NOW. Take control of your life.

Take some simple steps, and change things forever.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

Product Idea Follow Up – Default Ebook Layouts

After making a blog post about my default ebook layout, the number of downloads has risen dramatically from 211 to 494. See this screen grab from my Aweber account:-

list_capture_01.png

You can see it’s really hit a chord with people. I’m amazed at how useful everybody is finding this tiny little product I’ve done. It seems that by accident, I’ve stumbled upon something big.

It’s a simple idea, and the surprising thing is that no-one’s ever done it before. But isn’t that the way with a lot of the really good ideas? They’re just simple things that are useful to people.

I’m only just now realising what it is that I have here, and so I might just have to follow up with this myself. I’ll wait 30 days and if no-one contacts me to say they’ve done a pack of default ebook layouts, then I’ll do my own.

My guess is no-one will.

On a side note, if you’ve been struggling to find that one idea for a product, why don’t you think about what it is that you need yourself, and see if it’s been done before? Even if it has, I think you’ll find it either isn’t good enough or doesn’t give you quite what it is you’re after.

Once you know what you need to do, create your own version, and use it as your first product.

If you want further product ideas from me, make sure you’re signed up to new blog notifications as I’ll be password protecting future ideas so that only my blog readers will get them. You can sign up on the main page.

-Frank Haywood.

Posted by Frank Haywood in Product Ideas

Product Idea – Default Ebook Layouts

I’ve just recently had a very nice comment from Jason Anderson about my free default ebook layout:-

Oh, forgot to mention, I’m using your ebook format to write the user’s manual. That was a nice video tutorial and a well written user guide. Glad you put that together, it really opened my eyes to the power of Open Office.

Open Office used to be the “poor man’s” system. Now it’s really robust and I use it more than MS Word.

Well thanks Jason! I’ve gone and used it as a testimonial on the home page for the default ebook layout – remember my post a few days ago about the power of social proof?

I’ve just checked and there have been 211 downloads of the layout so far in the short time it’s been up, and I’ve had I think about 4 or 5 comments about it, so I know it’s hit a spot with people. I created it because I needed it myself, so I spent a few hours a while back fiddling with Open Office Writer until I got it to work just the way I wanted it to.

Now if you think about this, I created it to fulfill my own need, but when I did my “7 Products In 7 Days” exercise (detailed elsewhere on this blog), I had the bright idea of using it as one of my products.

So I did a video to show how it worked, and created a short document to go with it. Including setting up the web page, autoresponders etc, it probably took me about 5 hours to set it all up, not including all the time I spent fiddling with the format in the first place earlier last year.

But now, after about a month, not only do I have a product page that’s pulling in a moderate amount of interest, I also have some market research that tells me there’s a real interest in this kind of product (211 downloads with little real promotion).

So what if I put together a number of other default ebook formats using colour, graphics, different sizes etc. and then offered that package for sale? How much could I charge for that?

Maybe I won’t do it at all, or maybe I won’t do it for several months, I have a lot of other ideas in motion. So, if you want to go do it before me, there’s the idea, go right ahead. I wouldn’t expect a cut of the money, but a link to this internet business blog would be nice. 😉

It’s still free at the moment, so go grab the default ebook layout before I start charging!

-Frank Haywood.

Posted by Frank Haywood in Product Ideas

Personal Coaching Programme – part 2

I promised an announcement today about my coaching programme, but rather than just jump in with both feet, I thought I’d take the time out first to explain a few things.

I’d like you to see where I’ve come from and how I’ve managed to do it in a very short amount of time.

If you follow what I’ve done in the same way that I’ve followed in the footsteps of others before me, then you’ll achieve the same benefits. It’s as simple as that.

First though, I think it’s important you know what the four key elements of my coaching programme will be, and why by following what I’ve done, you’ll be set on the road to success, but in a far shorter time than it took me.

Notice I’ve said you’ll be on the road to success. No hype here, just the truth. I could have said something like “follow my footsteps and make incredible amounts of money faster than you would have believed possible!”, but that’s just not my style.

And it’s really not necessary to do that either. You can see through fluff like that just like I can, and it’s insulting to read isn’t it?

So…

Based on MY experience and research, the four key elements to a successful online business are:-

1) Product Creation.
2) Traffic.
3) List Building.
4) Automation.

Inside each of these are other lesser items which are still important, but these are really the keys to anyones success. For instance, inside product creation and even before the actual product creation takes place, is market research. After all, it’s no use creating a great product if no-one wants it.

Each of these four elements interact with each other at different levels. For instance, you can automate the first three elements. Or you can use your list for market research to feed product creation, and then sell the product they want straight back to them.

Okay?

Now let’s take a look at where I was 18 months ago in the Summer of 2006. No product. No list. No clue. No nothing…

I had an idea of what I needed to do, but no real proof. I’d spent the previous 12 months fighting through all the crap about “how to make money online”.

And I didn’t know where to start. I had the idea of SmartDD niggling at me as I could see the gap in the market where other products didn’t fit the bill. But how to get started?

Things changed for me in August when I bought a ticket to go to a marketing seminar about 10 miles from where I live, in September. My wife was flabbergasted. She knew how wary I was of events like this, but I could see no immediate way forward without taking a chance and attending.

There I met some people who were just like me. Some had products, some didn’t. Some had lists, some didn’t. But we all had the same intent to succeed online.

There I met a whole bunch of people, some who became friends I talk to daily.

I also signed up to a… wait for it… coaching programme.

It cost me $6,000, and was the best money I have EVER spent. Even better than the $6,000 that I’d spent buying stock a couple of years or so before, and that I turned into $36,000 in six weeks.

The coaching really has meant that much to me, and accelerated my learning to the point where I actually KNOW what I’m doing, and what will work and what won’t, what the benefits and pitfalls are, and why.

But…

It still isn’t as good as it should be. Because what their programme does is to teach general marketing methods. There’s no step by step detail to follow, and that’s what I really needed, and I’m sure that’s what you want too.

There’s been nobody there for me to turn to that was prepared to get close enough to what I was doing for them to say “do this, do that”, and that’s what I was after. (I did get some of that, but from my mastermind group, not directly from the coaching programme.)

What I’m going to be doing differently is show you exactly what it is you need to do, every little step of the way.

When you have me taking you by the hand and explaining every little detail, how can you fail?

My promise to you is (and I don’t make promises lightly), that at the end of 60 days, you will have created at least one product, have an autoresponder and a web site set up, and know how to drive traffic to it.

Maybe even more importantly, you will also know what not to do. I see plenty of web sites with the same mistakes being made.

Here’s a good example… confusing the buyer.

I see sites that on a single page try to sell something, try to get a buyer to sign up to a mailing list, have links off to other products, and worse still have AdSense running as well.

What do you think the outcome is of a mess like that?

Don’t get me wrong. In some cases it’s appropriate to have a centralised site such as a blog (like this one), but you shouldn’t try to directly sell off the main site. Send your traffic to the sales page for your product.

So…

Once you know how to do the right things your success is guaranteed. And I’ll show you what to do, step by step.

On Tuesday the 18th of December at 9.30 EST, I’ll give you a link to the home page of my coaching programme. There you’ll find all the detail of the programme and be able to sign up.

There will be NO HYPE on that page.

This is your chance to start 2008 with a plan, and the proper learning you need to begin your successful internet business.

It will be the best money you have ever spent.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you more detail, and explain the marketing funnel and how it will work for you.

On Sunday, I’ll show you a video inside my Aweber account. Remember I said 18 months ago I didn’t have a list? Well 15 months ago I started building one, and about 11 months ago I realised how vitally important it was to build a list as quickly as possible.

On Monday, I’ll explain why lack of focus is killing your chances of success, and what you can easily do to fix that.

On Tuesday, well… you know what happens on Tuesday.

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts, then I suggest you sign up to my blog post notification list. You’ll find the sign up box at the top right.

Until tomorrow…

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business