Month: February 2008

Want The Password?

Would you like the password for the previous post?

Sorry.  It’s too late.

Nearly…

For a short time you can purchase the password for $10.  Details to follow shortly.

It’s not too late to sign up to get access to future password protected posts.  There are now hundreds of people benefiting from email notifications every time I make a post.

There are just two simple steps.

Step 1 – Just go to the home page of this site, and at the top right, you’ll see a box with fields to enter your name and email address.

Fill in the fields and click the button.

Use your real name and an email address without a spam filter.  Don’t complain to me if you don’t get it right.  Try something else.

Step 2 – Check your email and look for an email from me.  Click the confirm link in that email.  Until you do, you won’t receive anything from me.

That’s it.  I won’t share your details with anyone else.  You’re safe with me.

Now when I post a new entry with a password, you’ll be notified by email.

Every single email I send you will have an unsubscribe link.  So you can change your mind at any time.

If you want to stop getting blog announcements, just click the link provided in any email I send you.

It’s that easy.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

Protected: Up Even Further

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Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

Going Up!

This is something I know you’ll find really useful if you have any hopes of making money online.  What I’m going to describe to you is going to make a big difference to your chances of success.

I’m not kidding.

A few short weeks ago (about 7 or 8 – so that’s just about 2 months), I decided to go for the highly competitive search term “internet business” for this blog.

This isn’t an easy term to crack, in fact I just checked and there are 19,400,000 competing pages indexed on Google.com.  So I knew it was going to be an uphill struggle just to even get recognised for the term at all.

I knew that I couldn’t just put up a Squidoo lens or Hub Page and get ranked for the term “internet business” quickly.  People have tried, and it’s just too difficult.

When I started, I’d hardly been posting on my blog at all, maybe a couple of times a month, so it was hardly in any kind of state to even start competing for that term.  I checked both Google.com and Google.co.uk to see where my position was for “internet business”.

I was nowhere.

Well actually, I got to page 30 on both of them and gave up.  Most people won’t go past page 2 anyway when doing a casual search, so being lower than page 30 meant no-one was going to find me.

But I thought “what the heck, give it 3 months and see what happens”.

So I started blogging every day if I possibly could and also I used the search term whenever I could, but it turned out to be about 20 times a month, in fact this month so far, I’ve only posted 4 times, with the latest one being this Saturday just gone.

I’ve been checking every couple of weeks to see if there was any sign of my blog appearing within the first 30 pages, and last night just before I went to bed I did another check.

Bingo!

Out of nowhere from two weeks ago, I found I was on page 12 of Google.com and page 20 on Google.co.uk.

Update: I just checked them both again, and I’ve moved up a whole page overnight on Google.co.uk to page 19.

You might appreciate this is a pretty exciting result for me, and well worth even the few hours I’ve spent on it so far.

But enough about me, you should be very excited about this too, because you can repeat what I’ve done with your own search term.

I’ve been treating this whole thing like a hobby, and I wasn’t expecting to get this kind of result so quickly.  And now that I can see how quickly things can change it’s given me a real incentive to now treat this very seriously, and come out of hobby mode and into full business mode.

Okay, here comes the real interesting thing for you, as I know that this is what you’re after.

I know that using the methods I’ve opted for, that this isn’t just a flash in the pan.  And also that I won’t get penalised at a later date for using some dubious but temporary method of getting there.

So how have I done it?  How could I go from nothing to being not so very far from page 1 in just 2 short months?

Wait for it…

If you want the answer to that, I’ll tell you on Friday in a password protected post.

That’s right, only if you’re a subscriber to this blog will you get this free (and very valuable) information, and only if you’re already subscribed before Friday.  I won’t be issuing the password after I’ve made the post.

If this doesn’t interest you, then do nothing.

That’s what 98% of people reading this will do.

Instead, the 98% will go chase the next big thing to land in their mailbox, hoping that the $67 equivalent of a lottery ticket will make a difference this time.  But of course it won’t, it will just reduce their bank account by $67.

Or they’ll spend hours on YouTube or a forum somewhere getting bad advice and frittering away the time they could be spending on building their future.

If you’re not one of the 98%, then look up at the top right of the home page of this blog.  There you’ll find a subscription box where you can enter your name and email address.

Fill it in and click the “Send announcements!” button.

And on Friday, I’ll keep my part of the bargain and tell you how you can achieve the same results as I have.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

Support – Doing It Right

In my last post – How To Succeed – I mentioned that I’d shortly be offering support using a help desk and my own support staff.

To do that, I’ll be using my own soon to be launched support software (TicketDesk Pro).

One of my regular readers, Mike Russen, made a comment about his concern that handing problems to support staff is not the same as handling them yourself.

I agree with this if care isn’t taken to do it the right way.

The issue here is, a business reaches a point where it simply can’t be a one man band any more.  In fact I’d say that if it is a one man band, then it isn’t a business.  That one man is just kidding himself.

Here’s a case in point.

I’ve just taken the first of my holidays this year (I got back late last night), and while I was away, Paul (my developer partner), kept an eye out for show stopper support issues.  Anyone else is going to have to wait for me to answer the questions shortly.

That’s no good.  That’s totally unrealistic and unacceptable not only from my perspective, but also from my customers.

That’s why it all has to change, both for the benefit of my customers and myself.  I don’t want to be tied to this business for the rest of my life, I want my freedom!  I want to know that while I’m not around, everything continues as it should.

That’s the whole point of me doing this, and the whole point for anyone else to have a serious internet business.

You wouldn’t expect to buy from Microsoft or Apple and only deal with Bill Gates or Steve Jobs would you?

Okay, that example’s a little extreme.

Here’s a thought.  If you contacted me by email, and received a reply back from me that was typical of what I’d say, and even signed off as me, would you know the difference?

For instance, if this post were written by someone else (ghost written) who knew my writing style, would you ever know it wasn’t me?

As a reader, would that make you happy or not?  I guess it depends on your perspective, and maybe not in some cases if you thought there was a chance of that happening, but that’s exactly what I’m looking to do.  I have to do it.

I will have to test a lot of people to find someone who can do it, but I think it’s worth it.  Even so, day to day support stuff will (must) be handled by someone else so that I can concentrate on growing my business.

The fact is, I have a lot of great software either completed and awaiting release, or in the development pipeline.  I can’t possibly handle all the support issues that will arise from the many products that I’ll have out there by the end of 2008.

It took me hundreds of hours last year just to handle a couple of products.  Yeah I’m pretty certain I did it all wrong, but you live and learn.

And if I do all this right, you’ll see posts on here that will appear as if they came from me.  There will be one or two people who have the skills to pull it off who will be authorised by me to do so.

When I have a good business process for discovering the right staff to do this, I’ll let you know here on this blog.

It may take a while, as it did in finding the two great developers that I have on board now (Paul and David), but it will be worth it in the end.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

How To Succeed

In a previous post I made – How To Fail Without Trying – I pointed out how time can disappear without proper focus and a plan.

It’s particularly relevant to me, as I reckon I must have spent hundreds of hours last year just answering email from customers. This is one of the key reasons my business “freewheeled” for a good chunk of 2007.

It’s also why one of my next products to be released is a full support desk, knowledge base, and live support system. Yes, I’ll be handing day to day support over to an assistant.

The bulk of the issues and questions I get asked are the same ones over and over, simply because people won’t or don’t read the more than adequate documentation. Many of the questions I get asked have nothing to do with the products I sell, and up until now I’ve even tried to help people out with things that have nothing to do with my core business or products.

Clearly that can’t continue.

In order for my business to grow, I must cut back on email. To do that, I’ve decided that a support desk manned with people who can handle the day to day questions for me is the way to go.

I realise that for the many people I’ve helped over the last year, this will be a disappointment as I will no longer be communicating in that way. Instead, this blog will be a good place to contact me, as you’ll be able to leave comments on posts like this one.

However…

Because I know that some people who take their businesses seriously will continue to want to discuss their business with me, I’ve decided to take a limited number of email only coaching students.

That number will be ten.

For your money, you’ll get access to me by email Monday – Friday, and I’ll answer your questions within 48 hours. You’ll also receive all of my new business tools as I release them, and in some cases before they go on general release.

I intend to release a lot of new software this year (I have three new tools now complete and in countdown to launch), as well as many business processes which you’ll be able to put in place to automate your own business as it grows.

The 10 places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and will open in April.

To highlight the extreme value for money you’ll be getting from this programme, I’ll first tell you about the coaching I’m currently running.

At the beginning of 2008, ten people signed up for 60 days coaching where they get my full attention, my Skype ID, and my phone number. I’ve essentially given up 60 days of my life to dedicate to them, and to be available whenever they want me, as long as I’m online, which is most of the time at the moment.

They can contact me to talk any time they like, and even after the 60 days is complete and they have their products complete and on sale, they’ll still be able to contact me any time they want as they’re now my friends.

They also get almost all my business tools that I release, forever. That was their unadvertised bonus that they learned about after they signed up.

They got that package at the bargain basement price of just $997. I said when I launched it that I would likely never repeat it, and I certainly wouldn’t do the same thing again at that price.

After just 3 weeks, I’ve had most of them say to me privately that it’s already worth every penny they spent. Put simply, they would not have achieved the accelerated level of learning without my coaching programme.

At the end of this next 12 months, they will all be earning at least as much as they are today in their day time jobs. I expect it of them.

If you want that same deal, well I’m sorry, it’s too late and you can no longer purchase it.

The coaching package for the next 10 people will be by email only, and it will be at $300 per month. You will get almost all of my business tools as they are released for as long as you remain on the programme. You will also receive all of my business processes as they become available.

This may well be worth several thousand dollars to you over the coming 12 months.

When those ten places are gone, I may release a further coaching package.

That later coaching package will be priced at $10,000 / year, again by email only, and probably only answered a couple of times a week. I may not include my business tools, or at least only include a smaller selection of them. I will include all my business processes.

Under my guidance, you may well be earning your full time income from home in 12 months or less. I can’t guarantee that as I don’t know you or your capabilities, but I know it’s achievable for most people who apply themselves, once they know what to do.

If you’re even remotely serious about working from home and running your own internet business, then please fill in the contact form below to be notified as soon as places are available.

They will be on a first come first served basis, and when all ten places at $300 / month are filled, coaching from me will only be available at $10,000 / year.

-Frank Haywood.

Sign up below to be notified when my ecoaching becomes available.

[SORRY, THIS IS NOW CLOSED]

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business