internet business

Well, I’m sorry I haven’t sent out an email this last week or two, but I’ve been really busy breaking one of my golden rules.

Which one?

I’ll get to it in a moment.

I think I’ve said before in one of my earlier emails that Mike Filsaime is one of my mentors. I finally met him last September (and again in October), and I signed up to his mentoring program.

It’s greatly accelerated my learning, and that’s what I paid for.

Plus, Mike is a nice guy and I have a lot of time for him.

If you take the time to go meet him at one of the many public venues he attends and ask him a direct question, he *always* gives you a direct answer. He works on a policy of total disclosure.

That’s why I like him, there’s no edge.

He’s a marketer and he sometimes goes into sales mode, but that’s what he does – that’s how he earns his living.

So what’s the golden rule I’ve been breaking?

It takes a little explaining, but it can be summed up as "work on one project at a time with laser sharp focus".

This is one of Mike’s concepts for earning money online.

I might be generalising here, but I believe we all tend to jump from one thing to another and never focus on just the one subject. We do that because we don’t want to miss out on anything.

(I’ve missed out on a few good things by not taking action there and then, and I guess you have too.)

But we can also sometimes be guilty of taking too many little actions with no direction, or at least they may all have the same general direction, but they’re not taking us the most direct route.

So this is the concept behind this golden rule, and why and how it works.

You must only work on ONE project at a time, and with laser sharp focus. Get the project complete, get the product out there, and start earning income from it.

THEN concentrate on the next one.

30 days per project is all it should take if you’re completely focused, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. If you’re starting out, then 30 days is all you really want to spend on a project.

And as you build and launch each one, your income increases month on month. Some will flop, some will be successful, and over time you can’t lose…

So how many do I have on the go at the moment? Umpteen. I’ve broken the rule with the best intentions of course.

And when you break the rule it spreads you very thinly because you’re spinning lots of plates, and running from one to the other.

Think of it like this. If you have a 30 day project, it takes 30 days to complete, give or take. (D’uh!)

And you can start earning money from it.

If you have another 30 day project straight after it, then that’s 60 days, and you have two products out there earning you money.

But…

If you try to do both 30 day projects at the same time, then you get this strange effect where each project now takes 45 days because you’re not completely focused on either one, making a total of 90 days to complete both of them.

But where it really all starts to go wrong is when you have another "great idea" and start working on that too. Now the 45 days turns into 60 days per project, and then guess what?

You have *another* "great idea" and nothing ever gets finished, and projects eventually get dropped to be replaced by "better" ideas.

It’s happened to me, and to a lesser extent it’s happening now. I’ve been side tracked by several projects which has slowed me down and made me very busy.

One of my projects I wanted to launch tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen now. My aim is to get it ready for Tuesday, and I should know if I can achieve that by tonight. I may have to push it back another few days.

So more news on that as it happens.

So I want to know, here’s my question to you – is that what’s happening (or has happened) to you too?

You can reply to this by leaving a comment here on the blog.

It’s worth noting that I’ve turned off the nofollow tag on all my blogs. So that means that when you post and enter your URL, it counts as a back link to your site by the search engines.

I thought you’d like that.

Now further up I mentioned that I was on Mike Filsaime’s mentoring program. It costs me $500.00 a month.

For that money, I get pretty much every item of software he’s ever released for free, plus most of his services too.

More importantly, three times a month (each Wednesday), I get to dial in and hear brand spanking new material which is sometimes with industry experts, and sometimes Mike does a brain dump on a topic he knows well.

And once a month is a call in day where I can chat with Mike or his CEO Tom Beal, or one of the other mentors (Donna Fox and Paulie Sabol) or all of them if I feel like it.

If you consider that each of these Wednesday call ins costs me $125.00 a week, how would you feel if you could get access to some of this content for a much lower price?

Well…

I can’t give you the direct content I get to hear and see as it’s copyrighted material and I just wouldn’t ever do that kind of thing.

But…

What I have for you is just as good.

It’s a VERY recent interview of Mike Filsaime talking to Simon Hodgkinson and Jeremy Gislason.

In it, Mike covers the same kind of material he does on the Wednesday call ins I pay $125.00 a week for.

It’s GREAT content. Mike is an animated speaker, and when you hear him you’ll realise just why I’m happy to pay what I do.

How much? $12.00 until the 3rd July then the price is going up.

For your money, you get an MP3 plus a written transcript of the call in PDF format if that’s how you prefer to learn.

Go get it from here:-

http://www.frankhaywood.com/recommends/mmsmf

You’ll enjoy it. 

A few weeks ago, I asked for a little help with answering a question and I received all sorts of answers. The question was something along the lines of what should I include in a short course on how to create a web page / web site.

There were a few interesting things that came out of it. Some people wanted to know right from scratch what they needed to do. Others were already way beyond anything I could teach, maybe my developer partner can help out there.

Before I release the course, I thought I’d do a few small how-to’s here and there to see if I’m on the right track with what people want.

One of the things I’ve been asked a lot about is what FTP is and how to use it.

And this subject is like most others, if you already know, then you miss the fact that lots of people don’t know. It’s easy because you already know how to do it.

It’s not easy if you don’t even know where to start.

So, I’ve created a short video explaining what FTP is and how to use some free FTP software to connect to your web site. I’ve also shown how to upload and download files using FTP, how to set "permissions" on files, also how to connect and browse your web site using nothing more than your web browser.

http://www.smartdd.com/special/how_to_ftp.php

Finally, if you do already know about FTP and how it works, then there’s something for you too. It’s something I found and I was impressed with it and so I thought it worth mentioning.

It’s not free though, sorry.

On the bottom of that video page, I’ve also placed a link to a powerful piece of software that will simultaneously update multiple web sites via FTP. This is really useful if you maintain lots of mini-sites and you need to update them all at once.

This can happen a lot!

The software integrates with spreadsheet CSV files and takes values directly from the CSV and modifies "tags" inside files and then passes those files directly to the server.

It can also be used to backup by FTP all your web sites files, images, *whatever* overnight.

Really. Clever. Stuff.

You should definitely check it out.

Please feel free to leave any comments below.

I’ve done something really cool for you. Well, I think it’s cool – you make your own mind up.

About 6-8 weeks ago, I sent out a request for help in response to requests for help that I’d received.

A few people had asked me about how to put together a simple web page and site. So I asked if there was anything that I must include in a course on the subject.

There were a wide range of answers, but the two that stood out were how or where to get the graphics for a web page, and also how to put together a page as easily as possible.

And so that’s what I’ve started to do.

I’ve used the best tool I could find at the lowest price, and I’ve created a video that shows you how to put together a header graphic. This is a real world example as it’s the header graphic for a new product I’m working on at the moment.

I’ll follow it up at a later date with more videos showing how to put together a 3D ebook and software box graphics.

And finally, I’ll put all the graphical elements together with the text into a web page in another video.

If I take it any further than that depends on you. If you appreciate the time I’ve taken to do this, then I’ll be letting you know how you can show that appreciation – it won’t cost you a penny, just a few minutes of your time.

And you’ll also learn something really cool in the process of doing that too!

If you want to find out what new product I’m working on, then you can see for yourself in the video.

To make the header graphic, I didn’t use PhotoShop as it’s so expensive. Instead I used a really low cost tool that I’m flipping about at the moment – I just wish I’d had access to this 18 months ago.

http://www.smartdd.com/special/wgc_creating_a_header_graphic.php

One word of warning about the video. It’s quite large at 30MB, so you really need to be on broadband to view it. My apologies if you’re on dial up, I’ll see if I can’t zip it up for download and viewing offline.

On Monday night last week, I was fiddling with the admin panel on the SmartDD.com site.

I’d just been reading something that looked like a good idea when I read it (ahh, the power of good sales copy…), but after I’d almost implemented it, I had a change of heart.

So I exited out of the admin panel, without (or so I thought) saving it, and I packed in for the night and went off to bed.

Imagine my horror the following morning to find that the web site software had decided to send out my partially completed email to some people.  Not everyone mind, just *some* people.  I know that because I have several test accounts and not all of them received the email.

Worse, instead of using the first name from the database, it used the name Richard.  So every email that went out was addressed to "Richard".  Maybe you received the email, maybe not.

I spent the next two days apologising to those people that were sent the email and replied back to me, I have no idea and no way of finding out who or how many people it was sent out to.

A week later, and I can smile at what happened.

There were three interesting things that came out of my mistake (it wasn’t really a mistake, but there you go, that’s life).

But before I tell you, I’d first of all like to make something clear.

*Everyone* on my mailing list has double opted in.  If you’re not sure what that entails, it means after the initial sign up, you clicked a confirmation link in the sign up email to tell me it was okay for me to send you messages.

This is in compliance with several international laws.  What I’m really trying to say is, I don’t spam anyone.  You’re on my list because you chose to join it, and you can unsubscribe easily at the bottom of this email and every email I send out.

Okay.

So I had three kinds of response from people that received the email that was never meant to go out.  And it’s a great learning point for me, so I’m sharing it with you.

It’s a mindset thing, and it’s really all about how you live your life and your attitude towards other people.

Group 1 – I was called a spammer, and had some abuse hurled at me.  It’s hurtful, because I’m not, and I always answer my emails, and I always try to help people when they ask for it.  Interestingly, the people that called me a spammer used names like "anon" etc.

Maybe they’ve been the victims of real spammers (who hasn’t) and are just tired of receiving email from anyone.  I don’t know.  These people were in the minority, and it seemed to me like they were just lashing out at anyone who came close.

Group 2 – I was politely told I’d made a mistake and that the receivers name wasn’t Richard.  These were in the majority, so hurrah for the good guys!

Group 3 – I was told about the email going out incorrectly, and also had some words of encouragement from people who’d received it.

This result I think would take most people by surprise, I may be wrong.  Clearly here, the majority of people are out to help other people.

I think these results are a small reflection of our society, wherever we live.

Most people are gracious and friendly and want to help and get along with others.  A few just aren’t that way inclined.

And here’s the thing.  Don’t you think you tend to focus more on those negative people?  Don’t you worry more about what they say and do?

I do, even though I know they should be the people I pay least attention to.

It took me several days to realise that I only had THREE people in group 1.   The other forty-odd emails I received were in the other two groups.  And yet my focus was on group 1 and my mind and had blown it up to gargantuan proportions.

Why was that?  I already know I can’t be all things to all people.  No-one can, it’s impossible.

And yet again, it’s the petty, agressive and unfriendly comments I received that occupied most of my attention.

Well, no more.  I’ve taken a concious decision to not expend any more of my mental energy in that direction.   It’s destructive.  From now on, I’m only going to focus on the positive.

Maybe you’re like me, and worry excessively about what people might think of your actions…

But like I said earlier, you can’t be all things to all people, it’s just not possible.

I’m here to help, because I strongly believe that you have to give to get.  I’ll give you any help that I’m able, all you need to do is ask.

And on that note, I’ll shortly be opening a forum where you can contact me directly and we can share ideas and experiences like the one in this message.

The forum was originally going to be for technical support for my software only, but I think it would benefit you more if it was wider in scope.

More on that soon, and also on the support desk I’m currently setting up.

Finally, the really great thing that came out of this disaster is I made new friends.

Isn’t that cool?  I had people write back to me after I’d explained what had happened offering help and advice.

That’s just so heartwarming that so many people want to help each other.  Thank you.

And really finally, I sincerely apologise if you were one of the "Richards" that received the email last week.

 

Well I’ll be…  (No, really, I will be…)

Thanks to the good sense of the people on my mailing list, I made it to number 10 in the MembershipSurge.com sales results.

I’m both pleasantly surprised and grateful to those guys and gals who bought the excellent report by Chris Lockwood.

Here’s a screenshot of the final results that I’ll use to remind myself that anyone can do this.  Look, if I can, then you can!