Seven Years to Seven Figures: The One Thing That Changes Everything

One indispensable quality affects every relationship in your life.

It holds together all your associations. It determines whether you realize your dreams, both personal and professional.

And it virtually defines you to others. Without it, true success is impossible.

Stephen M.R. Covey is even more emphatic. He writes:

“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

“On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

“That one thing is trust.”

Simply put, trust is confidence. It is other people feeling good about relying on you.

And its value can hardly be overstated. Trustworthiness is the universally accepted test of good character.

When you trust someone, you have confidence in his honesty and abilities. You can delegate things easily and effectively. You can relax. You have peace of mind.

But when you doubt someone’s integrity, question his accomplishments, or worry about his agenda, confidence is replaced by suspicion and anxiety.

Take a moment and picture someone you trust implicitly. It could be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, or a business associate. How does this relationship make you feel? How easily do you communicate? How quickly do things get done?

Now imagine someone you distrust. How does this relationship feel? How easily do you communicate? Do you enjoy this relationship? Or is it complicated, cumbersome, and draining?

The difference between a high-trust and low-trust relationship is night and day. In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and your listener still understands you. In a low-trust relationship, you can choose your words carefully, be very precise, and you may still be misunderstood.

Sadly, trust is at an ebb in our society. A Harris poll reveals that only 27 percent of Americans trust the government. Only 22 percent trust the media. Only 12 percent trust big companies. And only 8 percent trust political parties.

Personal trust is waning, too. Many people look back on contracts or commitments as something to negotiate. Half of all marriages end in divorce. Many (perhaps most) founder on a lack of trust.

We naturally gravitate away from individuals we can’t believe or rely on and towards those we can. Low trust is the very definition of a bad relationship. And once you forfeit someone’s confidence, it’s awfully hard to win it back.

This is particularly true in business.

We all survive by selling a product, service, or skill. Yet every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.

If trust is lacking, forget the other four. You’re done. The moment someone suspects your motives, everything you do becomes tainted.$

[Ed. Note: Ray's personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. Our system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Empower Network, go here.]

The Top 10 Ways to Position Yourself as an Expert Using Social Media

Let’s start by answering a very simple question:

As a small businessperson, entrepreneur, or Internet marketer, why would you want to position yourself as an expert?

The answer is very simple. Everybody trusts an expert. And, as every salesperson will tell you, individuals want to do business with people they know, like, and trust.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a doctor, lawyer, accountant, auto mechanic, business owner, or consultant. Being seen as an expert in your niche will help your business and your career.

I have found that the best way to brand yourself as an expert is by using a 10-step strategy that leverages Social Media. This includes LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs.

The prerequisite to using this technique, of course, is to first become an expert in your field. This can be done through education (by getting a degree or getting certified), through experience, or by doing research.

Having a degree or certification is the most powerful approbation you can present to the world. (Just think of how many doctors sell health advice in books and newsletters.) But your personal experience and any studying you’ve done on your own is also effective in positioning you as an expert — sometimes more so. Have you gone through bankruptcy? You’re an expert in that field. Have you dedicated your off hours to learning search engine optimization? You’re an expert.

However you “become” an expert, it gives you with the necessary proof to position yourself as such to your potential customers. And once you have this proof, the fun begins. Because the quickest and easiest way to build your reputation is by using the power of the Internet and social networking. Connections can be made instantly and thousands of people can be reached at one time.

Here’s the 10-step process:

Step 1. Determine how you are going to brand yourself or your company. How do you want people to see or perceive you?

Step 2. Create a profile that will match your brand. It can include your degrees or certifications, your experience, your knowledge, and any material you’ve written or created.

Step 3. Create accounts at all of the major sites where you can brand yourself — LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, SelfGrowth, and Squidoo. Then post consistent information on each of these sites with proof of your expertise.

Step 4. Get your knowledge out there by participating online. Many social media websites — including LinkedIn and Facebook — provide a place for you to answer questions posted by other users. All you need to do is review the questions, post a detailed, informed, and succinct answer, and include a way for people to contact you.

Step 5. Get published on the Internet. The easiest and fastest way to get published is by creating a blog. There are many free tools out there for blogging, including WordPress and Blogger. The more quality information you publish in your area of expertise, the more you are perceived as an expert.

Step 6. To increase the impact of your social media presence, interlink between the social media sites and have them all crosslink to your website or blog. For example, have LinkedIn link to your blog, have Facebook link to your blog, and have your blog link back to LinkedIn and Facebook.

Step 7. Develop a strategy for enhancing your credibility with simple, informational videos highlighting your area of expertise. They can be as short as 3-4 minutes. Record them with a flip camera or a video cam on your computer and upload them to YouTube.

Step 8. Leverage the power of these sites for search engine optimization. If you follow the steps above, you’ll find that your name will come up high in the search engines. Google loves social media websites.

Step 9. Be active on these sites. You need to become part of the community. Social media websites are not just places to post information and broadcast your ideas. They are designed to be interactive. The more you interact, the more people will get to know, like, and trust you — and respect you as an expert.

Step 10. Finally, become a voice of your industry. You can do this by researching relevant news stories and reporting on them to your followers. You will soon be recognized as a source of great information in your area of expertise.

As you go through each of the above steps, your reputation as an expert will grow exponentially, especially in your particular niche. And as I said at the beginning of this article, that will lead to trust… which will lead to more business for you.$

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner’s personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. The Traffic Authority system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Traffic Authority, go here.]

Copycatting Is a Good Thing

“So far, my website is pretty much identical to your site,” PG told me.

PG is one of my coaching students. I had just asked him to tell me about the progress he was making with his online business.

He had a sign-up box on the top right-hand corner of every page of his website. It offered a free video presentation in exchange for a site visitor’s first name and e-mail address. He had a lot of quality content. And the site navigation was clean and easy to follow. He even had a search box and “refer a friend” option.

Was I upset by the striking similarity between his website and ours? Absolutely not. I was happy to see that he had copied so much. In fact, as his coach, that’s what I told him to do.

You see, it wasn’t my “intellectual property” that he was using. It was the structure of the website and the business model.

When you’re starting an online business, one of the smartest things you can do is follow a proven model instead of trying to figure it all out on your own. And if you have a coach or mentor to help you, so much the better. It will really speed up your learning curve.

Now you may be thinking that “following” another business and having someone “hold your hand” doesn’t sound fun, exciting, or original. But the fact is, most fledgling entrepreneurs who try to reinvent the wheel end up frustrated and disappointed. (There is nothing fun or exciting about spending a lot of time and money on a business and not turning a profit.)

I should know. I used to be one of those guys. But after a couple of years of trial and error, I decided to attend an Early to Rise Bootcamp. It was there that I learned about the Agora Model and met the mentors who helped me apply it.

In a nutshell, the Agora Model uses direct-response advertising to drive traffic to your website. On the website, you offer valuable information – say, a free newsletter or special report. In return, you ask your visitors for their e-mail address.

Once you have a visitor’s e-mail address, you follow up by sending them additional free information, as well as offers for your products and services.

This simple model is underutilized by online entrepreneurs. But make no mistake about how powerful it is. It is the model that Agora used to grow into a $300 million a year company. 

I used the Agora Model to build my own six-figure online business. It worked for me. And it can work for you, too.

Sure, I look at other online businesses and adapt some of what they are doing successfully to my ventures. It could be a copy approach, a type of offer, or a hot new product. And I’m always on the lookout for new strategies and techniques.

But the Agora Model is the core of my business.

It’s tempting to be a renegade and try to do it “your way.” But the days of the Wild Wild Web are over. And the Agora Model has been proven to work time and time again.

I learned the Agora Model directly from the team at Early to Rise. And that really accelerated my progress. As I said, the quickest way to build an online business is to have a mentor or coach guide you through the process.

As an Seven Years to Seven Figures reader, you’ve already been getting great advice from top online entrepreneurs who have “been there, done that.”

You can learn a lot from them. But I think you’ll find that direct coaching by an expert – someone who has achieved a high level of success doing what you want to do – is infinitely better.

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner’s personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. The Traffic Authority system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Traffic Authority, go here.]

5 Pillars of Information Marketing

Ask any entrepreneur about when they had their biggest breakthrough, and the answer will  always be, “When I finally found the right mentor.”

It certainly was for me. For six years I stumbled along with my website business, grinding out small increases in sales each year. It wasn’t until I finally got help from a coach who gave me EXACT step-by-step instructions that I was able to generate a full-time income from my websites.

If you’re just getting started, I can understand how you might feel overwhelmed. I also appreciate the worries I hear from readers that all the good opportunities are gone or that they have no time to start a website business.

But many opportunities still exist, and I can find a success story to match almost every reader of Seven Years to Seven Figures, no matter how tough things might feel for you.

For example, I think you’ll agree that being a newly divorced, recently laid-off, mid-50″s mother with two kids entering college, and having no computer skills would be a tough situation, right?

Well, just recently I listened to an interview with Paula Meeks who was in that exact scenario, but has since gone on to build a 6-figure per year website – selling information on how to quilt.

That’s right, she doesn’t sell expensive money-making products, or real estate courses, or even fitness information. Nope, she makes her living selling quilting advice.

She started by building the foundation of her business on the 5 Pillars of Information Marketing. If you put these 5 pillars in place in your business as Paula and I did, I guarantee you’ll be able to build a strong internet business and powerful connection with your readers – and ultimately, the lifestyle you want and deserve – for all of your hard work.

Plus, you’re going to love the fact that not one of these 5 pillars relies on sneaky search engine optimization or expensive pay-per-click voodoo. I think you’ll agree anyone can create these pillars and build a strong foundation for a website business today.

Pillar #1 – Have a BIG IDEA that serves a hungry niche market
Almost all markets are crowded, but that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. You simply need to create a product that has a unique hook and allows you to stand out from the others in your marketplace.

That’s why it’s so important to focus on a topic that you are passionate about. After all, if you don’t love what you’re doing, then it will be really tempting for you to quit at the first sign of frustration.

And the great news is you don’t need to have an email list of 100,000 people to create a 6-figure income. All you need are a small number of people in a niche market that is hungry for your solution.

In his famous essay, “1000 True Fans”, author Kevin Kelly says, “A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, video maker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”

If you have only 1000 true fans paying only $100 per year for your products, that’s still a $100,000 income. It might be through a membership site or a new product you release every year or a year’s subscription to a weekly newsletter. Just remember, it’s easier to sell over and over to your 1000 true fans than to get 1000 new customers each year, so consider that as you plan your business.

Pillar #2 – Personality plus Passion plus Products = Profit

This 3-step formula has been the foundation for growing my fitness information business since I sold my first program online in 2009. Let me explain it to you.

First, we buy from people they know, like and trust. We want to do business with someone who has a personality that connects with us. 

Second, we follow people that are passionate about their subject.

Third, when we find that person we connect with, we’re happy and eager to buy all of the products they could possibly create – plus, having more products offers multiple ways for new clients to find you.

When it comes to communicating with personality, it’s important to be yourself and to find the way that allows you to communicate best. For me, it’s writing. But if you struggle to create articles and emails at your keyboard, I have good news for you.

With the rise in internet video capacity, it’s easy to create and add videos to the web, and it’s easy for your true fans to watch it. So if your personality comes out best through video, you can get started passionately communicating with your fans today with a simple, cheap Flip video camera or smartphone.

Success almost always comes back to doing something you love. It makes it easy for you to show your passion, communicate with care, and continue to create value over and over again for your true fans.

Pillar #3 – Ruthless Time & Energy Management
With any business where people work at home/on their own schedule, you can have amazing ideas and great copywriting skills, but if you can’t manage your time implement, take action, and get the work done, you will struggle.

That’s why learning to organize, prioritize, stick to deadlines, fight against email, and delegate the simple tasks is so important for growing your business.

In addition to getting up early and doing 20-30 minutes of focused work before heading to into my financial services office, I would spend every minute of my breaks between clients working on projects to move my business forward. There was no time for idle gossiping or surfing the web for funny videos – as my colleagues did – when you’re on a mission to build your business.

So when you’re in work mode, always be asking yourself a powerful question that I first heard from Dan Kennedy. The next time you find yourself browsing CNN or ESPN or the comments of some trashy blog, ask yourself Kennedy’s question, “Where’s the profit in this?” It’s a sharp reminder to get you back on track with the work you should be doing in the limited time you have each day.

Pillar #4 – Always Be Learning
If I have just one regret after all these years of building my information marketing business, it has to be not getting a mentor sooner than I did.

Today, I continue to invest in personal coaching and in attending at least four major information marketing seminars each year. Each of these provides an incredible return on my investment of both time and money.

Nothing beats having your own coaches or mentors. That’s why members in my online business have access to weekly calls with some of the best coaches in the Information Marketing industry.

I truly believe that building a profitable website business is simple when you have a proven system and experienced coaches. And this is your best opportunity to get both of them all in one place.

When done properly, Information Marketing is the lowest-overhead, highest-revenue-generating business you can possibly run. You don’t ever have to sell face-to-face – this process can be entirely automated so you can run your business from your kitchen table, a coffee shop, and yes, even from a vacation house at the beach.

Tomorrow, I’ll reveal the 5th Pillar of Information Marketing. It’s so important that it deserves an entire article to itself.$

[Ed. Note: Ready to make money online like Google and Facebook? Ray is going to show you how to 'steal' their Billion Dollar Business Model, and use it to build your OWN Online Empire! Start with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and build your own online business. Check out this FREE video presentation! No experience required.]

How to Find High-Demand Products That Sell Like Hotcakes

You can’t sell a product if you don’t have someone to sell it to! Online Keyword Selector Tools can help you find out whether the product you want to sell is in high demand.

You can supplement the product demand information you gather from your keyword research with the following:

• Go to PayPal.com. Click on the Shops link at the bottom of page. All 42,000 websites that accept PayPal are listed here by category. There’s a Categories column on the left side of the page. Click on the category of the product you’re researching. PayPal will display the top shops in that category, ranked by volume (the number of sales made through PayPal).

If, for example, you’re thinking of selling tooth whiteners, you’d click on the Health and Nutritioncategory. And one of the things you’d find is a listing for a company that sold 16,736 of their bleaching kits through PayPal. Since that company seems to have robust sales, they’re obviously making money. A tooth whitener, therefore, is a good product to sell.

• Go to groups.Google.com.  In the search box, type in the kind of product you’re interested in selling – let’s say, a supplement that has something to do with human growth hormone. The search results will list all the news groups that are discussing human growth hormone (40,200). Click on the links and you’ll find out how many people are posting to those news groups. If there are lots of them, that tells you there is a great deal of interest in human growth hormone, and a supplement like yours will probably be very popular.
• Go to Amazon.com.  Click on the Best Sellers tab. The items featured there are organized by category and updated hourly. Amazon may be best known for being an online bookseller, but they also sell a wide variety of other products – computers, jewelry, apparel, automotive, personal care, cellphones, and electronics, among many others. This will give you a good idea of what people are buying on the Internet.
• Go to eBay.com. In the search box, type in the product you’re interested in selling. eBay will display how many items are available for sale in that category. If you type in “yoga mats,” for example, you’d find that 455 such items are available. That’s good information, but what you really want to know is how well those yoga mats are selling. So click on the Sell tab at the top of eBay’s home page. Then click on the Seller Central link at the bottom of the Sell page. Scroll down the page, and click on the What’s Hot link, then click on Hot Items by Category. This is where you find out which categories and products are HOT – and where demand is outpacing supply!

[Ed. Note: Ready to step up to the plate and start your own Internet business? If so, online marketing expert Ray Buckner and his team of friendly experts are standing by to help you. Start with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and build your own online business. Check out this FREE video presentation! No experience required.]

About Your Attitude

There's a movie that came out a couple of years ago that I want to see. It’s based on a book I just read by Marcus Luttrell called, “Lone Survivor”. Marcus, along with three other Navy SEALs go on a mission into the mountains of Afghanistan and only one of them survives – Marcus being the lone survivor.

In his book Luttrell talks about going through training to become a Navy SEAL and what it took to “make it”…

…it required a must win, never quit, never give up attitude.

In his book he talks about how his Navy SEAL instructors always drove home the point, “It pays to be a winner”.

And it was that attitude and work ethic that was engrained in him that helped him escape capture for days (despite serious bullet wounds) until he was rescued.

Now I know that the politically correct rhetoric these days is that we’re all winners… we’re all the same… and that we should all celebrate the “game” and not so much the winning or losing aspect of it.

BS!

That’s just settling for mediocrity, which seems to be the new standard for living for the masses.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just competitive.

Or maybe I have higher expectations of myself and my team, but I do believe that it pays to be a winner.

Why “Good Enough” is NOT Good Enough

Sadly, far too may people these days celebrate mediocrity.

Most feel that “good enough” is good enough.

The new mediocrity has become today’s normal standard of living.

I met so many online business owners a recent Online Business Summit who said that before coming to the event they thought they were doing well, but two days into the weekend they realized that they still had plenty of room to grow their business, add more value, raise their prices, and deliver better results to their clients.

It’s only been a week since the event and I’m already getting messages from these same entrepreneurs who are telling me that they’ve added more income, clients, and systems into their business.

Good for you them!

You know what the problem was for these entrepreneurs before attending the event?

They had settled for the new normal – mediocrity.

They gave up their personal standards and expectations of themselves and accepted good enough.

And coming to a big event filled with other like-minded successful Go-Givers was the “slap in the face” they needed.

It was an epic reality check.

I know how that is… I’ve had that in my own life before.

It’s like when a captain of a cargo ship sets the rudder of the ship off by just one tiny little degree. It’s not much… to the entire crew it seems like the ship is going straight ahead, but after a few hours, that ship is miles off course.

That’s what settling for mediocrity is like.

You don’t feel it at first.

You just kind of adjust your lifestyle and personal standards to it, and before long you’ve become plain vanilla…white toast…one of many who are fighting for the same scraps rather than setting the bar high and standing out above the noise.

My "Not-So-Fast" Fast Start

Now I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve made my share of mistakes. Not every system or service in my business started out perfect.

I had my ups and downs, strikeouts and homeruns. I've had those dreaded "slumps".

But you know what? I kept on pushing.

I studied like crazy and went to work on myself. I listened to the greats of the self-improvement world. I made my car a "rolling university". I spent thousands on books and CDs. 

And it was all worth it, and besides, I owed it to the customers and clients that believed in me.

Here’s What Saved Me

None of what I have accomplished so far would have been possible if I didn’t start with a winner’s mindset and a never give up attitude. You have to have this from day one, and you have to foster the growth of this mindset by connecting with other like-minded individuals and feeding your mind with inspirational and motivational stories (like I find in books like “Lone Survivor” – your sources of inspiration might differ).

Today I have a growing client base of entreupreneurs around the world who use and trust
our services to grow their business day in and day out – and who happily refer our business to others.

But imagine if I had given up.

Imagine if I had quit and settled for mediocrity instead.

Well, imagine all you want, but that was never even a remote possibility in mind.

Never.

It pays to be a winner and to have a never quit, never give up attitude. It was this attitude that saved me.

Never ever settle for mediocrity my friend. It doesn’t serve you.

Set the bar high. Reach your goals. And then set bar up higher.

It’s all in your attitude.

I believe in YOU.$

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner is offering a complete blueprint to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

How Helping Others Will Help You to Get What You Want in Life

It began as a gloomy, hectic, downright downer of a Wednesday workday.

Just over twelve hours earlier on Tuesday afternoon I had wrapped up a disappointing business call. An important project had taken an unexpected detour and seemed like my progress would be set back for months. It really knocked the wind out of my sails.

Try as I might to shake this feeling, it remained with me the next morning. I was running around but felt like I was spinning my wheels. I’m sure you know the feeling.

Just when I was about to write-off the day, a magical phone call turned it around. Dare I say it even turned my week, and perhaps even my month, around?

After hours of line-ups at the bank and appointments, I parked my car on a green, leafy street in Chicago near its beautiful Lakeshore Drive scenery, and initiated a periscope conference call. It was time for a coaching session with my favorite (and most successful) client and her business partner. Let’s call them Kate and John.

Hearing Kates' voice and smile brought a smile to my face. Things were already starting to get better. But it was the help I could deliver to them that would really make my day.

Kate and John were dealing with “more money, more problems” in their rapidly growing business. The more revenue they generated, the more they were tempted to – and often did – take that money and add employees, invest in side projects, and fill office space, even though none of these directly contributed to the financial health of the business. Kate and John found themselves overwhelmed by the monster they had created.

My clients are two of the most generous, helping, and value-adding people that I know. Yet the truth is that Kate and John are out of their league when it comes to growing a multi-million dollar business and the team that comes with it. This is all new to them. As a result, a complex business has been built where a simple solution would have done the job just as well, but with less stress.

Adding more employees not only increased their expenses but it also dramatically elevated the amount of time required to manage these new hires. Almost all of this responsibility fell on John’s shoulders and it was getting to a point where something was going to give – either his work performance or his health. John had set no boundaries and was paying the price for it. As Kate exclaimed with exasperation, “You don’t even get a lunch break!”

We were deeply concerned about the enormous stress and pressure that had been heaped upon John. Something had to be done. He needed help.

This was my cue to come to the rescue and show John how to implement my time and energy management secrets along with my goal-setting and priority organization systems. These solutions would simplify his life.

“Sounds like me”, you might be thinking about your work or even family responsibilities. If you can relate to John, then you’ll appreciate how we fixed the situation.

I started softly, first by explaining to them how the President of the company has the authority to schedule his own lunch break. We set boundaries on how employees could contact him, and implemented a chain of command so that not every decision required his feedback.

Then we reviewed their business priorities. Did it really matter to the business how many “Likes” they were getting on Facebook? Could they directly track sales from participation in social media? No, they replied, and so I had them table this project for a month. No new resources would be devoted to it, and Hank was no longer permitted to put any of his time or energy into meetings about social media. “Just make sure you have a team member from your Customer Satisfaction Department answering any questions that come up on those sites and leave it at that,” I instructed.

We made similar adjustments to other non-essential projects that somehow John and his team had gotten mired into. It’s really amazing how a successful business can spin out of control when it starts chasing every shiny new object.

John was slowly getting it. We systematized his day and freed up his time and energy. Next, I pointed out that they’ve never hired anyone smarter than them in their company and that all this stress was from trying to do everything himself. I challenged them to stop adding many junior team members and instead focus on finding a senior team member to help in the areas of finance or marketing. This would be another big step in freeing up John’s time and energy.

As we came to the top of the hour and time to wrap up our session, I gave them their marching orders.

First, Kate and John would map out the top three to five priorities in their business. Fortunately, it was clear for Kate and John where their true priorities were.

Second, they’d identify the top key employee that they needed to add. This one key hire should make a huge difference in their business.

Finally, I recommended Kate and John improve top-down communication within their team through a weekly team e-mail newsletter. The team newsletter will explain the company’s vision, monitor the company’s progress, and recognize employees that go above and beyond the call of duty. It will even highlight – rather than hiding – areas of concern in the business.

By implementing a weekly message to their team, John will further reduce the amount of drama amongst his team. Much of the stress and pressure in many work places can be avoided with greater transparency from the top down. Junior team members need to know where the company is heading, and why decisions are being made. No one wants to be left in the dark.

Furthermore, by showing the team where it is going and even where it is hurting, it will bring out the best in their ability. Just as I want to help John and Kate, so do their employees. At the end of the day, people want to help people. If their employees knew what Kate and John needed, they’d go out of their way to deliver it.

People want to help people. We are driven to do this. It makes us feel good. As one of my favorite virtual mentors, Frank McKinney once said, “You cannot brighten another person’s path without lighting your own.”

The secret to success in life is that simple. Help others. Add value to their life.

As Corey Anton writes in his book, Sources of Significance, “People need to sense that they have not squandered nor trivialized the very gift of their lives. They need to believe that they have something to give as well as feel that they have, in fact, adequately given. People’s lives gain significance not by being provided for nor by securing material comforts, but rather, when individuals are called to sacrifice self and talents for something beautiful, grand, or noble.”

Or more simply, as Zig Ziglar taught us, “You’ll get all that you want in life if you help others get what they want.”

You see, it’s not all about us. It never was. It never will be. It’s about helping others. When I let myself get absorbed in my schedule, my inconveniences, and my happiness, the chase for satisfaction became elusive. It wasn’t until I concentrated on helping others, on adding value to the world, on solving problems, and clearly communicating solutions to other people, that I found what I was looking for.

It was a golden hour. Kate and John experienced big breakthroughs. We delivered clarity to their future, and most important, we helped alleviate the stress and strain that had been wearing down John. And it also brightened my day.

Helping them helped me.

As the session ended and I stepped out of my car to run yet another errand, the clouds parted and a warm ray of spring sunshine fell down upon me. I rushed to my next appointment with a smile on my face, one that stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, and even the remainder of the week. Helping others helped me. It works every time.

And that will work for you too. It’s so easy. Just help as many people as you can. Start today.

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner is offering a complete blueprint to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

The Most Important Entrepreneurship Article You’ll Ever Read

With the word entrepreneur becoming increasingly popular with media pundits on both the right and the left, more and more people are coming to realize that entrepreneurship was the driving force behind America’s widespread prosperity – prosperity that few Americans could have imagined as recent as the mid-20th century.

Entrepreneurship, in fact, embodies the spirit of the American Dream. After all, many of the Founding Fathers were entrepreneurs, and perhaps the two most famous in that regard are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They also are good examples of just how far apart the results of individual entrepreneurs can be. Though they were both farmers, Washington was one of the richest men in America, while Jefferson struggled financially throughout his life and died broke.

Jefferson’s financial difficulties are a reminder that there are no guarantees for the entrepreneur, who labors away without the luxury of a safety net. In fact, perhaps the single greatest attribute of an entrepreneur is his willingness to take risks – including the risk of losing everything if he fails. By everything, I’m not just referring to savings, stocks, bonds, and collectibles. I’m talking about his house, his furniture, his cars – everything he owns – not to mention his credit and his self-esteem.

In this vein, Barbara Walters did an excellent special a few years back on self-made billionaires. The slant of the show belied the rhetoric of politicians who pander to voters by implying that being rich, of and by itself, is evil. They would have people believe that rich people somehow prevent others from getting ahead financially. The truth, of course, is that most wealthy people achieved their success by creating products and services that others want.

Barbara Walters’ first guest was Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil. Laliberte, who had a net worth of $2.5 billion at the time, struggled early in his career as a street performer in Montreal before venturing out as an entrepreneur. Today, his multibillion-dollar business showcases in over 271 cities worldwide, employing tens of thousands of people in the process.

When Walters asked Laliberte if he still takes risks, he quickly responded, “Every day.” Wall Street Journal Wealth Reporter Robert Frank, who added his insights throughout the show, then explained, “Part of the risk-taking personality is the ability to overcome failure. …One of the things that makes billionaires successful is their reaction to failure.”

Unfortunately, those who spew out class-warfare rhetoric are clueless about the risks the entrepreneur takes in his quest to achieve the American Dream. Or about the self-evident principle: The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward.

As a result, politicians have a stubborn habit of stepping in and trying to curb the natural rewards of the marketplace, insisting that “it’s unfair” for the super rich to make so much more than the average working person. That’s right, no other explanation other than “it’s unfair.”

It goes without saying that from a moral point of view, their position is indefensible. If people are truly free, they should be free to become as wealthy as their talent, creativity, and hard work can take them, so long as they do not use force or fraud against anyone else. The American Dream is about opportunity, not guarantees.

And from an economic viewpoint, it’s a no-brainer. Contrary to what some politicians would like us to believe, it’s impossible for anyone to become rich without creating jobs. Wealthy folks start and expand businesses and, in the process, employ others – not just by hiring people, but through the jobs that are created indirectly by those who furnish the raw materials, parts, transportation, etc. that their businesses require.

But what about someone who spends hundreds of millions of dollars indulging himself in such luxuries as mansions, private jets, and yachts? It doesn’t take a Ludwig von Mises to explain that workers are needed to build those mansions, private jets, and yachts, not to mention to produce the materials and thousands of parts and accessories that go into them. Then, once built, it takes people to operate and service those mansions, private jets, and yachts – which means long-term employment.

Thus, economic reality makes it clear that the entrepreneur is not the villain some politicians make him out to be. On the contrary, he is a bona fide hero who creates jobs and wealth for everyone who is willing to work, thus giving others a leg up in achieving the American Dream.

As such, entrepreneurs who accumulate great fortunes should be admired rather than scorned. To vilify someone for having “too much” is the height of asininity and self-destructiveness. The American Dream is not about envy; it’s about getting what you want in life by creating products and services that are valued in the free market.

The single most important fact about entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and the deceased Steve Jobs is that their great wealth not only does not prevent others from becoming successful, it actually gives their customers the tools to become wealthy themselves. Think computers, hand-held electronic devices, and cell phones, to name but a few of the more obvious of such tools, all of which are easily available to even the most financially challenged among us.

The optimistic side of me wants to believe that truth may be on a roll here. If so, it needs all the help it can get. As angry redistribution-of-wealth advocates preach about lame abstracts such as social justice and fairness, those of us who know the truth about the American Dream need to spread the word.

We need to explain to all who will listen that the individual who aspires to great wealth by creating products and services people want is not the cause of America’s problems, but, rather, the solution to its problems.

When an individual focuses on hard work, resourcefulness, and wealth creation – and is willing to take risks – it puts him in a position to achieve the same American Dream that millions of wealthy people have experienced through their own efforts.

[Ed. Note: If you’re ready for a treasure chest of proven ideas, strategies, and techniques that are guaranteed to dramatically improve your marketing skills – and, in the process, increase your income many times over – you won’t want to miss this free presentation on how thousands of people are laughing their money worries away using this brand new "Smart System".

How to Be in the Top 5% of Your Industry

You’ve probably seen that bleak statistic before…. “50% of businesses fail within the first 5 years and 80% within the first 10 years.” A Google search will bring up reports hovering anywhere from 60%-90% fail rate in the first 5-10 years. Whatever the case…there are a lot of businesses that fail. Period. So let’s just make sure you aren’t one of them.

Some people want to blame the poor economy, increased competition, and/or inflation for their failures. But there are plenty of people who have proven that success is possible in spite of these challenges. As I see it, there are three main reasons so many businesses meet with failure…

1. Lack of a good product or service.
2. Lack of good marketing.
3. Lack of buyers.

Your job is to simply not be “lacking” in those three areas and you can beat the odds and be successful… But in reality that’s easier said than done or we wouldn’t be looking at an 80% failure rate would we?

Offer A Good…No A Great…Product Or Service.
Pioneering business leader, Peter Drucker gave the simplest definition, and what he called the primary purpose of business… “To create (and keep) customers.”

One of the major roles of being a successful business owner is to actually learn how to fulfill the needs and wants of your marketplace. Offer a product or service…whether it’s something you conceive or represent…and deliver it so that your customers are so happy with the experience that they buy again and again.

Your job as a business owner is to exceed the expectations that clients have because every customer has expectations. And when you exceed those expectations they will do business with you over and over and over again. That’s how you “keep” those customers.

Marketing…The Producer Of Your Success (Or Failure)

Peter Drucker nailed it again with this quote, “Marketing and innovation produce results, all other business functions are cost.”

But I’m not just talking about throwing money at expensive advertising in hopes that you see a return on your investment or building an “image” or a “brand”. No. I’m talking about effective direct response style marketing. This is the kind of marketing that provides results you can track. If more businesses learned and practiced effective, proven marketing techniques the 80% fail rate would dramatically flip to success.

You rarely see someone go out of business because their prices were too high or because they had too many customers. It’s usually because they don’t have enough customers and they’re pricing themselves too low. Low prices squeeze margins and can render a business incapable of delivering a service or a product that meets or exceeds expectations. A lack of customers and competing by low price are the results of ineffective, uneducated marketing.

Buyers…Finding (And Keeping) Your Place In The Market.
What happens if your marketplace gets too competitive or “dries up?” When people get into the “trap” of major competition or find people no longer buying what it is they’re selling, they need to change their approach and what they offer to fit what the marketplace actually wants. That means keeping your finger on the pulse of your market so that your business and marketing can evolve and you can innovate.

Remember These Four “M’s”…

As a successful marketer now, I’ve learned that there’s four things you need in business to be successful. I call them “The Four M’s”…Marketing…Margins…Management…and Model.

Model…Take A Look At The “Blueprint” Of Your Business…
What is your plan for generating revenues? This plan is your “model” or the “skeleton of your success”. Your model is the foundation that holds all of the other working parts. A solid model can lead to the success of your business likewise a weak model may lead to its demise.

Margins…. “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better”

Don’t forget that you are in a numbers game. Most business owners make that mistake. Do you know your numbers? How much do you actually make on what it is you sell? If you don’t know your margins, you might not be around (in business) long enough to find out.

Marketing…Yes Again…From Packaging To Profits

How do you effectively position, offer and uniquely package your products or services? I already touched on marketing but it’s really so important to the success of a business that it deserves extra attention. Your marketing ultimately determines your paycheck. Get your marketing “dialed in” and you’re already two steps ahead of your competition.

Management…I’m not Talking About People

The word “management” often conjures up ideas of managing a staff, but it doesn’t necessarily mean managing people. Management is simply your ability to keep track of stuff. It can mean your ability to manage your staff, your products, your services, your marketing, your margins, and your profits. When you own a business you are managing everything that relates to making you money every day.

Your Weakest Link…

These four M’s feed into each other and some of them are more critical to the formula of success than others. For example, I have never considered myself a great manager but learned such effective marketing that I was able to make high enough margins and develop a business model where based on those alone, I could do really well.

Prioritize your skills. After all, you could be the best manager in the world but if you have a weak model, poor margins, and your marketing isn’t good, you are still not going to make enough money to survive in business.

Never forget what it is you’re really doing when you have your own business…

Solving Problems For A Profit.

That’s it. There is a lot of “problems” in the world. If you can solve them, you can make a lot of profits. If you don’t know what “problems” you can solve, then find out what people are interested in buying and learn how to deliver them a solution in a confident, profitable manner.

If you do “solve people’s problems” just a little bit better than all of the other competitors out there, not only will you beat the 80% failure rate, but you will most likely be one of the top 5% of your marketplace.

Simply because you are reading this article right now, you are probably already in that category….or very close. After all, I think the reason up to 80% of businesses fail (and this is my opinion) is because most people don’t take the time to learn how to make their business succeed. (So congratulations on being one of those people that do.)

Remember as long as you aren’t “lacking” in the three crucial areas of business, (product/service, marketing and marketplace) and as long as you have a good model, healthy margins, effective marketing, and capable management, you can go out there and “beat the odds”. You can succeed.

[Ed. note: In his latest training series, Ray reveals simple ways to start a business... find a retirement career...make extra money in your spare time... and more. These are the routes to wealth the rich employ. Click here to learn more about them.]

Make $4,000 Each Month by Taking Your “Hobby” Online (Part 2)

Here are the six steps you will follow to turn your hobby into cash:

Step One

The first step is to choose a hobby or activity that inspires you. Begin by scratching out a list of everything you enjoy. Make the list as long as possible. Don’t worry if your passion seems crazy or even embarrassing. Crazy and embarrassing can be good!

After you have at least 10 (but hopefully several dozen) topics, you will begin to narrow them down by asking the following questions:

• Is this something that is difficult or complicated? (Collecting butterflies, rare coins, etc.)
• Is this something that requires skill? (Golf, fly-fishing, playing the French horn, building airplanes, etc.)
• Is this something that needs tools or parts? (Repairing old radios, vacuum cleaners, motorcycles, etc.)
• Is this something people have strong opinions about? (Wine, beer, cooking, etc.)
• Is this something that sounds crazy or embarrassing? (Skydiving, sexual fetishes, eating dirt, etc.)

You are looking for “yeses.” The stronger the yeses, the better. You can then get rid of topics that don’t have that many yeses.

Of the remaining topics, think about the ones that YOU feel you could really get behind and write about enthusiastically.

Step Two

This is where we figure out the online supply and demand for your topic ideas. Supply represents the number of websites and pages that have already been published on your topic by other people and companies. Demand represents the number, or universe, of people who are actually looking for information on your topic.

As you have perhaps already figured out… you don’t want too much supply, and you do want a healthy level of demand.

To see the supply number, think of a search term that matches your topic and type it into the search box at Google. Just above the list of search results you’ll see a number that tells you how many results are being listed.

To find the “demand” number, you can use a free tool like Google’s Ad Words Keyword Planner. This will tell you how many times people use that search term each month.

If this sounds complicated, don’t worry. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of figuring out a promising supply/demand ratio. And you’ll use this ratio to identify which of your topic ideas has the most potential.

For now, let’s focus on the “demand” figure, which represents your universe of potential site visitors.

Take CrossFit, for example. Tim is enthusiastic about CrossFit. A quick look on Google AdWords gives me a universe of 4 million people.

That is a lot of people.

Or how about one of my favorite topics—Jiu Jitsu? Every month more than 1.8 million people scour the Internet looking for information on Jiu Jitsu.

So both CrossFit and Jiu Jitsu might be good topics for a moneymaking website of this kind. (When you start working on this, you’ll also be looking at the supply figures, to make sure your topic isn’t too competitive.)

The purpose of this step is to find a popular topic that has a sizeable universe of prospects, and not too much competition.

And yes, this process works. For example, Tomaz Mencinger, whom I mentioned earlier, is bringing in $3,000 per month in extra income from his site. And Tomaz tells us that it hasn’t yet reached its full potential.

Step Three

After you have determined your topic has the universe you need, find an angle that makes it unique in some way.

I told you that Nick saw a gap between the large coffee websites that offered general information and the connoisseur websites that appealed to coffee snobs.

Every site, forum, or blog he went to was for the “coffee geeks,” the people who freak out if their coffee is brewed two degrees too hot. So Nick decided to fill gap by providing the basics.

Nick’s angle was to create a website for people interested in coffee that was not too snobby, but still comprehensive enough for these beginners to become experts.

Kathy Widenhouse from Lake Wylie, S.C., turned her passion for tomatoes into a moneymaking website. Her site, Tomato Dirt, digs up the best gardening tips for growing tomatoes in your garden or patio.

The money it brings in helps pay for her daughter’s living expenses while she goes through a three-year doctorate program at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Then there’s Nancy Hearn from Phoenix, Ariz. She has an incredible passion for the health benefits of water. Nancy’s site, Water Benefits Health, teaches the health and fitness benefits of drinking water. Her site brings in anywhere from $1,000-3,000 per month with minimal effort.

What you are doing in this step is one of the most important things you must do if you hope to make money from your website.

Every good book on entrepreneurship will tell you that it is easier to sell a product or service if it has a unique selling proposition (USP).

Usually this is some quality or characteristic of the product or service that is lacking in the competition. But sometimes it can simply be a different approach.

For example, let’s say your interest is in pet care. You search the Internet and find that it has a sizeable universe. So you think, “How can I narrow this down?” You could narrow it down by focusing on just one kind of pet, so you choose cats.

That helps but there are hundreds of websites dealing with cat care. How can you make your website unique? You decide that your website will focus on some special interest that you have.

It turns out that you are also a vegetarian. So you decide to create a website to teach and help people who want to feed their cats a vegetarian diet. This is loony but as I said, crazy is good. Sure enough, you’ll find more than 4 million results on Google when searching “vegetarian cat food.”

Or you could devote your website to communicating with your cat telepathically. This is both crazy and embarrassing (or it should be), but it will certainly give your website a USP.

Not every USP sells. You will discover that later in the process—when you test your website.

Step Four

After you have chosen your topic and its USP, it’s time to choose a domain name. A domain name is basically your Internet address. For example, our domain name is Palmbeachletter.com.

It’s very simple to create a domain name. All you need to do is go to a website like godaddy, type in the name of the site you’d like, and godaddy will let you know if it’s available and for how much it costs.

Step Five

Once you choose a domain name, you can start setting up your website. A content management system (CMS) makes this possible. It also allows you to design, publish, and update your content seamlessly.

This used to be difficult and expensive. But thanks to sites like SiteBuildIt! and WordPress, it’s simple for non-techies to do. And affordable too.

For example, SiteBuildIt! makes it easy for anyone to set up, manage, and maintain and monetize a website—without having a degree in website development. You pick a template you think best suits your website and then start filling it in. All this in one place for $30 or less each month.

Step Six

Now it’s time to fill up your website with content. It needs to be chock full of facts, statistics, articles, reviews, and, most importantly, insights and opinions. It needs to show the universe of prospects that you have something useful and unique to offer.

Here are a few steps to help you get started:

1. Determine your audience. Are they beginners, experts, or somewhere in between?
2. Choose a point of view. You’re an expert, and that’s why we should listen to you. Maybe you’re an amateur with a few years of experience. Or you’re just like the reader and want to share your journey with them as you learn about your specific niche.
3. Remember why people are on your site, what their needs are, what questions they may be looking for answers to. Most people will come to your website in search of the answer to a particular question.
4. Find content ideas by using Google Alerts, Google Insights, and Google Trends. Follow related blogs, check out customer reviews, and browse newspapers and best-selling books.
5. Immerse yourself in social media. This not only is a great way to find inspiration for content ideas but can also tell you which aspects of your topic people get the most passionate and enthusiastic about. (Once your website is published, you can get a ton of visitors through social media too.)
6. Write your own content—you can get inspiration from all the sources I mentioned above, but writing it in your own style with your own unique perspective is what will keep readers coming back.
7. Develop your own unique voice. This will make you stand out from your competitors.
8. Keep your writing style simple. Use short sentences and paragraphs with simple words.
9. Keep all your content on-topic, and optimize all your pages to get the highest possible listings in the search results.

This may sound like a challenging task, but let me assure you, it’s not. The content management systems I mentioned earlier, such as SiteBuildIt!, offer tools to maximize your search results by utilizing keywords and other strategies.

How You’ll Make Money With Websites

How much money can you make with a website for enthusiasts?

There’s really no typical or standard answer to this question. There are websites that make millions of dollars per month and there are those that bring in just a few hundred dollars.

Since this is an extra income opportunity and not a full-time business, our marketing plan is designed to bring in hundreds or thousands of dollars, not millions. But the great thing about this kind of website is that once you get it going, it becomes relatively easy to gradually grow it without working terribly hard.

Remember Nancy Hearn? She spends just 4-5 hours per week on her website about drinking water. Spending this little amount of time will eventually bring in $3,000 per month, she believes.

Once you have your website set up and the content on your topic loaded, the two best ways to generate money from your site are:

1. Selling affiliate products
2. Selling your own products

Affiliate marketing is where you sign up as an affiliate with an online merchant or network of merchants. You link to its product sales pages from your site, using a unique affiliate link.

If someone clicks on your link and goes on to complete a purchase at the merchant website, you get a percentage of the sale price.

Depending on the nature of the product or service, this commission can range from 10-75% (or more!). In some cases (we do this at PBL), the fee can be 80% or more!

Nick has averaged about $2,000 per month with just one affiliate partner on his coffee website.

Lastly, you can offer your own products or services. You can sell physical products if you want, but that involves trips to the post office. If you want to stick with the passive income model, you simply sell e-products, such as e-books and guides.

These are purchased through your site, and then the payment and delivery process is automatic. So even while you’re away on vacation, your site will continue to display, sell, and collect money through e-product sales.

On her website about raising rabbits, Karen Patry makes good money selling a series of e-books on the various aspects of keeping and taking care of rabbits.

Once It’s up and Running

Let’s review the benefits of having your own moneymaking website for enthusiasts:

1. It’s inexpensive and relatively easy to set up.
2. Your reach is national or even international.
3. You don’t have to be an expert, just an enthusiast.
4. You can do it part time when you want from your home.
5. Every page you publish can make you money indefinitely.
6. You’re building a long-term asset.

Moneymaking Websites Versus Blogging

You may be wondering what is the difference between a moneymaking website and a blog—the extra income opportunity I introduced in a previous essay.

In many ways, they are the same. You write about something that interests you. You develop readers and followers. And you advertise products and services to those readers.

One big difference is that for the most part a blog tends to be tied to its writer. And because a blog is all about the writer, it’s not a very easily sellable asset.

But a website can become a very valuable and sellable asset. In fact, Nick once turned down an offer of over $100,000 for his site.

Why would someone offer to buy his website?

His website is focused on the brand, Coffee Detective, not Nick Usborne. In other words, even if he sells the website it doesn’t affect the market… consumers will be interested in coffee whether it’s Nick writing about it or someone else who shares the same passion and enthusiasm.

You might wonder why Nick refused that six-figure offer. After all, that’s a pretty nice chunk of cash for what is essentially his hobby. Well, he simply did the math and figured out his site would make him a lot more than $100,000 over the next few years.

Besides which, Nick sees his coffee website as an important part of his retirement planning. When he retires, he wants a “portfolio” of websites that continue to deliver passive income, month after month and year after year.

That said, there may come a day when he does want to cash in and sell the site. And because his site is a stand-alone brand, he can do that.

Plus, blogging can be more of a JOB. To keep readers interested in your blog, you’ll typically need to add a new post at least twice a week, preferably every day. This means you have to stick to a publication schedule and be at your desk.

And remember, blogs attract comments—or at least the good ones do—and as the writer and publisher, you need to be around to respond to those comments.

A moneymaking website is not a job. You can work on it every day if you want. But you can also take a break for a week or two. Nick tends to work on his moneymaking websites in bursts, when he has the time.

And when he goes on vacation for 10 days, that’s fine… the site will look after itself. Not fine if it were a blog.

Does that mean blogging is bad? No, not at all. If you love to write and have no problems writing a few times per week, blogging is for you and you can make great money.

But if you’re looking to create an asset that generates passive income, moneymaking websites could be exactly what you are looking for.

Are You Ready to Start Your Own Moneymaking Website? 

Someone once said, “The best time to launch your new website is five years ago. The second best time is now.”$

[Ed. Note: If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. Ray has just released a special video that covers an online business system that you can use to start growing your wealth. To watch this short video, click the following link: http://www.raybuckner.com]