In order to create Internet wealth, you must follow certain disciplines. You must think in a certain way and you must continue to repeat a set of proft-producing guidelines—over and over and over again
KEY #1 – THE MARKET COMES FIRST
MARKET you sell to is more important than the products or services you sell. Te number one reason people fail is because they spend so much time creating the perfect product without even knowing if there’s a market for what they offer. Big mistake.
Te absolute key to your Internet success anytime you decide to begin ANY moneymaking project online is effective market research. Remember, people don’t buy from you because they understand what you sell—they buy from you because they feel understood.
Too many times I have been guilty of making that mistake. In the beginning of my marketing career, I had a whole lot more losing business ideas than winners. However, as I’ve refned my market research techniques over the years, my rate of success has improved exponen- tially. As a result, I’ve enjoyed a drastically improved income as well.
Research your market and fnd out what people want and are willing to buy. Not what you think they might buy, not what you think they should buy, but what they’re actually spending money on already.
Ask yourself:
• Is the market already buying something similar to what I’m thinking of selling?
• Is this a market where people buy, or is this a market of people who have no money and are looking for something free?
• Is the market big enough?
• Are there existing partners in the market I can joint venture with?
• Am I able to reach these buyers?
• Am I going to be able to drive traffic to my website and get
them to buy my products?
Start with a topic that has a future to it. A lot of Internet entrepreneurs fail because they choose a niche without a lot of back-end potential. Tey choose a niche that doesn’t have legs to stand on its own and won’t support additional selling opportunities beyond the frst sale.
Start with a market that has a viable future to it. Identify niches where people have money and are used to spending it on products within that niche—for example, golfers.
People who are into golf are fanatical about improving their game, and they’re willing to plop down a good chunk of change to buy the latest gadgets, read the latest books, watch the latest videos, you name it, just to shave one stroke off their score.
Sell something that is already proven to sell. If you want to fnd out where money is being made, look no further than where money is being spent.
GOLDEN KEY #2 – CREATE A SIMPLE, EASY-TO-NAVIGATE WEBSITE THAT SELLS
Do you know what the single biggest mistake is that most websites make? Tey are NOT designed to sell. If you want to strike it rich online, it’s crucial that everything on your website is geared to do one thing and one thing only: to sell your intimate understanding of your market and core business is the number one ingredient to become rich.
Here’s where people always go wrong. If your website doesn’t sell—if it fails to convert visitors into customers—then it doesn’t matter if you have the greatest products in the world.
It doesn’t matter how professional your website looks, or how high your rankings are in the search engines. It doesn’t matter how much traffic you drive to your website—none of this stuff means SHIT if your website doesn’t sell. Period.
Maybe you want to sell fowers online, or eBooks, or your com- pany’s image, or have a membership site, anything else you can think of. Te bottom line is the same: you’re selling. Your website is not a brochure. You should think of your website as a twenty-four/seven virtual salesperson.
Your website must sell, and it must do so with laser-sharp pre- cision. Once a visitor hits your site, you have only ONE SHOT at making the sale. Tat’s it. Tere’s no second chance.
Every part of your website, from the sales copy to the buttons to the navigation structure, should be built to get your virtual cash regis- ter ringing again and again.
GOLDEN KEY #3 – BUILD A BUSINESS, NOT A MONEYMAKER
I learned this one the hard way. I was always after the quick money deals. So I started a bunch of mini-sites, which were supposed to be “push a button and make a bunch of money.”
I made good money, but not F.U. Money. I was building a mon- eymaker instead of a business. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Tat’s just not how you build long-term wealth.
A business has assets: customer lists, products, and a brand. Tose are your assets. Poor people focus on making money. Rich people focus on building and creating assets that make you money. Little distinc- tion, BIG difference.
GOLDEN KEY #4 – CREATE MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS IN ONE BUSINESS, DON’T CREATE MANY DIVERSIFIED BUSINESSES
Building multiple streams of income has been popularized by various fnancial gurus. It’s a very powerful concept. It’s basically saying, “Don’t have all your eggs in one basket.” If one source of income dries up, you can always fall back on another income stream of income. You stand a good chance of building wealth this way.
A lot of people misunderstand the concept. For entrepreneurs, trying to make money with ten different businesses is a disaster. It’s total confusion. What you really want is multiple streams of income within ONE business—FOCUSED foods of income coming from ONE place.
Tis way you stand the best chance of succeeding. You’ll never reach staggering success by having a million little things going on. Sell to one market and serve the needs of ONE group of targeted people.
Look, I understand that opportunity is everywhere on the Inter- net. Believe me, I know. I have the “entrepreneurial ADD” as well. I am never short of great ideas.
But trust me on this one: instead of jumping from one market to another, chasing down every idea you ever come up with (and driving yourself crazy in the process), I suggest you squeeze as much money as you can out of one market.
Exhaust every avenue there is for making money within your current market, and you’re virtually certain to make more money than you ever would by jumping from one market to the next. Offer multi- ple products for your customers to buy. Find multiple sources of traffic to drive to your website.
Te longer you are in a market, the more you begin to understand the buyers in that market… and the more money you’ll make. Create as many ways of making money as you possibly can from your one initial market.
Sure, I have multiple businesses in multiple markets, because I have systems in place. I have other partners in those niches and I have created a model that I can replicate. But I started with ONE market. I suggest you do the same.
Make one thing as big as you can before you move onto something else. Give it your all and you’ll make fve to ten times more money.
GOLDEN KEY #5 – LEVERAGE THE TIME AND RESOURCES OF OTHERS
You only have so many hours in a day. Even if you don’t sleep, there’s still just twenty-four hours. You will never be able to work twenty-fve hours in a single day. So how do you make more money in your busi- ness (regardless of what stage it is currently) if your time is limited?
You must leverage the time of others. Outsourcing has made me a multimillionaire; I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t harnessed the power of delegating work to others.
Don’t get me wrong. I do work. But to me, my work isn’t work. I love what I do. I love my products, my customers, and growing my businesses. And whatever I don’t like, I outsource and delegate to others. It becomes their job, not mine.
At the same time, I take a lot of time to play. I only work four days a week. And when I do work, I don’t work nearly as hard as people who make peanuts compared to me. Compared to the construction worker across the street, I am a lazy bum.
Working with a shovel is backbreaking work. Even if you were to compare me with the average doctor, lawyer, or accountant who works harder, they would still win.
In case anybody wonders, I am not a techie. I don’t know any programming. I don’t know HTML. I don’t know java script. Frankly, my time is much more valuable than that. I’m not the least bit inter- ested in doing that nerd code stuff. I can easily go to elance.com or guru.com and fnd someone to do this stuff for me.
If you want to maximize your profts, you must start outsourcing. One of the greatest feelings you’ll ever have in your life, as it pertains to your business, is when you have fnally learned to pay other people to do those things in your business that you don’t enjoy doing so that you can free up your time to do only those things you really want to do.
When you do, eventually you’ll get to a point where your business is like mine. Tere’s very little that I do in regards to the day-to-day operation of my business.
GOLDEN KEY #6 – USE YOUR PERSONALITY TO SELL
People do business with people they know, like, and trust. All of your communication with your customers should be personal and friendly. Write the way you talk. Communicate one-on-one, not one-to-many.
People trust and believe other people far more than they trust corporations. Corporations are big, uncaring, and unbending. On the other hand, people are typically friendly and caring.
Stand out—don’t blend in. Be interesting, high-energy, exciting, and entertaining, not boring or bland. Always be genuine and authen- tic. Figure out who you really are—your core principles and your per- sonality, and then use that in everything you do.
Don’t be afraid to tell your story. Share your successes and fail- ures. Reveal your faws. Why? Facts tell, stories SELL. Can you create an emotional story to wrap around your product or service? Tink to yourself, where were you before? Where are you now? Why do you do what you do?
Guess who?
• I was alone.
• I was broke.
• I was overweight.
• I was living in one bedroom apartment.
• I’ve read more than seven hundred books in the area of personal development and success.
• One day, I decided that my life would change, and never again would I settle for anything less than what I ultimately desire and envision for my life.
• I started applying all that I’ve been learning from books, tapes, and seminars, and within one year I turned my whole life around.
• I became a millionaire in less than one year. I live in a mansion.
• I’ve put what I’ve learned in a bunch of tapes and now I want
to you show YOU how to change your life for the better. Whose story is it? Tony Robbins.
Guess who?
• I had two dads.
• One dad was highly educated and intelligent. He had a Ph.D.
• My other dad never fnished the eighth grade.
• Both men were successful in their careers, working hard all their lives. Both earned substantial incomes.
• Yet one dad struggled fnancially all his life while the other dad would become one of the richest men in Hawaii the age of nine I decided to listen to, and learn from, my rich dad about money. In doing so, I chose not to listen to my poor dad—my real dad—even though he was the one with all the college degrees.
• I achieved fnancial independence at the age of forty-seven. And I want to teach YOU the same secrets my rich dad taught me.
Whose story is it? Robert Kiyosaki.
What do these men have in common? Tey have built their entire busi- ness empires around a story. Personality-Driven Marketing means developing a PERSONA. Be who you are but AMPLIFY it.
GOLDEN KEY #7 – POSITION YOUR BUSINESS FOR AUTOMATIC GROWTH
As you grow your business, you must position your business in as many ways as possible to automatically make money for you.
Tere is inexpensive technology available to you for running your businesses that’s very powerful. Harness this technology and use it to your advantage.
For example, you can deliver valuable content over time with sequential auto-responder messagessenttoyour customer’sor prospect’s e-mail inbox. Another example is building your mailing list twenty- four/seven with a prominent opt-in box and a compelling offer.
If you already have a business online that’s making you money, determine exactly what steps you took to get to that money. Identify the core activities responsible for making you money, then use technol- ogy or people to repeat those processes again and again.
Tis piece of advice has made me a lot of money: do more of what works instead of trying to fx what’s broken.
Keep doing the things that have brought you the most money, but focus on fne-tuning the system so you can duplicate and multiply the results. Auto- mate your business as much as possible.
I was on the phone the other day with my uncle, and we were just chatting about family as usual. And he said, “Dan, you’re still doing that Inter-
L
Stop throwing good money into profit draining projects.
net SHIT?” “Yes.” “When are you going to get a job like everybody else?” “Hmmm… never?”
He just doesn’t get it and he’ll never get it. And that’s okay. Most of your friends and family won’t understand what you do and how you make your money anyway. Just shut up and make the money… well, and buy them something nice.
Te Internet can provide a business that will truly give you the life- style, the money, the time, the freedom, and everything else you want.
I really don’t think I could fnd a business that’s better than an Internet business. It’s the perfect F.U. Money business. If you’re com- mitted to making money online, you can and WILL do so. It’s never too late to start.