Creating Money Out Of Thin Air

Nicola Says:

When you are an entreprenuerial mind set, the ideas for making money come thick and fast.

I was sitting in the Selfridge Hotel last week, waiting to go to the Property Investing Network evening with Mike Withey and Co, and I asked the waiter for a paper to look through.

After I got over the fact that I didn’t actually recognise anyone (how long it is since I’ve seen a paper or the news?!!) and realised that the reason for this was that the paper, in fact, was the Irish Independent, I started leafing through for something of interest to folks outside Ireland.

Didn’t take long.

On page 20, there is a headline entitled "Hello, If You’re My Neighbour You Can Google Me". 

View story online for free but you will have to register!  Click here >>>>

This turned out to be about a chap, Ciaran Killalea, who has set up community websites for large new apartment developments.  Aimed at breaking down the social barriers between neighbours in new estates and apartment complexes.  He’s set up forums for each development, allowing neighbours to organise barbeques, pool tournaments and parties, as well as share informatio on "snagging" and building and or management problems generally.

Sadly only in Ireland at the moment, http://www.neighbours.ie/ strikes me as a brilliant opportunity to make money in lots of different ways, for the rather cute Mr Killalea, who currently operates a newsagent business in Athlone, Dublin.

While serving others, which is really good fun.

He’s spent over 10,000 euros of his own money on it and hopes to eventually recoup it via advertising revenue. 

How could he monetise it?  Well, first off, he should have a "squeeze page" on arrival at www.neighbours.ie and catch the names and emails of most of the visitors, before bouncing them to the main site.

The money’s in the list and every warm relevent name and email you own, on an "opt-in" mailing list, is like a nugget of gold.

Then he could slap Google adsense code on every page and every page of the forum.  Not to mention Google search boxes and link units on each page (you are allowed three adsense boxes, one search box and one links unit per page).  Google pay you a proportion of the advertising revenue for every click you generate.

He could survey the users and find out what their three biggest challenges in life are, and recommend products and services to them via affiliate links in follow up emails.

And that’s just for starters……….we could have so much fun coaching Mr Killalea in the Money Gym!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com

Solitary Confinement

<p><strong>Perry Marshall says:</strong></p>

<p>Why is Solitary Confinement the most dreaded prison punishment of all?</p>

<p>Because loneliness is the most dreaded feeling of all.</p>

<p>Online marketing is a lonely business, for all the same reasons.&nbsp; <br />So… why do many people still prefer hiding behind a computer to being face to face?</p>

<p>I don’t know what the answer is for you, but I can tell you what it was for me.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Nearly a decade ago when I first started selling online, the thing I liked most about it was that I didn’t have to face rejection.&nbsp; I’d spent the previous five years pounding the phone and pounding pavement (including selling vacuum cleaners door to door – man was that fun!) and most of it was notoriously unsuccessful.&nbsp; There was honestly only so much more than I could take before my head started to cave in.</p>

<p>So here I am, it’s late 1997, I’ve changed jobs and now ….</p>

Read more..

Top 10 Things To Know About Ecademy

Nicola says:

As I said last week, if you are in business of any kind, you have got to get into Ecademy.

Check out my profile here –
http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=98913&xref=98913

and then have a look around and think about joining.  It’s a bit overwhelming at first so I’ve written some tips for you here:

"The Top 10 Things You Need To Know About Ecademy"
1.	Don’t do anything on Ecademy till you have read these Top 10 Tips.  As soon as you join, you want to be ready to put some kind of a profile up and here’s how to do it properly.
2.	The first three lines of your profile are what Google will index and show so make sure your key words are in there – mine reads thusly (as Russell Brand would say): Nicola Cairncross is Europe’s leading Wealth Coach & Internet Business Strategist – If you want to explode your business by marketing it to the 35 million people on broadband already, and create financial freedom through property and passive income products from what you already know or do, contact us today!
3.	All the BlackStar Members recommend have these following three lines fairly near the top of your profile so that visitors can see how they can help you.  Mine are: Expertise: Wealth Creation & Internet Marketing Biggest Project: One Million Pounds For One Million People In Just Ten Years What Do I Need To Help With That? To help me to speak in front of as many business people as possible about creating more income flows from Internet Marketing, Business & Property Investment!
4.	As soon as you join, you are listed as a new member down the left hand side of every page – this is why you get messages straight away.  One of the goals for many people on Ecademy, is to get linked to as many people as possible.  Don’t let these messages overwhelm you – reply to those who have taken their time to read your profile and who have something meaningful or relevant to say.
5.	Always reply to any messages from anyone who has a BlackStar next to their name – these people are really serious – they are business people and keen networkers who have invested heavily in business development and will be able to help you a lot (but only if they know what you need)
6.	Read "How To Make Money On Ecademy" by Fraser Hay which I recommend very highly.  Fraser also runs the intriguing "Red Hand Club"  Click here http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=98913&xref=98913 then do a search using the box in the top right hand side for Fraser Hay
7.	The only place on Ecademy, apart from your profile, that you are allowed to openly market your products, services or events, is the MarketPlace.  This is because Ecademy is built on the principles of attraction and "givers gain".  You have to add value not sell your butt off.
8.	What most people don’t realise is that your MarketPlace ad appears on the home page of Ecademy for a day or so and that you can view a list of people who have viewed any of your MarketPlace ads.  This enables you to follow up, via the site, those who have now become self-qualified hot leads.  People who were interested enough in your offering to click to find out more.   Hot indeed!
9.	Once you understand that Ecademy works just like the web, it’s easier to get your head round it.  If you blog externally, if appropriate, add your blog to Ecademy blog area too.  The more links into your profile, the higher your profile will appear on Google.
10.	Key words are king.  In MarketPlace you can find a list of the Top 50 most searched words on Ecademy.  If the 80,000 odd members are searching for a key word, and it’s relevent to what you do, don’t you think that you should weave it into your profile, blog postings and MarketPlace ad?

Emily’s Story

Emily’s Story:

I want to share the story of Emily Gordon with you. 

What’s special about Emily?  Well, lots actually – she’s a wonderful person – but I particularly want to share her story, because just last year Emily Gordon joined the Money Gym. 

She was living somewhere she didn’t like, having just returned from living the supposed "dream life" in France.  From having had a good job in PR, Emily now had two very small children, her husband worked away a lot of the time.  She had no personal income and no clue about what to do to create one. 

But Emily knew she wanted more.  More money, more security, more fulfilment and much, much more fun.

The first thing Emily did was set up a weblog (or blog) to chronicle her Money Gym journey. 

And what a read it is.

I seem to recall her first entry in June 2005 going something along the lines of:

"I’ve been a member of the Money Gym for three weeks now and I wonder when I will start to make some money and recoup my investment……"

Read more..

A “no brainer” Return On Investment

Nicola says:

I’ve recently joined the BlackStar level of ecademy – I went to an Open Day, felt in my bones that it would be a "good thing" to do and got stuck in.

Then I took Greg Ballard to an Open Day and he found it quite dull to be honest.  I’m thinking "O no, not only have I dragged him all the way to London for something he’s not enjoying but he’s gonna say BlackStar is a bad move".

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

He grasped the potential of BlackStar straight away and it was a "no brainer" for him to join.  The first five minutes would have done it.

However, he did find dull all the bits I really enjoyed, such as how to maximise your profile and how to use the MarketPlace properly.  The online "how to do ecademy" bits actually.

I was blown away for example, by the news that you can actually view the names and profiles of, and contact to follow up everyone who had even looked at your MarketPlace ads!! How cool is that?

Greg’s very excited about the idea of getting in front of over 80,000 fairly serious business people, and the 200 plus (and growing number of) VERY SERIOUS business people in BlackStar.

And he thinks he can help them put across the "no brainer" element of BlackStar in a very simple powerful way.  Much like he does for the Passive Investments product, and much like he has helped us hone our presentation for the Automated Marketing Machine One Day Workshops.

I can’t wait to watch this all going off!

Ignore Generation Y At Your Peril

"Ignore Generation Y at Your Peril – it IS the biggest thing since sliced cheese" says Fiona Mackenzie on her Ecademy blog.

Born between 1979 and 1994, Generation Y is as young as 12 and as old as 27 and, at 60 million strong in the US alone, they are more than 3 times the size of Generation X, and almost as big as the Baby Boomers at 72 million.

And this is a group with buyer clout. The members of Generation Y are estimated to have annual incomes totaling $USD211B – spending $172B and saving $39B each year – and already driving many adult purchase decisions (Source: Harris Interactive).

For many large and established brands, Generation Y is perilous. This group of consumer is not interested in Pepsi – or Levi’s jeans – or Nike – or a host of other huge names. Simply put, these brands are not cool anymore.

To market products to this group, businesses must learn to relate to them on their level. Generation Y is vastly different to its parents.

One in four Generation Y lives in a single-parent household; three in four have working mothers. They have seen corporate collapses and dot com busts; they understand the implications of an aging workforce and in fact some of them manage …

Read more..

That Attraction Factor Stuff

As a new Ecademy BlackStar member I’ve just been invited to go to a BlackStar networking evening to watch "The Secret" together.

I keep hearing how good it is and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen it yet but watching something for a whole 90 minute is beyond me, unless slowed down marginally by at least two glasses of Chablis *grin*

So combining networking with the ole BlackStars, watching this all together and hanging out sounds like the incentive I need!!

By the way, there was a magical moment when some brave soul announced to the entire "BlackStar Day" in Regis City the other day that, "of course, this attraction stuff doesn’t exist".

Silent but very real sharp intakes of breath all round the room! (we Brits are so polite)

My business partner (v. cynical but coming round to this whole concept) and my business mentor Greg Ballard (down to earth but v. into and believes deeply in the concept) and I were just reminiscing about it this morning – one of those moments you remember for ever.

LOL

NIcola

Vision For The Money Gym

Long Term:  It is August 2011 and The Money Gym is the leading and most profitable wealth education and coaching company in Europe, with 1000 clients and 40 coaches.  We have licensees in every major country in Europe.

Short Term:  It is August 2007 and The Money Gym is completely systemised.  All coaches have their full quota of clients and the next five coaches are appearing organically from within the client base.  One of them will be writing the train-the-trainer programme.  We have 100 clients and are turning over in excess of £400k a year. 

Even Shorter Term:  In September, Maria Davies is presenting a 2 hour preview evening for us in Central London, where attendees will be offered the chance to attend a one day Money Gym workshop.  From there, a good proportion of them will join the Money Gym at a substantial discount on the published membership fee.