Losing, Loving, Laughing & Life!

It’s been a week at home, this week, settling back into school routine, getting used to the grey skies, trying to decide if I want to stay here and try and buy this house, or move into Shoreham or Brighton to something brighter and newer.  Feeling restless…..but happier than recently as it’s been sunnier in Shoreham.

We’ve been gearing up for the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day” on 10th October and I’ve been starting to plan the marketing campaign for that which will take place over the next four weeks and will hopefully fill the room.

Because even an event with a ticket price of £25, all of which we are donating to our favourite Money Gym charity “The Big Issue” (helping the homeless help themselves), takes a full on marketing campaign to ensure it’s success.

Read more..

Chris Ogle’s Internet Marketing Journey – Part 2

As I said last week, looking back to the 26th or so of April 2008, when I joined Money Gym Gold Level, I realise that I have come quite a long way in 7 months. At that time I knew almost nothing about Internet Marketing except rumours that people were making quite a lot of money from this new phenomena.

It is also a twist of irony that I run a business which is pretty much entirely web based and that even with this knowledge somehow I had managed to remain fairly naive about what was going on.

True to my character however once I realised that this was something I needed to understand, I set about becoming a guru in 6 months, not perhaps adept at everything but at least a good understanding of what Internet Marketing was and how it all fits together.

I still remain a relative ‘newbie’ to the Internet Marketing scene and so I have not lost sight of the difficulties that I had trying to grasp the whole concept at the outset. The sheer volume of information and different sources of ‘Must-Have’ knowledge is very daunting when starting out. This article can perhaps serve as a small guide for those now embarking on the same journey that I’ve been on, and maybe speed up the process and shortcut the learning curve a little.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that you can’t tackle everything from day 1! There is a logical sequence to building an Internet Business just it is so difficult work it out on your own with information flying at you from all angles. There is stuff you just have to know straight away and other things that can come on stream as your business and understanding develops. So I have put together 7 simple steps that help to break down the whole thing into a manageable process anyone can follow.

Steps 1-4 were covered last week, view them here >>

Step 5

We have at this stage pretty much built the bedrock for your Internet Marketing business. At step 5 we need to start actually marketing what we do.

This is done through a number of techniques, regular blogging, social networking, twittering, Article submission, joining Forums (relating to your business), commenting on other peoples blogs and posts, Press Releases and regular ezines or newsletters to your database list.

This process is ongoing and the more you do the better the results. It is all about little and often rather than big blasts once a week. The great thing about Internet marketing is that none of your effort is ever wasted, what you did this week goes into next week and then into the week after compounding your results. Once we start getting our traffic, names should start filling up our database!

Step 6

Monitor your results. One of the most important things about Internet Marketing is to be able to find out what is working and what is not working. Now we are starting to generate traffic we should be analysing the results.

More learning here I’m afraid, Feedburner, Google analytics and Ad-Tracking will all help you to see which links are working for you and those that are underperforming. Armed with this information we can now begin to put in some changes and improve our performance, honing what we do to maximise our return.

Step 7

Keep up to date! As you become more confident with Internet marketing and everything starts to become second nature, keep your ears and eyes close to the ground. Internet Marketing is constantly evolving and new ideas and concepts emerge almost daily.

Start to explore related activities or Joint Venture opportunities, why not work with others and pool your database lists to reach a larger audience?

Why not look at membership sites and how you might use these to generate an ongoing revenue stream, the opportunities are almost endless.

There is no doubt that Internet Marketing is exciting. The people who operate Internet Marketing businesses have an abundance mentality and are enthusiastic bunch. Everyone is keen to promote their own and other Internet Marketers products and it is easy to get sidetracked onto the next best thing.

CHRIS’ CONCLUSION:

In conclusion you need to have a plan and work your plan.

Don’t get sidetracked or lose focus on your project and your priorities. If something new emerges, make a note of it, understand what it is, assess it’s relevance, keep it safe and position it within your plan. These things won’t go away, the great deal will still be there when you get around to it, and you’ll get where you want to go more quickly by keeping focussed.

More information on how to turn your Internet Marketing into a process can be found at IPS-Freedom on http://tinyurl.com/5fx5vl

Chris Ogle’s Internet Marketing Journey – Part 1

Looking back to the 26th or so of April 2008, when I joined Money Gym Gold Level, I realise that I have come quite a long way in 7 months. At that time I knew almost nothing about Internet Marketing except rumours that people were making quite a lot of money from this new phenomena.

It is also a twist of irony that I run a business which is pretty much entirely web based and that even with this knowledge somehow I had managed to remain fairly naive about what was going on.

True to my character however once I realised that this was something I needed to understand, I set about becoming a guru in 6 months, not perhaps adept at everything but at least a good understanding of what Internet Marketing was and how it all fits together.

I still remain a relative ‘newbie’ to the Internet Marketing scene and so I have not lost sight of the difficulties that I had trying to grasp the whole concept at the outset. The sheer volume of information and different sources of ‘Must-Have’ knowledge is very daunting when starting out. This article can perhaps serve as a small guide for those now embarking on the same journey that I’ve been on, and maybe speed up the process and shortcut the learning curve a little.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that you can’t tackle everything from day 1! There is a logical sequence to building an Internet Business just it is so difficult work it out on your own with information flying at you from all angles. There is stuff you just have to know straight away and other things that can come on stream as your business and understanding develops. So below I have put together 7 simple steps that help to break down the whole thing into a manageable process anyone can follow.

Step 1

The first step is to either (a) Find your niche, (b) Develop someting in your area of expertise or (c) apply Internet marketing to your current offline business.

Once you have defined this, you may need some help in planning how to tackle what you want to do. There are many tools available Blogs (multiple blogs), Web Sites, Member sites etc. and you need to work out which tools are best for your project and how it’s going to fit together. This is like architecting the foundation, the difficulty is that you need to understand Internet Marketing to plan it in the first place! So my recommendation would be to seek some advice, you could save yourself some blind alley experiences.

It is a good idea before you move on from step 1 to also start exploring Keywords for your project. These are words or phrases that people use to search the internet for what they are looking for and hopefully find you! We’ve all used Google and Yahoo so we are already users and know what we type in to find the things we want, now you have to start thinking about what you would type in to find your internet venture. You will need to then use these keywords in all your content and web based activities. Ideal keywords are those where people use them to search but where the phrase doesn’t appear on too many competitors pages. Luckily there are some great tools to assist with this process!

Oh, nearly forgot, you are going to need help when Internet marketing, it is a good idea at this stage to find a group or forum who you can relate to and who will provide invaluable feeback and assistance as you stumble through the early months !

Step 2

Put down the foundation stones of your Internet Marketing. This means getting a presence on the Internet. You are going to need to get familiar with a raft of Social Networking sites, communication tools and start to think about your Blog. If you are not so technical or are pressed for time you will need to enlist the help of a Blog Site developer who can get you a professional business blog up and running fairly quickly, once in place you have your very own soap box to communicate with the world.

This period of getting yourself registered, downloading useful applications and generally getting set up can take a month or two depending on the amount of time you have.

Why do you need a Blog? This is beyond the scope of this article, but it is like your very own website that you can maintain yourself. Blogging regularly will attract visitors and get you into seach engines and improve the chances of making sales either directly from your Blog or from associated websites or referral links.

Step 3

What are you going to sell ? You will have established this in step 1, however now you have something live on the Internet (your blog) from which to make sales from. You can sell other people’s products there are thousands to choose from (related to your niche is best), or you can create an e-book as an expert in your field. e-Books are fantastic way of sharing your knowledge and creating brand YOU. e-books can also be a good revenue stream. Never thought of yourself as an author? don’t worry it’s not as daunting as it first seems!

In this step you need to familarise yourself with Affiliate links, sites such as Clickbank and Paydotcom and possibly get yourself an account with one of the shopping cart companies such as TotalBusinessCart.

Step 4

Ensure that you have the ability to capture peoples names and email addresses. Internet Marketers do this through something called a ‘Squeeze Page’ and the details are registered into your own private online database which you can then email market to!

There are a number of database services out there and some combine shopping carts with facilities to collect names and addresses as well. You will need to learn what is an Autoresponder and how to use this to start building a relationship with your growing list of followers.

It is a fact with any business but especially for Internet marketers that your business is valued by the size of your list (contacts). If you do one part of internet marketing exceptionally well, make sure it is collecting names!

We will continue with Steps 5-7 next week….Thanks Chris!

More information on how to turn your Internet Marketing into a process can be found at IPS-Freedom on http://tinyurl.com/5fx5vl

12 Days Of Wealth Coaching

Our new client Chris sent me this amazing email – which as you can imagine made my day!  This is why we do what we do at The Money Gym.

“Hi Nicola,  I wrote an extended piece, feel free to do what you will with it. I have enclosed this just so you have more information. You can pick and choose or use what you have written I don’t mind either way.  Please check out the Blog at http://www.chrisogle.typepad.com/ for much more flesh on the bone of the first 10/11 days or so with The Money Gym.

The BeginningI attended the 2nd National VA Conference held at Milton Keynes on Saturday 19th April 2008.

I was there as a sponsor, 1 of 3 men in the room amongst 80 self motivated women. Our sponsorship was to promote the burgening relationship between the host of the VA Conference (Carmen MacDougall) and and IPS with our i-Tr@der business platform. i-Tr@der enables small businesses to run their entire business, accounts, document filing, email, contact management etc. within one integrated system all through a simple web browser.During the day Nicola Cairncross presented a one hour slot on the money gym. Nicola explained (in a hurry - she only had one hour) the basics of the four wealth highways. I realised I was in only one and not performing well in that either. After Nicola had finished I spoke with her briefly, gave her my card and asked her to get in touch as I wanted to meet with her to discuss how I could perhaps sort things. She replied to my email that she did not do one-on-one wealth coaching but I was welcome to come along on the 26th to the ‘Lets Talk Money’ day in London.I was in Hungary / Budapest at the time, but signed up immediately and then attended on the following Saturday.

Let’s Talk MoneyI

arrived at 9:58, two minutes to spare, the public transport system had contrived to prevent me attending but I had battled successfully through. What a fantastic day! Judith Morgan co-hosted the day with Nicola and these ladies know their stuff!! Each aspect of the 4 wealth highways was delved into in more detail. By lunchtime I had confirmed what I already suspected here is a chance to mix with some winners and a resource / support centre that would definately enable me to get what I wanted done, done. I signed up for the Gold membership seeing this as the quickest vehicle and where I would get the most assistance. This is a small investment considering the knowledge and network connections available to you, for the whole year it is effectively a single extra consulting day of my time with i-Tr@der and I committed myself to generating that extra day to pay for my year’s education and the ride!The next challenge was to work out what it was that I wanted done….

The next 10 daysI

said to Nicola, Judith and Philly (appointed as my coach with my consent) that they would be sick of me as I am an avid learner, and would pester them incessently. I tend to work long hours 6am until Midnight when I’m on a mission, and, I’m on a mission. I have given myself three months to become an Internet Marketing Guru. Not the best there is but to totally understand what is going on and how to best take advantage of it.What I discovered as I read, listened and watched was that Internet Marketing is primarily operated by either one or two man businesses. We sell into the SME market place and although our customers have already taken the plunge to use the Internet as the basis on which they run their business, none of the companies I have spoken to know anything about blogging, article submission, social networking etc. etc.So I quickly re-assessed that this is a huge market which has not even been started on yet. What had been troubling me since the start which was how could I make all of this relevent to my existing business suddenly became crystal clear. This is just as important to their business future, survival and growth as it is ours, and we have a 12-18 month window to steal a march on the competition. Even more reason to get out of bed and get cracking.

The tenth day

Closed a deal to provide £3k’s work of Internet Marketing consultancy to drive up sales from one of my customers online catalague from £1k per month to £20k per month. This has already secured the income to match what I am committed to with the Money Gym. I have also canvassed four other customers all are keen to make similar investments to use Internet Marketing techniques to increase their sales volumes.

Where to now?

I have produced a restrutured business strategy that includes Affiliate sales Products, Business Consultancy, Software deployment (our core business), and Internet Marketing sales strategy to drive up sales. Four quandrants of revenue generation all promoted through a soon to be published (end of next week) central blog. Our existing web-site is to be revamped to be totally web-friendly with carefully selected Keywords. An E-Book on ‘Running your business online’ will be written in the next two months and a backlog of 10 articles previously written will be leaked out to the internet using submityourarticle.com over coming 6 weeks.Once the next 80 days is complete I will set my sights on the Property sector and begin to build a large property portfolio. I have already had some great ideas in this area to !

Conclusion

The Money Gym has been a total revelation. The people involved here are very inspiring, you can feel that they want you to do well and the encouragement is enormous. For me it was a wake up call, get busy learning this stuff or you’ll miss out on one of the most golden moments in Internet development forever. I have made a few sacrifices to work at the speed I want, Red wine (which I love) has been put on hold for 3 months (this stuff requires clear thinking), and I am committed to starting work no later than 6:30am, writing my blog every day even if it’s midnight and I have filed the word procrastination in the bin !The possibilities in Property are even larger, but that’ll wait 3 months.

Kind Regards

Chris Ogle

(Nicola says:  follow Chris’ story and help us to boot him up the bum if he falters LOL at http://www.chrisogle.typepad.com/ )