The turning point – when you start to become successful
The turning point – when you start to become successful
That was an important article for me personally because I had gone through the roller coaster of emotions that we all do when starting out on a new venture, and I’d nearly walked away from it.
Thankfully I didn’t. But that close brush with becoming one of the 95% of Internet business start-ups that fail made me consider how I could offer support to others in the same position.
In other posts I’ve made suggestions on how to deal with the negative effects of over-hyped claims, and steps to make sure your business is properly set up.
Today I’m going to focus on a couple of things that I’ve personally done that are starting to get me some traction. This is not to say that I’m hugely successful. I’m not. Yet. But things are beginning to go my way.
These are things that, in addition to the content of my other posts, I hope will provide some support to people who are in the down period – when you’ve discovered that you don’t just put up a site and make millions.
Here we go:
Listen to your gut feel.
One of the things that attracted me to the business I joined was the promise of a pre-written email sequence to follow up with my opt-ins. In order to understand what people who opted in to my site were experiencing I opted in to my own site. And I was thoroughly dismayed.
The emails that came out were the epitome of ‘interruption marketing’ (hat tip to Seth Godin). They were full of SCREAMING and orders to DO THIS RIGHT NOW.
Most people who received those emails didn’t much like them, so they hit the ‘Spam’ button pretty regularly. As a result, the delivery rate, which was low a year ago, became so low that by this year it was zero. And the pre-written emails were scrapped.
Luckily (and much to the disapproval of my sponsor at the time) I set up my own lead capture page, wrote my own follow up emails, set up my own Aweber account and kept my optins well away from the ‘official’ email sequence. And my delivery rate has been consistently over 98%.
This is not intended as a brag. My point is this: there was a lot of pressure for me to use the ‘company’ system, and that would have been the easy option. But I was very uncomfortable at the thought of emails like that going out in my name, and using my email address as the ‘reply to’ address. So I did my own thing – as much to protect my reputation as anything.
It’s not easy to do your own thing when you’re new in a business and your sponsor is encouraging you in the direction of the company system.
But, when your gut feel tells you otherwise, you should listen very carefully. And, as long as you’re not breaking the terms of your affiliate agreement, following your gut feel is usually not going to take you too far wrong.
Next: Use your own personal experiences (and what you’ve learnt) for the benefit of others.
When I first set up a blog I thought that it had to be a marketing channel for my business. I was still finding my feet in the business and most of the benefits that I wrote about were simply re-stated from the company conference calls, emails and website.
Nothing I wrote at that time described my own experience. And when I read those early posts now I am, frankly, embarrassed.
Some time later I slowly came to realise that blog could be turned into a resource for other people who were dealing with the same struggles that I was. Including people in my down-line.
So I stopped writing about my businesses and started writing about my own personal experiences. The difficulties and successes I’d had and how I’d dealt with them.
Since then, my readership has gone up steadily and I actually enjoy writing my weekly post now – whereas before it was one of those tasks that loomed over me.
If you write about your own personal experiences it’s much easier to draw people into your circle because, strange as it may seem, people can ‘hear’ that what you’re writing is real.
And once you begin to build a relationship with people it’s seriously easier to persuade them to buy whatever it is you’re selling! (Seth Godin again: Permission Marketing)
So – two things that have helped to get things going my way: listening to my gut feel and using my experiences to offer support to others.
The turning point when you start to become successful - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Malden's Website.
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A while back I wrote an article about staying motivated when you seem to be failing.
That was an important article for me personally because I had gone through the roller coaster of emotions that we all do when starting out on a new venture, and I’d nearly walked away from it.
Thankfully I didn’t. But that close brush with becoming one of the 95% of Internet business start-ups that fail made me consider how I could offer support to others in the same position.
In other posts I’ve made suggestions on how to deal with the negative effects of over-hyped claims, and steps to make sure your business is properly set up.
Today I’m going to focus on a couple of things that I’ve personally done that are starting to get me some traction. This is not to say that I’m hugely successful. I’m not. Yet. But things are beginning to go my way.
These are things that, in addition to the content of my other posts, I hope will provide some support to people who are in the down period – when you’ve discovered that you don’t just put up a site and make millions.
Here we go:
Listen to your gut feel.
One of the things that attracted me to the business I joined was the promise of a pre-written email sequence to follow up with my opt-ins. In order to understand what people who opted in to my site were experiencing I opted in to my own site. And I was thoroughly dismayed.
The emails that came out were the epitome of ‘interruption marketing’ (hat tip to Seth Godin). They were full of SCREAMING and orders to DO THIS RIGHT NOW.
Most people who received those emails didn’t much like them, so they hit the ‘Spam’ button pretty regularly. As a result, the delivery rate, which was low a year ago, became so low that by this year it was zero. And the pre-written emails were scrapped.
Luckily (and much to the disapproval of my sponsor at the time) I set up my own lead capture page, wrote my own follow up emails, set up my own Aweber account and kept my optins well away from the ‘official’ email sequence. And my delivery rate has been consistently over 98%.
This is not intended as a brag. My point is this: there was a lot of pressure for me to use the ‘company’ system, and that would have been the easy option. But I was very uncomfortable at the thought of emails like that going out in my name, and using my email address as the ‘reply to’ address. So I did my own thing – as much to protect my reputation as anything.
It’s not easy to do your own thing when you’re new in a business and your sponsor is encouraging you in the direction of the company system.
But, when your gut feel tells you otherwise, you should listen very carefully. And, as long as you’re not breaking the terms of your affiliate agreement, following your gut feel is usually not going to take you too far wrong.
Next: Use your own personal experiences (and what you’ve learnt) for the benefit of others.
When I first set up a blog I thought that it had to be a marketing channel for my business. I was still finding my feet in the business and most of the benefits that I wrote about were simply re-stated from the company conference calls, emails and website.
Nothing I wrote at that time described my own experience. And when I read those early posts now I am, frankly, embarrassed.
Some time later I slowly came to realise that blog could be turned into a resource for other people who were dealing with the same struggles that I was. Including people in my down-line.
So I stopped writing about my businesses and started writing about my own personal experiences. The difficulties and successes I’d had and how I’d dealt with them.
Since then, my readership has gone up steadily and I actually enjoy writing my weekly post now – whereas before it was one of those tasks that loomed over me.
If you write about your own personal experiences it’s much easier to draw people into your circle because, strange as it may seem, people can ‘hear’ that what you’re writing is real.
And once you begin to build a relationship with people it’s seriously easier to persuade them to buy whatever it is you’re selling! (Seth Godin again: Permission Marketing)
So – two things that have helped to get things going my way: listening to my gut feel and using my experiences to offer support to others.
The turning point when you start to become successful - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Malden's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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