Your Products Better Not Suck

I’d like to caveat this post by saying I don’t want to sound like I’m encouraging you to rip people off or steal people’s money. In fact, I’d say that if your product sucks, you should pull it off the market and either fix it or get rid of it all together. That being said, there is a lot of merit to the idea of creating a new product to help fill an income gap. When I first got started in Internet Marketing, I spent months trying to sell other people’s stuff. I sold everything from dating products to running ebooks, but honestly I never felt like I earned my money. Now, this isn’t to say that being an affiliate is wrong, because I love helping to sell good stuff, but when you rely solely on affiliate income you are stuck chasing commissions rather than letting them come to you.

Creating a product on the other hand, let’s affiliates work to bring the customers to you. Creating a product is probably one of the quickest ways that you can start making money online…that is, money that sticks…and really feel what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

The Formula for Immediate Cash

I’ve had moments in the past where I wanted to make a major purchase and couldn’t rationalize an extra monthly payment or taking the money from my savings. Years ago, I would have probably done nothing more than write the goal down and look at it every day until I either gave up or forgot about it. These days, my life has changed. I don’t have to look at a money goal with disgust any longer because I know that if I need cash, I can simply create an additional income stream to fill that need.

I can create an eBook, a video course, a novel, or even a physical product and use basic SEO and marketing to exchange my product for cash. Eventually, within months or even days, I’ll have the money I need to make that purchase. There truly is POWER in the idea that you can exchange your ideas for money…at will.

Be Patient

Sure, some projects take longer than others to complete or achieve, but that doesn’t mean that the process is any different. You should create a list of short-term, mid-term, and long-term projects and spend a little bit of time on each. Eventually, you’ll have multiple streams of income that work to save you from cubicle nation and help you design your own life.

I still sell affiliate products, but mostly those of friends that I’ve made online. I vet the products I sell so that I never lower the standard. However, I much prefer selling my own product to selling someone else’s. Not because I’m greedy, but because I want to own my own business. Step out of the mold of trying to make the easy short-term money and start building a business. Eventually, you’ll find that it doesn’t take that much work at all. Well, it won’t feel like work at least…not as long as you enjoy it

Need Cash? Create a Product! is a post from: Nathan Hangen

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Image by Edward Dullard

When I first entered the realm of internet marketing, I bought into the hype and figured it would only take me a few months of studying, minimal work, and a bit of patience before I was making 10-50k per month. I figured I was smart enough to make more than everyone else and that I wouldn’t have to do a lot to make it happen. Boy was I wrong!

Internet marketing is certainly a legitimate way to make a living, but it can take years of studying, years of practical application, and a lot of patience before it pays off. This is the part that most people dont’ want to hear, but wouldn’t you rather know the truth so you don’t give up before  your efforts pay off?

I almost quit after a few months of work because I wasn’t seeing any return, but I decided to stick it out and keep trying. As it turns out, I made the right move…I also learned a lot along the way.

Internet Marketing is NOT a Game of Short-Term Profit

Regardless of what the “Gurus” tell you, IM is not a quick and easy to make a load of cash. Sure, there are exceptions to this, but for most of us the road is long and difficult. I don’t tell you this to dissuade you from trying, rather I tell you so that you know what to expect.

Regardless of how you want to make a living online:

• Writing poetry
• Publishing novels
• Blogging
• Ebooks
• Membership sites
• etc

It will take a lot of planning to get you on the right path. You’ll need to define yourself, create an elevator pitch, and keep pounding away with your brand until you get a breakthrough. It could take weeks, months, or years, but if you find the right angle and keep pouring effort in, you will crack the wall. Once you see that first crack and smell blood, you can start the onslaught and break the shit out of that wall.

Your Brand Might Change

Mine has…it changes all the time. My readers and customers see different things in me than I saw, so I respond with new insights and strategies to help them achieve their goals. If you meet them halfway, you’ll find that the difficulty of the process is drastically reduced. You’ll start gaining traction in your niche and people will start talking about you. The buzz will turn into momentum, which will turn into a steamroller ready to take the world by storm.

Just keep at it and don’t give up. You can make it happen if you just keep chipping away at your long term goal, one small step at a time. It worked for me…I’m sure it can for you.

The Long Slow Road is a post from: Nathan Hangen

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When is Enough really Enough?

Photo by TW Collins

Internet marketing has been around just about as long as the internet has been alive, but it seems to me that IM is really pushing into a level that it has never reached before.  I like to follow IM because, well let’s face it I am an entrepreneur at heart and what better way to merge my loves of business and the internet than internet marketing? However, it seems that just about everyone is a professional IM’er these days and it is getting very difficult to tell the difference between good solid business advice (content) and a good solid sales pitch.

People use the internet for many things, but mostly people just want to learn and/or be entertained. I happen to use the internet for both (among other things), but I particularly use the internet to learn how to make more money in the most efficient way possible. I read blogs religiously because they offer good content and I find free courses and videos to be very helpful in that respect. For this, I would like to thank internet marketers.

However, the creation of new and easy to use technology has made it possible for nearly anyone to become an expert at anything. I blog because I need an outlet for my thoughts and with a hope that somehow, if my content is worthwhile, I can make a little money on the side. Still, I never claim to be an expert unless it is a field I am an expert in (which there are very few).

The issue I have with internet marketing is not that more and more people are using the internet to try and make a buck, but that an amazing number of people are claiming to be experts on a variety of fields and thus deceiving the public and diluting the internet with bad content and advice. There are hundreds of free courses and online seminars that teach people to be experts without being one and so they take the course or watch the video and begin putting crap on the internet. Soon, thanks to the help of social marketing, this crap spreads and becomes a “good old boy” type of club where people help each other push their bad content out to the masses on a grand scale. As a result, unsuspecting people are spending hundreds of dollars a month or in some cases thousands of dollars buying bad products from people that don’t even know what they are talking about in a field they claim to be an expert in.

Sure, there could be an argument made for “buyer beware,” but the issue for me is one of morality and integrity. As custodians of the internet, it is our job to prevent this www from become a puddle of mud and instead push for progress. I don’t believing in keeping people from trying to make it in the IM world, but I do believe it is our job as readers to make sure the good content gets noticed and the bad is told it is so. There is no need to put good marketers on a pedestal or worship them like some sort of God.

Obviously, now I open myself up to a world of criticism on my own content, which is completely fair. I wouldn’t want it any other way. You could also blame me for trying to push my content to the masses with social networking, but the difference is that I don’t manipulate the system to my advantage at the disadvantage of my readers. I’m not selling anything but ad space and an affiliate product here or there. I appreciate all the help of my online network, but at the same time I ask you all to let me know if I put out crap. The only way to know good content from the bad sometimes is with the help of your peers and readers.

Too Many Internet Marketers is a post from: Nathan Hangen

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