More money from your website… Guaranteed.
Because I’m all fancy and technical I managed to make a video entitled - can you guess? - Why Your Website Sales Suck. It basically steps through what I believe are the key areas to make your website successful and introduces a system for getting results. More videos are planned as well so let me know what you think.
Note - Feedback about my sexy voice is also appreciated…
There have been a few internet marketing events in New Zealand but usually these are brought to us by Australians or other international people. They also come with fairly heavy handed selling tactics and are a bit of a pitch-fest. So I think it’s time kiwis got in on the act.
So here we have what I hope to become a regular event in NZ. A kiwi created, hosted and delivered internet marketing event that isn’t one company selling you their point of view and services. Here you get a range of views from kiwis making money online.
Unfortunately I won’t be speaking at this event (found out about it too late) but I’m organised to present at a workshop and the next event like this. But I will be attending so track me down and say hi… plus feel free to interrogate me on how to get your website selling.
As a personal suggestion I obviously think it’s worth going. Being a business owner and marketing online is a lonely business and you should network with other like-minded people as much as possible. The connections you make with others should be well worth your investment.
The Speakers
Ann Andrews of www.thecorporatetoolbox.com
Ann’s one of five certified professional speakers in NZ so it’s worth coming to see her just for the experience. I’m currently working on a few projects with Ann so you’ll be hearing more about her in the future.
Paul Easton of www.InternetMarketingNZ.com
Those that caught my interview with Paul or have attended one of his events know he’s the real deal. He breaks down ranking in the search engines into small and easily understandable steps that you can follow for your business. I’ve seen his results and he’s definitely worth listening to.
Justin Cunningham of www.self-develop.co.nz
Justin’s organising the event so we’ve been in touch a bit lately. Seems like a good guy who’s going to help out internet marketing in NZ a lot. He’s also experienced in putting events on so it should be a good one.
Kath Dewar of www.kdconsulting.co.nz
To be honest don’t know anything about Kath except what appears on her website. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to say though as it sounds right down my alley.
Date and time
Saturday February 27th 2010
9am to 1pm
Location
St Columba Centre
40 Vermont Street
Ponsonby
Auckland
Cost
$97 - However if you drop me an email before midnight on Thursday 4th of February I can get you in for free (first 20 only).
Website
They’re giving away some free training videos before the event so sign up for them here:
In the classic book “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” Stephen R. Covey lays down the groundwork for becoming a highly effective person. Funny how that works since it’s right there in the title. But let’s face it… some of us don’t really want to be effective!
There’s so much pressure of us from society now to be “successful…” whatever that means. We need to all makes tons of money, drive fancy cars and be beautiful just like in the magazines. Well what if that’s really too much work?
What if we’re happy with being ineffective?
So in case you’ve got swept up in the social craze of high achievement here are 7 habits to get you back to your old ineffective self.
Habit 1: Be Reactive
We all know there’s tons of stuff we could be doing to make our lives better. But let’s be honest… most of that stuff is scary and really, really hard! Whether it’s going to the gym every day or finding ways to make more money… sometimes it’s best just to sit back and let stuff happen to us.
After all if we never go out and try to accomplish anything then there’s no chance of failure - or success - so we eliminate those two big fears right out of the box. Plus when we’re reactive we can blame our circumstances for what happens to us. Everyone knows that if we’re poor it’s the governments fault and if we’re fat it’s all because of those evil fast food companies.
Habit 2: Begin with Nothing in Mind
Think about all those plans you’ve made in your life and how none of them really seem to work out. After all you’ve been planning to be a millionaire and sleep with movie stars your entire life and what has it gotten you? It’s much better if you have no plan or direction in your life at all.
When we focus on goals we end up trying to achieve them and develop as people. This is obviously a lot less fun than meandering hopelessly through life in a haze brought on by excessive drugs and alcohol. Plus this method works for the rock stars so why can’t it work for you?
Habit 3: Put First Things Last
We all have really important things we know we should do. But those things are often a lot more boring than the really fun stuff we can do instead. So it’s a lot healthier if we focus on those fun things and put off the big scary important things till later.
If you’re really creative you can probably find enough fun stuff to do so that you never even have to worry about the scary stuff. After all… look how many TV channels we have today filled with exciting and dynamic programming. With a bit of practice it’s easy to find new distractions to occupy our time.
Habit 4: Think Lose/Lose
Let’s face it… to get ahead in life you have to take advantage of other people and generally be an evil person. There is definitely no way to create a win/win situation for anyone so why even bother? You also don’t want to let others get the best of you so it’s always better to focus on getting lose/lose outcome for every situation you face.
If you really want to go to a movie but your friend really wants to go to a different (read: bad) movie then make sure you both come out of this situation both as miserable as each other. This is easily achieved by picking another movie that you’ll both hate equally as much.
Habit 5: Seek First to Be Understood, Then to Understand
If you’re reading this then you probably realize you’re smarter than 99% of the population… if not everyone. That’s why whenever you have an opinion or idea you should always try to carefully explain (using small words helps) why you’re right to others who are less intelligent than you. And if that doesn’t work you might as well mock and ridicule them.
We both know that if more people were like us the world would be a much better place. So it’s our responsibility to try and change as many people as possible. In fact it’s likely that you’re wasting your precious time even trying to understand other people’s inferior point of view.
Habit 6: Antagonize
People are much more productive when they work alone in competition with each other. Therefore you should try to foster an air of no holds barred competitive brutality with any team or organisation you come into contact with. If you celebrate your star performers achievements while berating the losers sooner or later everyone will lift their game to your high standards.
But don’t forget that this habit also applies to other organizations like your church or even your own family. If your children are constantly pitted against each other in competition for your love then they’ll soon realize winning is everything. Once you’ve created this competitive environment you can then shape and mold them to fulfil your own childhood dreams.
Habit 7: Dull the Saw
Since the dawn of the self-help movement people have been mislead into thinking that in order to have a fulfilling life we have to constantly be improving and evolving. However the proponents of this new philosophy obviously never met us and realized that there are some people who are simply already perfect. After all it helps everyone else to have role models to aspire to and although it’s a big burden it’s one we’re more than happy to take on.
If they want to waste time reflecting on life and meditating then good luck to them. While they’re out there singing songs and holding hands trying to rejuvenate their lives we’ve already got it mastered. After all what kind of rest is better than sitting in front of the TV eating anyway?
A call to inaction
Too long have we been told that we have to “make” something or ourselves or lead a good life. What’s wrong with just getting by and taking up space? At the end of the day we all end up in the same box under the ground anyway.
Just face the fact that life is life and there’s nothing we can ever do to change our circumstances. Accept that if we’re fat, poor, lonely and miserable there’s nothing we could ever do to change this. Just remember to plaster on fake smile and stumble through the mindless boredom of another day.
¡Viva la Revolución!
Recently I discovered a fatal flaw in myself that I believe applies to most business owners. Yet when this barrier is removed it’s amazing how our productivity increases. I believe the scientific term is “I can do anything better than you…”
[We will return after this short musical interlude]
Sorry… I was getting feedback that this blog didn’t contain enough musical numbers. Back to the point… if I had one.
Being a business owner means a huge responsibility. Not only do we need to ensure our business is successful to support ourselves and our families but we have countless other people relying on us from clients to suppliers and all the stakeholders in between. This can create a little pressure to get things right all the time.
The problem with being the best
We get into trouble when our business starts growing and suddenly we’re overwhelmed with more and more work. So we hire people to help us out but we don’t make (notice I didn’t say “have”) the time to train them properly. The new employees make mistakes… we take back the work and say “if you want it done right you have to do it yourself!”
And so our business reaches a level where we’re constantly stressed out and working ridiculous hours. Luckily growth stops because we definitely don’t have time for (or need) marketing. But we’re now trapped in a prison of our own creation.
Systems are the answer
We’ve all been told that to have a successful business we need systems. These systems allow us to hand over work to other people and focus on the really important work in the business. But the hard part is making the time to create the systems.
But we choose how we spend our time so we need to put aside that time for systematizing our business. We have to decide that training our staff is more important than fighting the latest fire. And we have to embrace the fact that time spent well now will lead to greater productivity down the line.
How to systematize your business
Take some time to write down everything you do in your business. First take some time to eliminate things you’re doing that aren’t really helping your business at all (there are usually a few) and then divide the task into things you must do and what staff could handle. You need to be ruthless here as you’ll probably try to hold onto tasks that aren’t mission critical in the process.
The important thing is to take the first step and start entrusting tasks to other people. Personally I think you’ll be amazed at what they can do… I know I have been for my business. An added tip is to put your ego aside and try to hire people who are better than you!
What you do next
If you’re like most business owners you probably feel overworked and underpaid for what you’re doing. So follow the steps above to systematize your business and start to remove yourself from as much as possible. This way you can focus on the bigger picture items and get a lot more leverage… which means more income at the end of the day.
Ok so maybe I can’t quite measure my productivity that accurately but I’m recently discovered a highly effective yet totally counter intuitive way to improve productivity. Over the current week I’ve gotten so much more done and actually ticked about twice as many things off my todo list as normal. I’m even about to tick off those important business building items that usually get buried by urgent problems and fire fighting.
Before I start a lot has to be credited to Simpleology and how it’s helped organise my life. I started using it about 6 months ago and haven’t looked back. You can read my previous Simpleology review here if you want to find out more.
The new technique that sounds stupid till you try it
I got this nugget from Eben Pagan of Get Altitude and Wake Up Productive fame. If anyone knows about productivity it’s a guy who built a 20+ million a year company starting in his bedroom on a laptop. He surprisingly also has some good ideas about making money as well but we won’t go into that.
Anyway… the technique. It’s based on working within what’s called your ultradian rhythm. This is a natural rhythm that determines how long your brain can stay active without rest (at least in my layman’s understanding).
Basically it insists you have to take regular breaks from your work to be more productive. Now it may sound stupid… work less to achieve more? But after trying it this week (and then not doing it properly) I’ve found it’s incredibly powerful.
Here’s how you do it
You work for 2 hours and then take a 30 minute break. In that break you eat a small meal and totally switch off from work. That means no checking email, reading, studying marketing materials 
or anything.
This gives your body and mind time to recharge so you’re much more productive during those 2 hours. Of course you also have to choose the right tasks to complete during the 2 hours and ensure you stay focused on them (turn your email and phones off!). This is where I find Simpleology comes in useful and these systems work well together.
Get hydrated
Something Eben also talks about is how dehydrated most people are. He suggests drinking 2 glasses of water immediately after you wake up to rehydrate yourself and start the day off well. I’ve found this has got me through the “OMG I want to go back to bed I’m so tired!” phase and I assure you I’m not a morning person.
I’ve also been drinking a glass of water at every break and sometimes more in between. I kept notes in my diary to make sure I got up to 8 glasses of water a day which is the suggested amount (generally). It’ll send you to the bathroom a lot in the beginning but your body will adjust quickly.
Ensure you’re in a peak physical state
At the end of the day our businesses rely on one person for their results… us! If we’re not performing at our peak then no one else is going to either. So we need to focus on increasing our effectiveness.
I’ve heard for years I should exercise in the morning and have done it in little spurts. However I’ve never really committed to it… until now (at least exercising every day at this point). By exercising in the morning we let out those natural happy drugs and ensure we can reach our peak state.
It doesn’t have to be hard exercise either… a simple walk around block is a good start. My goal has been to go to the gym in my building every day. Note I didn’t say work out every day… I said go to it 
Because I know once I put my foot inside the door I’ll at least do something. And if I start doing something then I’ll probably do more. Just take it in baby steps and you’ll naturally grow to love your exercise time (take your iPod and make it fun).
The results
On Monday and Tuesday I followed my schedule exactly and felt great. On Tuesday I actually ticked every single thing off my todo list which never EVER happens. I so greatly improved productivity and was sold on the system.
On Wednesday and Thursday I had some phone calls I needed to make in the morning to the US which threw me off my schedule. I also didn’t go to the gym in the morning and decided to go later while also skipping breaks. The results showed in my todo list at the end of the day.
Late on Thursday afternoon I realised what had happened and how I’d been skipping my breaks. Feeling fatigued I made myself take a 30 minute break. After 10 minutes I was feeling much better but held out for the full 30. I ended up leaping back into work and getting a lot more tasks ticked off.
But don’t take my results for it. Try it for yourself and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
What you do next
Break your work day into 3 or 4 blocks of 2 hours each with a 30 minute rest in between. Spend your rest period relaxing, eat a little bit and drink some water. Also start your day with 2 glasses of water and see how you feel.
Once you’ve set this part up consider adding exercise. But the important thing is to make some positive changes and not to overwhelm yourself. Also don’t beat yourself up if you miss a break… just try to remember next time.
Well it is my birthday and if you’re arriving here on the 13th of January 2010 you might want to check out this link as an example of what I’m talking about:
[Offer is closed]
But what I want to talk about is putting a reason behind your marketing efforts. Many business owners market when they have nothing new to say and this reduces the responsiveness of your listeners. However if you make your marketing more exciting and about something more people will listen and respond.
Dan Kennedy - my favorite grumpy direct response marketer - first introduced me to the concept of making your marketing into an event. This means basing your marketing on more than just “I want to sell more stuff.” Believe it or not your marketing should actually be enjoyable for your audience.
Enjoyable marketing… ?
Yes you heard me correctly. After all you want your visitors and clients to have an enjoyable time when they visit your business or buy from you… so why not enjoy your marketing as well? We live in an age of constant noise and marketers shouting at us louder and louder but all it takes is to step away from the norm to make your marketing efforts much more effective.
I talk a lot about putting personality into your marketing (and try to do it with everything I do as well) and that’s the first step. The next is to make your marketing into an event. Believe it or not but your followers can actually look forward to hearing from you?
(Like you look forward to hearing from me… come on… you know it’s true… I hope!)
How to tie your marketing to events
All you really need is a reason for your special offer (or your irresistible offer) and a bit of creativity when it comes to story. Your reason might be your birthday and wanting to celebrate (or be crazy) or a public holiday. The good thing about using something personal is it’s unique to your business.
But you don’t have to wait for your birthday… just be a little creative. It might be that your daughter just graduated college and you’re a proud parent. Or maybe you want to go on holiday and need a little extra cash to afford it!
Why this works
Everyone likes a good deal… it’s just human nature. How many times have you told someone “I bought it for X but it’s normally Y…” a few I’ll bet. And perhaps more importantly we want to spend money with people we like and enjoy dealing with.
So now I’ve spelled out all the reasons for my birthday promotion you can go and check it out:
[Offer is closed]
And just because I’ve spilled the beans it doesn’t mean you have to try and resist the temptation to buy. Inside the course you’ll learn all the other tricks and techniques that will have your visitors eager to spend money with you. Marketing doesn’t have to be a horrible experience… it should be fun for all involved!
What you do next
Think about what events you can base your marketing around and get to work. And if you want to see how to structure an offer then subscribe to my email list and learn how. As for the birthday offer it’s now closed… at least until next year!
I think we’ve all had the experience of making New Year’s resolutions only to break them in just a few short weeks. So why does this happen? And how can we see our goals through to completion?
Personally I don’t make New Year’s resolutions due to the stigma of having them fail. Instead I set goals that I intend to work towards all year. I choose things that will really make my year incredible and that I’m determined to achieve.
Why New Year’s resolutions always fail
Most New Year’s resolutions are made on the spur of the moment or treated as something we’d like to do. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but having a goal of winning the lottery isn’t that effective as there’s little you can do to help you achieve it. But it’s still the same with the classic goal of losing weight (or more correctly fat) if you’re not prepared to put in any effort.
As I’ve talked about before we’re responsible for our own lives. We can’t expect our mummies and daddies, our partners, the government or the lottery people to swoop in and give us the lives we want. If we want a change then it’s up to us to do it.
Do you have a big enough reason why?
So if you want to achieve a goal you first have to ask yourself how badly you want it. If losing fat or becoming a millionaire would be nice then you’re on the wrong track. You have to realize why you want these goals and what they mean to you.
But if you want to lose weight because you want to date someone who’s fit and healthy and realize that they’re unlikely to even look twice at you unless you’re the same… well that might give you some motivation. As would having everyone point and laugh when you go to the beach. It helps to keep in mind that in most cases the more pain you experience around your goal the more motivated you’ll be.
Keeping the momentum
Staying with the losing weight goal most of us start out with the best intentions and then it sinks in just how long it’ll take to reach our goal. It’s obvious that if having our ideal body was easy we’d all be fabulous looking so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there might be a little work involved. However it’s not as hard as it seems.
What I now like to do is set little goals on the way to the big goal. So this month’s goal might be just to simply go for a walk every day for 30 minutes. Now this won’t transform my body overnight but it’s a good start before increasing the intensity of the exercise.
Plus it’s achievable and I can get instant feedback on my progress (am I walking each day or not?). It shows I can commit the time and my body isn’t going to rebel with huge amounts of pain like suddenly going to the gym can. So I take the first step towards my goal and feel good about myself.
The biggest mindset shift of all
A recent discovery I’ve made is to stop focusing on the goal so much and start to focus on the process of achieving the goal. This means you fall in love with what you do every day rather than waiting for a big payoff when you finally reach your goal. Because if you wait for the payoff you’ll find it short-lived and you might even revert to your previous lifestyle and lose all your hard work.
So if you want to lose weight you have to fall in love with being a fit and healthy person. You’ll want to find exercise you enjoy doing and want to do long after you’ve achieved your goal. The same with eating well… it’s no good going on a diet you hate because you’ll be constantly fighting your self-control.
That’s why I hate the word diet as it’s a temporary solution… and why so many people balloon out when they finally stop doing their diet. The people who succeed find healthy foods they enjoy eating and start to associate massive pain with the junk foods of the past. This is the only way to sustain a fit and healthy lifestyle.
How does this apply to your business?
I’ve talked a lot about health and fitness here when I could of used a business goal setting example instead. The same rules still apply to your business and you have to find a sustainable way of growing your business. You simply discover the actions that lead you towards your goal and keep doing them over and over again.
But every business owner should also try to be as fit and healthy as possible… why? Because you’re the one person that your business’ success relies on. If you’re tired and rundown then you’ll hold your business back.
But don’t beat yourself up!
If you fail to do something or reach a goal don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re all human and there are so many factors within ourselves that will hold us back. But if you consistently work towards your goals then you’ll break down those barriers one by one and get there in the end.
What we don’t want to do is get discouraged and give up as that’s the only real way to fail. If we work long enough and hard enough on a goal while being flexible in our approach we’re going to get there one day. When the going gets tough we need to take a step back… breathe deeply… and decide how we’re going to tackle the next obstacle.
What you do next
Decide what you’d like to accomplish over the next year and write it down. Then break down the goal into smaller steps that build on the last. Finally… commit yourself to the goal by signing the piece and paper and putting it on the wall.
Then just get to work and let me know how it goes!
YouTube has released the best YouTube videos of 2009 (according to views). Here they are below with the number of views according to the YouTube blog (some are aggregated between different versions).
1. Susan Boyle - Britain’s Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)
I also believe an honourable mention should go to Fede Alvarez who’s short video made with just $300 (and a lot of effort) landed him a $30 million movie deal.
Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!)
So is 2010 your turn to be world famous on the internet?
For the last few years I chose to be broke and miserable. After all… isn’t that what struggling entrepreneurs are meant to be? At least the broke part with a sprinkling of overworked and exhausted.
The truth is success is not as easy as everyone makes out. Well - to be accurate - I would say the principles are easy but the hard part is following through. It’s getting ourselves to do what has to be done to achieve our dreams.
Most people give up on their dreams at the slightest setback. Things get a little bit too hard or a little bit too real and suddenly settling for mediocrity doesn’t sound so bad. For myself it was asking the question “What’s so bad about having a job anyway?”
What habits do you have?
I’ve recently started reading The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey (thanks again Linda) and I must say I wish I’d read it a long time ago. Whether my head would have been in the right place to understand it is another thing but it definitely contains valuable insights and I’ve only just finished the first habit!
The first habit is all about being proactive and not reactive. It points out that we have a choice of how we behave in all circumstances. Whether we choose to focus on what we can control or what we can’t.
What being proactive means to me
Being proactive means deciding what you want in your life and making it happen. We can’t just sit back and let life happen to us. We can’t complain about the economy or other people getting in the way of what we really want.
Now I could write a big book of excuses for why my life isn’t perfect but I have to accept that no one else is to blame. It’s all on me to get what I want and be the person I want to be.
Being vs having
Another point is effective people choose to focus on being the person they want to be rather than having the things they want to have. Rather than wanting to have a million dollars they ask themselves what kind of person would they need to be to become a millionaire. Again they focus on what they can do internally rather than trying to change things happening externally.
This is why so many lotto winners have millions of dollars yet manage to lose it in record time. They were not ready to be millionaires. They continued to focus on having more stuff until the money was gone.
Empowering or scary?
To be honest it’s a little scary when we realize we have this complete power over our lives. We suddenly become aware that everything we’ve achieved (or not achieved) up until this point is a result of the choices we’ve made. Or maybe our choice to procrastinate over doing what we know we really should be.
But then when we take this on board and really internalize the fact that our choices shape our destiny it should be incredibly empowering. To know that we’ve responsable for our own success. And that no one else can ever hold us back.
What you do next
Have a look at the choices you are making in your life and whether they’re really going to lead you to your dreams. Are you letting excuses hold you back? Are you doing what really needs to be done?
And paint a picture of your ideal life and what it would be like. Are you being the person that deserves this life? What kind of changes do you have to make to become this person?
It may not be easy (I certainly don’t find it easy) but accepting you are responsible for you life is what gives you the life you want. So what’s really holding you back? I think you’ll find the answer is “me!” *gulp*
You’d be amazed at how much influence is used over us every day. From professional advertisers to children… everyone is out to get what they want. So just how easy are you to influence?
Below are clips of Derren Brown showing just how much our own decisions and imaginations might not belong to us. The best part is we see how he does it as well. Enjoy…
Influencing the influencers
Save time choosing the perfect Christmas gift
For New Zealand residents you can catch Derren’s show Tuesday at midnight on TV2. You’ll definitely learn a lot about the human mind.
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