price

6 Good Reasons to Rethink Discounts

by Paul Joseph August 18, 2011 Featured

Believe it or not, one of the biggest mistakes that new business owners often make is offering discounts for their services. While discounts may seem like a logical way to bring business in, the truth is that they can actually hinder business growth. By offering discounts, your customers can be left feeling as though your services are not worth what you’re charging for them, and that’s the reason you’re offering a discount. It also sets a precedent that you’re willing to charge less than your listed prices. Before you allow yourself to make the mistake of discounting your services to the detriment of your business, take the time to consider the following six reasons to rethink discounts: 1. Too Much Emphasis on Price :  By offering discounts, the main focus is on price, rather than your products or services. If the only advantage you have over your competitors is price, your business is in big trouble. Price-matching has become a commonplace act, so you need to rely on quality and other factors, rather than offering a discounted price, in order to make it in today’s business world. 2. Price Wars :  Offering discounts can often result in price wars with your competitors. The companies who will almost always win in these types of scenarios are the companies that have the financial backing to stick it out the longest. In other words – ‘the big guys.’ 3. The Wrong Impression :  When a company offers a discount to their customers, they are taking a big risk of devaluing their services. Customers will generally be given the impression that the services being offered aren’t worth paying full price for. 4. Negative Impact on Profits :  If competitors match your discounted prices, not only will you be left with less money in the bank, but you’ll still be expected to produce high quality services at a discounted price. And if your competitors are in a position to hold the line on the lower price, you can create a permanent reduction in your profits. 5. Stockpiling : For product-focused companies that offer their products at a discounted price, there is a risk of having their customers buy as many products as they can at the discounted price. This can result in you scurrying to provide a mass amount of products, and can also negatively affect future profits, as your customers won’t need to buy once you lift the discount. 6. Negative Impact on Quality :  As stated above, offering a discount can lead to your company having no choice but to provide a greater number of products or services in a short period of time. This can lead to decreased quality in order to get everything done punctually. The moment quality is lessened, the greater the chances of your company losing its credibility and gaining a bad reputation. If you’re considering offering a discount, take the time to sit down and ask yourself why you are considering discounting your prices as an option. Is the choice one that you’re thinking about in order to take the easy way out, over having to demonstrate your company’s value to your customers? Occasionally, discounts do make sense. If you feel as though offering a discount is something that you want to move forward with, just make sure you’re doing whatever it takes to prepare for what discounting could mean to your business. What experience have you had with offering discounts in your business? Did it work out for the best? Would you do it again? Share your thoughts in the comments, and on our Facebook page !

Tagged as: business, business planning, discounts, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, price, pricing, small-business

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Young Entrepreneur Interview: Costin Tuculescu of AnyMeeting.com

by Paul Joseph July 26, 2011 Featured

How do you make money by giving something away? Just ask the subject of today’s interview, Costin Tuculescu. Costin, a software engineer by education, is a serial entrepreneur whose passion lies in creating new technologies, finding solutions to technology problems, and producing new, exciting products and services. His latest venture is a full-featured web conferencing application, called AnyMeeting.com , which costs users nothing. Through bootstrapping, and eventually angel funding, Costin has grown the ad-supported business from an idea to a leading provider of online conferencing solutions, with nearly 40,000 users worldwide. With that kind of experience, you’ll want to read what this young entrepreneur has to say! Enjoy the interview! AnyMeeting.com is a great tool that offers a lot of functionality at no cost. For those of our readers who aren’t familiar with the company, can you tell us a little about your business model? Our goal is to make web conferencing as accessible as email for small businesses.  In order for this to happen, it needs to be free and easy to use.  AnyMeeting is ad supported, which allows us to offer such a great service completely for free.  AnyMeeting allows small business users to easily meet with anyone in the world at anytime for free, saving them time and money. You’re competing with some well-established webinar/meeting companies. How did you know your model would be able to stand up to the competition? As a whole, the web conferencing and webinar industry is growing at about 20% a year.  The current economic conditions have accelerated the growth as companies have been cutting travel expenses.  There is also a significant portion of the small business market that has never used web conferencing due to the high cost of service.  A significant portion of our current users represent this segment. AnyMeeting offers for free what other service providers charge thousands of dollars per year for.  For example, if you wanted to host webinars for 200 people, it would cost approximately $4,000 per year with a provider such as GoToMeeting or WebEx.  You can do the same webinars with AnyMeeting, completely for free. A free service is an excellent choice for anyone, from new users and small business who want to start giving webinars and having online meetings, to the advanced user looking to cut expenses.  While the price of web conferencing services is going down, nothing as feature rich as our service is being offered for free so, we know there is a market for our service.  Another differentiator between us and the big service providers is that our platform doesn’t need any downloads, installs or setups for your audience.  It’s completely browser based. You’ve added close to 40,000 users since launching in 2010. How did you do that? Which advertising methods have worked well for you? We’ve been very successful in our attracting new users through search engine marketing and social media. Referrals have also been a great source of growth for us.  Our users are so pleased with AnyMeeting that they tell lots of their friends and colleagues about us.  In a survey to our users, over 65% responded they have recommended us at least once, with 49% stating they have recommended us more than once. We’re big fans of SEO. Once you’re properly optimized and come up organically in search results, you’re gold, so that’s why we’re constantly working on it. SEM as well — Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing offer good ROI for our type of service. We’re also looking to create relationships with associations that reach our target market — small businesses that are just starting out. They don’t really know if it’s worth paying for a webinar service, so, they are open to trying us out first.  Reaching out to those specific verticals and online marketing have been our two main business tools that we use to grow our user base. What has been the biggest business challenge you’ve had to face, and how did you overcome it? One of the biggest challenges for any start-up is building the team.  So far, I’ve been very fortunate to grow the company with the right people on board.  However, finding the talented people that have the mentality of, “okay, we have to do whatever it takes to grow the company” and who share your vision, is one of the most challenging things because you’re not going to just put out an ad and find those people. It’s an ongoing process of networking and reaching out to your network, going to mixers and kind of putting the word out there. It’s an ongoing process to build, and continue to motivate the right team. What three pieces of advice do you have for young entrepreneurs interested in starting their first business? #1 – Plan out what you want to get out of this business?  Is it going to be a lifestyle business where you make a good living to support yourself and your family, or are you going to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs?  Deciding on what you’re looking to get out of it, and in what time frame, will help you set up the right goals, milestones, etc. #2 – Surround yourself with smart people that are good at what they do and you enjoy being around.  Since you’re going to be putting in 10-12 hour days, you need to make sure that you’re spending that time with the right people, all working together for one common goal – to be successful. #3 — Work your butt off.  For YoungEntrepreneur readers, starting your own company is your chance to get ahead of everyone else, and it takes hard work to become successful.  Realize that this venture is going to take the next X years of your life, and that you’re committed to its success.  The only way to make that happen is to work your butt off. How do you personally define success? Very simply, to me, success means exceeding expectations.

Tagged as: business, business-ideas, entrepreneur, family, Featured, marketing, microsoft, online marketing, price, small-business, success, user

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PriceBurp: Online deals, special offers, discounts & promotions

by Paul Joseph July 20, 2011 Featured

3000 users in less than 2 months The e-commerce space has everyone on their toes in India and PriceBurp.com is one of the players looking to get on to this juggernaut. PriceBurp provides hand-picked and exclusive online deals to users. Having started out in the UK, PriceBurp has commenced operations in India recently. YourStory correspondent Jubin Mehta caught up with entrepreneur Nirav Dave,… (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, frontpage, india, other-content, price, yourstory-in

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PriceShred, Integrating gaming with buying & selling online

by Paul Joseph July 11, 2011 Featured

Based out of Bangalore, PriceShred is a new venture co-founded by Abhinav Sarangi and Karan Kunal. Abhinav comes from the group which dishes out the maximum start-ups; the IIT-IIM graduates and Karan has a MBA degree from Xaviers Institute. Currently, the team consists of 5 members. YourStory.in caught up with the founders to know more about their startup PriceShred. (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: bangalore, content, frontpage, group, other-content, price, startup, team, yourstory-in

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Is Obsession Destroying Your Business From Within?

by Paul Joseph June 29, 2011 Featured

Entrepreneurs are regularly praised as the beating hearts behind their business creations. The fiercely driven, enthusiastic and determined individuals who simply couldn’t stand to see their ideas fail. Passion is always a positive trait. You can never have too much of it. But passion has a twisted cousin that can be super harmful in equal measures to your business. It’s called obsession. Obsession, disguised as passion, clouds our perfect judgment and can be traced to any of these negative habits: Failure to learn from mistakes. You can tell a lot about an entrepreneur by the way he or she reacts to failure. We are groomed through the education system to fear the idea of making mistakes. You wouldn’t dare submit a paper littered in errors for fear of being marked down several grades. This fear hurts the process of creative thinking, which an entrepreneur must learn to harness for the greater good. It’s important to both welcome and learn from mistakes. They are the only way of knowing that our days are being spent productively. Passion wills us to adapt and refine our ideas until we find suitable solutions to our problems. Obsession refuses to yield the same lessons. Obsession drives an entrepreneur towards the wrong business decisions, time and time again, as he stubbornly refuses to embrace changes – or to make mistakes in the first place. Refusal to delegate decision-making processes. Are you obsessed with micro-managing every tiny detail of your business? It may seem like a passionate bid for perfection, but it’s usually an unhealthy addiction to control. Imagine your business fully developed and world-renowned with thousands of employees. When that day comes, will you still be making every single decision from your company HQ? I should hope not! Trust in the decision-making skills of others, particularly if you sought them for being experts in their fields. Obsessing over every last decision prevents the freedom of mind that comes with outsourcing and modularising your business. This is absolutely necessary for growth. By all means, become the brains behind the core strategies of your business. But don’t become the brains behind which type ink cartridge is most suitable for the IT department’s printing needs. Delegate anything that somebody else can handle just as well for maximum efficiency of your time. Unhealthy lifestyle with little satisfaction. If you’re experiencing insomnia, seismic mood shifts, or a constant feeling of restlessness, it’s likely that your passion has spilled in to the realms of obsession. Do you find yourself jumping out of bed at 3am to answer an email that could have waited until the morning? This is dangerous territory because it slowly eats away at the very reason we become entrepreneurs in the first place. No business is worth the price of your long-term health and sanity. The conspicuous lack of an end goal. People often run businesses for the wrong reasons. Sometimes as a form of spiting the ex-employer, who cast doubt that a lowly cubicle minion could succeed on his own. This illusion is created in the entrepreneur’s own imagination. Striving for business success without a long-term goal, or a vision of where you hope to end up, is as good as asking a stranger to determine your fate. You must have an end goal, something you want to achieve above all else. Passion defines this goal with the best intentions. Obsession creates it for all the wrong reasons. The most interesting difference between passion and obsession is the daily satisfaction you get from setting your work agenda. The obsessive entrepreneur tends to pack as many tasks as he can in to a to-do list that creates dizziness at close inspection. The passionate entrepreneur has a concise work plan, defined by clear objectives, that never become so interfering as to get in the way of life and happiness. Does your business inspire passion or obsession? Look carefully at your workday and the answer should reveal itself. Even if the overwhelming influence reveals itself to be obsession, there’s no need to be alarmed. Most obsessive ways can be killed at the source by re-addressing your motivations and creating a plan. That plan should be to make passion the driving force behind every decision you make. Martin “Finch” Osborn is a marketing entrepreneur who started his own business at 21, and now works from a laptop while traveling the world. He is a fierce critic of the “get rich quick” online phenomenon. Read more about Finch here .

Tagged as: business, daily, education, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, price, small-business, source, success, work

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The Truth About Your Latest Idea: It Likely Sucks! Here’s Why…

by Paul Joseph June 16, 2011 Featured

As entrepreneurs, we all think we are “in touch” with our target market. When we create and offer products and services, we do so with the implicit belief that we have a good handle on what our market wants , what our market needs , and what price our market is willing to bear. This confidence can come from researching and surveying the market or seeing competitors succeed in our vertical. But for many entrepreneurs, this fundamental sense of understanding comes from being actually a part of the market and reflecting on our own needs, wants, and price points. Yet if we know so much about our target market, why do so many of us fail ? Yes, I said it. Many entrepreneurs fail – including me. The Beat Of Your Own, Lonely Drummer Last summer, I had an idea for an online video series about making money doing what you love. I was convinced it was going to be a huge success and would yield enough returns for me to live on for months while building a fan base of adoring followers who would loyally buy all of my future products. I wasted no time and dedicated all my resources to crafting this product that I believed would really put me on the map. My first video offering in the series was an hour long and included fancy PowerPoint illustrations and fun graphics. The download came with two worksheets and access to a series of free informational emails. I priced it at $49.99 USD , and cultivated a core of launch affiliates to help me spread the word. Launch day came…and went. With one sale. In fact, one sale was the only sale of the video I ever made . I never made a follow-up video, and I took the site and all related materials down after eight months because I was – and honestly, still continue to be – so utterly embarrassed by how huge a failure this initiative turned out to be. My embarrassment was so acute not just because I failed, but because I had so clearly failed to understand the needs, wants, and price point of my target market. I built the entire product around what I would buy and used only that measurement to guide the product, promotion, and sales copy. What it came down to was that I was really out of touch with the needs, wants, and price point of my target market . Solace In Numbers I was reminded of this unflattering event this afternoon when I was talking to a friend who works in development consulting. Over the course of our conversation, they revealed that they were a little confounded by a market revelation they had: “I can’t believe it, Nacie – I’ve been planning to sell this new service for $50,000 and just heard from a sales lead that they – and no one they know – would consider paying no more than $3,000 for it. I guess it shows how out of touch I’ve gotten with what [the market] would buy…” The worst part – or the most comforting part – is that my friend and I aren’t alone in such gross miscalculations of our target market needs, wants, or price points. Think about Dean Kamen, the creator of Segway scooters – when these gyro-scooters were first launched in a massive expose on Good Morning America in 2001, they had been heralded as “an invention bigger than the internet and the PC” that were supposed to “revolutionize city planning…and create an upheaval in several existing industries.” Yet ten years later, in the United States they are little more than punchlines to mall cop jokes. In fact, in 2010 the Segway made the top of Time Magazine’s 50 worst inventions of all time (subprime mortgages and pop-up ads also made the list). How could an invention that seemed like such a captivating, good idea fall so hard on its face? Because (say it with me now) it was out of touch with the needs, wants, and price point of its target market. Staying In Touch With Your Market Over the years, I’ve observed that losing touch with your target market coincides with becoming too submerged and surrounded by early adopters or industry peers. Translation: entrepreneurs lose touch by spending all their time in an ideological bubble. When most of your daily interactions are with people in your field or who are already loyal followers of your brand, you start to think, create ideas, and receive feedback in a biased bubble of influence. You are talking to the small percentage of your potential market who already “get it” and don’t need to be sold – their needs, wants, and price point align likely with yours, meaning that your suggestions or prototypes are met with positive reinforcement. Take my failed video series – I sent the prototype to about a dozen people who already “drank the KoolAid” of my brand for feedback, endorsements, and affiliate help. They all raved about it, leading me to believe that once the product went live it would receive similar praise from the larger market. Nope. Consider my friend – he is a savvy business man with a booming small business. Before sharing the $50k price point with a sales lead, he floated the service and cost by his close business network and received positive feedback, leading him to believe that the price would be equally accepted by the market at large. Heck No. And once again, let’s revisit our friend the Segway – I don’t know the details of this case personally, but I can imagine that no one would be able to book a product to launch on Good Morning America (a huge, national morning show) without a bevy of endorsements and positive support, which led the producers to think the product had legs. Capital N-O. The problem is that for most of our industries, enough money to call a living (let alone a flourishing business) doesn’t come from selling to a small (likely saturated) percentage of our super fans and industry colleagues…it comes from successfully selling to a broader market percentage and even into demographics beyond our target markets. And to do that, we need to stay in touch with our non-KoolAid drinking targets. “How?” you ask. The answer is simpler than you’d think: take time to unplug from your blog, email, social network, and business contacts. Instead, have some casual, face-to-face conversations with people you meet on a daily basis – at the school drop-off or in the market or at the coffee shop or even at home – about their needs, wants, and price points as consumers. Share your business offerings and ask for their authentic feedback . Because the sooner you can get out of your ideological bubble, the faster you can get back in touch with your target market and kick your sales into high gear. Here’s to your Entrepreneur’s Journey, Nacie Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: business, market, numbers, online, price, product, school

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7 Strategies for Making the Most of a Slow Summer

by Paul Joseph May 12, 2011 Featured

A lot of businesses slow down during the summer months, and with gas prices skyrocketing and triggering other price increases, this summer might be worse than most. If your business is one that does better when the temps are lower, don’t let it ruin your summer. Take advantage of the slow time and get your business in an even better position for when things pick up. Here are seven things you can do that will have a long term impact on your business and give you something positive to work on while growth is slow: 1. Spring Cleaning – A cluttered office, warehouse, or any work area can be an energy drainer and can zap creativity and positive vibes. Take some time to do some spring cleaning. Get rid of anything you don’t need; clear out your files as much as you can; organize your backroom; scrub the bathroom! Anything you can do to improve the work atmosphere, whether you have a retail store or work from home, will help you work better. 2. Take Time for Planning – Although it’s great for your business to be busy, it can sometimes mean you have to sacrifice the time you’d like to take to plan for the future. During slower times, take some time each day – or take several days – to do nothing but look at your current processes and brainstorm for future growth opportunities. The planning you do during this time can make a big difference in your business when the cash starts rolling in. 3. Write Blog Posts – You are blogging, right? Whether you need to get started blogging or have been writing articles on a regular basis, slow times are great for getting ahead. Having extra posts on hand will give you breathing room on those days when you’re overly busy. You could also consider writing some guest posts for other blogs in your industry. This is a great way to boost your exposure and credibility. 4. Get in Touch with Contacts – During hectic times, it’s easy to lose touch with colleagues, mentors, and other important contacts. Let them know you’re still alive and kicking by reaching out while you have some time. Just this simple act can be energizing and even give you some great ideas for items 2 and 3 above. 5. Refresh Your Website – When was the last time you went through your site and tested links, updated general information, and thought about ways to make it more functional or more attractive? When you have extra time, make sure your website is up to date and representing your brand well. 6. Review Your Marketing – Marketing is an important key to success for most businesses. During slower times, go through your marketing material and give it a facelift. Review how you’ve been executing your marketing plan to see what’s working and what needs to be changed. Marketing is not a “set it and forget it” process. The fresher and more relevant it is, the more effective it will be. 7. TLC for Your Computers – This suggestion isn’t the most exciting one of the bunch, but it can be very important. Take some time to defrag, disc clean, update, and backup your computers. The time you spend now can save you a lot of time and headaches when you’re in the middle of your busy season! A summer slowdown doesn’t have to be a downer. Take full advantage of quieter times by looking at it as an opportunity to give your business some needed care and attention.

Tagged as: business, business-ideas, entrepreneur, industry, marketing, motivation, price, small-business, summer, work, your-business

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How Helping Newbies Led To Big Profits And A Closing Down Sale (Discount Price Ends Friday)

by Paul Joseph May 4, 2011 Featured

One the factors I like to hammer home to people when they create any kind of information, whether it’s blog or website content, membership content, or any kind of paid info product, is not to underestimate how much of your audience truly are beginners . Everyone starts as a beginner. If you are teaching something that requires any kind of practice or knowledge to become proficient in it, then you have a market of beginners ready to be helped. In growing industries, new people become beginners every day, especially online as more people to turn the web as a source of training resources. When I launched Blog Mastermind in 2007 I intended to create a course that would guide beginners through a process of learning how to build and eventually profit from a successful blog. I remember writing the first few lessons of the course, imagining what it would be like to be at the other end, reading my lesson having no experience at all with a blog. I referenced back to my own beginner phase and attempted to cover all the most important things I had learned that beginners need to know. I think I did a pretty good job of handholding people through the starting phase of blogging in Blog Mastermind (so much so that some people in the first test group quit the program early because they thought it was too basic, forcing me to create a second stream of advanced lessons to keep more experienced people interested long enough to reach the later lessons in the main stream of training). Despite this, I felt that there was one significant limitation that I wasn’t addressing that I knew many beginners wanted – I didn’t offer any video training to show people how to install a blog. Become A Blogger Is Born Although I initially said no to an offer from a reader of my blog to purchase the becomeablogger.com domain name, eventually I came back and purchased it once I had an idea how to use it. It is a good domain name, with good cadence, and a very clear message about what the site is about, given the plans I had for it. My idea was to release videos to show people how to install WordPress, which is something that definitely becomes easier to learn when you can visually see the process presented by someone else. Writing is my strong point, and although I had rudimentary camtasia video recording skills at the time, I didn’t feel I could do a good enough job to create the kind of polished and easy to follow video style to teach people how to set-up their first blog. I didn’t really want to spend the time doing it either, so I decided finding a person to create the videos was the way to go. Enter Gideon Shalwick . Gideon interviewed me in video format, we made friends over a period of a few weeks, and eventually I asked if he would be interested in the becomeablogger.com project. He quoted $5,000 to create the ten videos we talked about and I agreed. It was fortuitous that Gideon, who was learning a lot about online video at the time because it is his passion, was very capable of creating the kind of videos I wanted, and he also happens to have the perfect kind of voice and tone I was looking for – like a preschool teacher explaining to children what to do. I don’t mean this to sound condescending in anyway, but when creating content for beginners it is best you pretend you are dealing with children so you really do cover every little step with basic instructions. This is exactly what Gideon did with the ten introductory videos. We didn’t assume our students had any existing tech knowledge and just wanted to watch our videos and copy what we did and then get a result. The videos were challenging to produce and several times Gideon had to redo a video, but eventually the job was finished. Gideon also produced the very first Becomeablogger.com blog design to host the videos, which was one of the last times he did any web design work. We launched the site, I emailed my lists and told my blog readers about the videos and then sat back and watched what happened. It didn’t take long to see that we had a hit on our hands as the videos reached over 30,000 views in a short period of time, and we weren’t using YouTube as a traffic source at all. It was growing organically through word of mouth. Become A Blogger Goes Premium Due to the success of the free videos Gideon and I decided to team up and form a partnership to create a premium version of the videos that we would sell. We decided to follow my launch formula and market the course using the same methods I used to successfully launch Blog Mastermind (by then I had learned enough about launches that I knew the best format to promote our new course without making previous mistakes). When coming up with a new product it is really important you know who your target customer is , because your offer is derived from this knowledge. If you get your offer wrong, you won’t make sales. I was concerned that Become A Blogger Premium would be perceived as too similar to Blog Mastermind , since both courses fundamentally teach the same thing – how to build a profitable blog . Because of this I wanted to clearly define what made each course unique and different from the other. Become A Blogger was initially created to meet the needs of absolute beginners who want to do the technical things themselves by following step-by-step videos. Blog Mastermind has very few videos, most of the course is text (with audio versions of each lesson included) and I recommend that people outsource technology rather than do it themselves (and hence do not teach how to do it yourself in this course). This is how I saw the key difference, and as a result we would market Become A Blogger to a person who is an absolute beginner AND doesn’t have the money to outsource, so would rather learn how to do the necessary technical steps through video training. Despite doing my best to clarify the positioning of Become A Blogger Premium in our marketing materials I wasn’t sure at all how the course would sell. Gideon and I talked about taking on 100 members as a base level of “success”, where we would be happy to continue to build the course (we launched with about 10% to 20% of the course complete, as per my launch formula, the rest we built along with the first group of members). Anymore more than 100 people would be great of course, but I didn’t want to set expectations too high. We created the launch materials, went through the prelaunch process and opened the program at a charter price of $27/month for six months, raising it to $47 a month after the launch period was over (about two weeks if I recall). Much to my jubilant surprise, at the end of the opening campaign we topped over 700 members, which was incredibly successful, much better than I thought it would do. Soon after we added another 400 members even after the price rise when we conducted another marketing campaign. Within a matter of months we had created a course with over 1,000 paying members and an income stream in excess of $20,000 a month after affiliate commissions and expenses came out. Obviously I was pretty stoked at how successful the course was, and it went on from there to grow to over 2000 members and become the most successful program I’ve ever created based on total number of users. Don’t Underestimate The Beginners This experience taught me several things – Video is a viable and popular format for creating training products. Giving beginners the very basic steps to learn how to do something you might consider easy (and free to learn elsewhere online), is something you can charge money for, especially if you packet it up in a professional presentation. There are a lot of beginners out there – many more than you probably think there are. All these lessons can be applied to your situation. Even if there are plenty of free training resources, or other paid beginner training programs out there, don’t believe that you can’t create a product to target this market. You can pick a new media format or use your unique style or method and focus on beginners and create something unique that people will buy. Become A Blogger Premium Is Closing The story I just told you relates to a period from 2008 to 2009. Become A Blogger has since stayed perpetually available, although we did not do any more significant launch campaigns. Instead we focused on smaller promotions with individual affiliates and relied on existing traffic streams, such as this blog, to attract new members. The sign-up rate dropped significantly after the launches were over (I’ve yet to come across a better marketing method than a launch campaign, but they do take quite a bit of work), however the business continued to deliver a steady, albeit smaller income stream bolstered by affiliate income when we promoted other products and services. Gideon and I decided this year that it’s time to put to rest the current program because we are both focusing on other areas. We will likely replace it with something to service the same market, but that won’t be for a while. The course as it currently is, will be retired this week, and will not reopen. The program however remains full of great training videos, and although some of it has dated, much of the content is still very viable – especially the fundamental strategy videos I created on how to grow traffic and monetize your blog . As one last hurrah before we shut the doors on this course forever, we are offering a hefty discount on the course if you want to grab it before it closes. We’ve knocked over 30% off the price of the premium program, so you can grab the complete course for one payment of $147 (no monthly payments required). There is also an upgrade offer to bundle Blog Mastermind with Become A Blogger Premium (that’s definitely all you will ever need to know about making money with blogs in these two programs), which is also discounted at $200 off the original price . These are both one time fees, not monthly fees, and you get immediate access to the entire program after purchase. The course content will remain available to all new and past members, so although the doors to join will close, all the materials will be online for a long time still, so you have plenty of time to study the resources. You can find out more and join now at the special discount price here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ Don’t forget the course and sale price closes this Friday, 6th of May at midnight eastern US time . There won’t be any exceptions, once Become A Blogger Premium closes, that is it. Bonuses If You Join By Friday Gideon and I talked at the start of this week about what additional goodies we could give you as enticements to join (you have to have bonuses during a closing campaign!) and we came up with the following, which I think is a pretty cool bonus pack. You score the following SEVEN extra bonuses if you join Become A Blogger Premium during this closing down promo: 1. The Definitive Guide To SEO For Bloggers (by Yaro Starak) This is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization specifically for bloggers, including 75 link building techniques and my methodology for dominating search results with a blog. 2. SEO In 2011 – Interview With David Jenyns David runs a search engine marketing company in Melbourne and thus has to keep up to date with all the latest SEO techniques. I grabbed him and asked what are the current SEO strategies used today and what has changed (this is a new unreleased interview, April 2011). 3. A Preview Copy of The 2-Hour Work Day Report (by Yaro Starak) This is my latest report, fresh of the press, 86 pages long, due for release later this year. If you want an advanced copy, this is the only way to get it. 4. The Ultimate Guide To Selecting The Perfect Video Camera (by Gideon Shalwick) This guide will save you a TON of time and money. It will help you select the exact camera you need for your exact situation, and prevent you from making costly mistakes! 5. YouTube Hacks For Building Your Email List Presentation (by Gideon Shalwick) This is a 90 minute long presentation Gideon did at an event where people paid 5k+ just to attend! Inside, you’ll learn all the tricks that Gideon uses for building his email lists in the tens of thousands using YouTube. 6. Six Figure Launch Email Sequence Swipe File (by Yaro Starak) This is 96 page PDF contains every email I sent for the prelaunch and launch of Blog Mastermind for the very first release, which netted over 400 members and created a six figure income. Not only do you get the emails, you also get hand-written commentary from me about why I sent each email when I did (you can copy these emails for your launch, or just take bits as you please). 7. Interview With Katie Freiling On The Power Of Social Media Inside this interview, Katie reveals how to easily build your tribe who loves spending money with you, using the latest social media strategies. You can order the course and score all these bonuses here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ We will send out the bonuses to all new members next week after the doors close. Thanks again for supporting our work and please please please , make sure after buying these products you take action and do something with them. I look forward to seeing you as one of our new members. Yaro Starak Blogging Since 2004 Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: business, guide, interview, knowledge, marketing, money, online, plans, price, time, videos, work, young

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Need a Logo? Let the Contest Begin!

by Paul Joseph April 3, 2011 Featured

Whether you need a new logo design for a startup or it’s time to freshen up your old logo, one thing is for sure: a good looking logo is essential to your brand identity. People interpret a lot more about your company based on your logo than you might think. The color, shape, and general “feel” of your company’s logo all play a role in the perception people have of who your company is. As logos are so often part of a first impression, and first impressions only happen once, it’s important to get it right. If you’ve checked into having a design firm create a custom logo for you, the price might have convinced you that your company’s initials with the shadow font and a tagline underneath, created in MS WordArt, will do just fine. But is that the right decision? Indeed, companies have paid tens of thousands of dollars for a single logo design. Is it worth it? Your logo is important enough that it is worth it, if that was the only alternative. Thankfully, it’s not. Entrepreneurs are turning to crowdsourcing options for more solutions to common problems every day, and logo design is a perfect fit for the crowdsourcing model. Not only is this option far less costly, the real beauty of crowdsourcing is that you get the creative power of several people working on your logo project. You’ll get far more options than any single design firm will provide, and the quality is often surprisingly high. In fact, your most difficult task might just be picking the one you love the best. Within the world of crowdsourcing, one model that stands out as very effective is the contest model. In this form of crowdsourcing, designers actually compete to design the best logo. In a typical crowdsourcing model, people are also competing for the business. But the idea of winning a contest for which they not only get the money for the logo but also move up in the rankings, tends to step the quality up a notch – at least. LogoArena.com is a company that’s leading the way for logo design contests. They boast top notch designers from around the world, and the results of what these graphic artists have come up with are very impressive. An average contest on LogoArena will generate 50 to 200 unique custom designs. That’s something you’ll never get (without a very high price) from any design firm, and you can launch a contest for just $249. Your logo is so important to your company’s branding that it’s worth spending thousands of dollars to get the right one. But when you can get the same or better quality for a fraction of the cost, it’s a no-brainer. If it’s time to honor your brand with a logo that truly reflects your company’s personality, head over to LogoArena and get to it! This is a sponsored post. All opinions are 100% my own.

Tagged as: branding, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneur tools, money, price, review

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What I Learned From Lee McIntyre’s Instant Internet Lifestyle Workshop

by Paul Joseph March 22, 2011 Featured

Ever since I started in Internet Marketing back in January of 2008, I’ve come across a ton of Internet Marketers who teach all kinds of topics relating to growing an online business. I’ve signed up for a bunch of mailing lists and have received all kinds of info from these guys, including a bunch of Spam. At a certain point, I decided to cut most internet marketers off. I unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing lists except for four. After receiving so much overwhelming info, I decided to stick with the ones that I’ve received the most value from. Lee McIntyre was one of those guys, and I just couldn’t let him go. Why? Let’s put it this way . . . I had ONE coaching call with him when I used to run an Internet Marketing Forum . I left that coaching call with actionable info that I was able to implement and increase my income by $1,000 that same week. Does that sound crazy? It still does to me! I’ll tell you more about it later. Who Is Lee McIntyre? One of the reasons I like Lee so much is because he used to be a High School teacher, just like me. However, at one point in his teaching career, he got fed up and decided to start an online business. In a rather short period of time, he was able to start and grow an online business to the tune of $7,230.95 in just 29 days . He’s used a combination of making information products, promoting affiliate products, blogging, outsourcing and a few other tactics to grow a strong online empire. What Is Instant Internet Lifestyle? Back in August of 2010, Lee McIntyre did a live 2-day workshop in Manchester, U.K. where he taught a room-full of internet Marketers how he went from a high school teacher to growing a massive online business – one that at the time was making him over $100,000 per month and currently makes over $200,000 per month . These marketers all paid $997 to attend this workshop, and from what I’ve seen, they’ve all raved about the value they received. Lee had a professional video crew at the program and had a series of videos made that gives access to that workshop. He initially planned on selling it for $1,997, but decided to basically give it away in order to get more people exposed to his content. The program consists of 10 hours of high quality training, where he gives a proven blueprint that anyone can follow to grow a solid online business. Here are some of the concepts taught in the program: How to build a list quickly How to get your list to trust you How to get your subscribers to beg you to sell them more stuff How to become a Super Affiliate How to automate your business How to create amazing products quickly How to get a lot of traffic by having others do the work for you How to get the big guys to stop ignoring your JV requests And Much more . . . Here’s a screenshot from inside the program that shows the modules that are provided in the program: As you can see, it covers a wide variety of topics that are crucial to having a thriving online business, starting with beginner concepts all the way to more advanced topics. In addition to all of that training info, he includes a number of bonuses that he doesn’t mention. Here are some screenshots of the bonuses: Ok, that sounds like a bunch of sales talk. Let me give you my personal experience with the program. When I found out about the program, I decided I needed to check it out. The price was very low (under $20), so I really didn’t have anything to loose. I spent the next 3 days going through the content and was so amazed at how much value I had gotten for the $20 that I had to call up one of my Internet Marketing buddies on the phone to share some of the things I learned. Since then, I’ve been using it as a reference. I go back to that training every so often to see what gold nugget I can take and implement in my business to help me take my business to the next level. When it comes to Internet Marketing, the first part of the equation (in my opinion) is learning . However, the second and more important part, is taking action . Instant Internet Lifestyle provides you with a solid model of how to build an online business, but it is the action that follows that allows you to really take it to the next level. Using Lee’s strategies, I’ve been able to have my name listed as a top affiliate for a few big name internet marketers, including Lee himself. In fact, by implementing the stuff he teaches, he has sent me more affiliate payments than any other internet marketer I’ve worked with. I feel like I’ve been equipped to be able to more effectively promote products of value from what I’ve learned. I first watched the training in October of last year, and I’m still working on implementing the things I’ve learned. The step that I’m focusing on at the moment has to do with developing my own info product, and the program has taught me A LOT of what needs to be done. What I Learned Create a Low-Priced, High-value Product The first step to having a strong online business the way Lee recommends is to create a low-priced, High-value product. This is done by finding a limited group of people with a problem. A problem for which they are looking for a solution. Once you have found that group, create a product that is the solution to that particular problem . This product has to be so specific that it caters to a small subset of the population, not everyone. By doing so, it is so targeted that the people who are interested are really interested and more likely to make a purchase. The purpose of this low-priced, high-value product is to over-deliver on your promise , so that you can show your customers that they can trust you to deliver high quality content. I like to say that by doing this, you become a trusted “expert friend”. Being in that position makes it very likely that they will buy from you in the future, or take your recommendations as to products/services that can help them accomplish their goals. Develop a Strong Backend Once you have a low-priced, High-value product, the next task is to develop a strong backend. This is done by making even higher-value products that you can sell to your customers after they have made this initial purchase. Since you’ve established that you are trustworthy, and that you deliver high value in the lower priced product, they are more likely to purchase what you have to offer at higher price points. Lee has done this by creating membership sites and other products that deliver high-value. Because these higher-priced products are targeting individuals who already bought the initial product, conversion rates are significantly higher than if you are marketing to individuals who have never bought from you. Have a Follow Up Sequence that Promotes the Strong Backend How do you get your customers to purchase your higher-priced products? By letting them know that they are available and how they can help them accomplish more of their goals. This can be easily done using an autoresponder service. However, the goal of your follow up sequence is not simply to sell products. It’s to nurture a growing relationship with your subscribers. Recruit Affiliates Effectively One of the big mistakes many people make when promoting their own products is that they try to do all of the marketing themselves. Yes, it’s important to promote your stuff. However, it’s much more effective to have many people promoting for you. This can be accomplished by recruiting affiliates. This is something that many people find challenging. With all the information products out there, how do you convince a potential affiliate to become an affiliate, especially if they have a big list and get many affiliate requests? You make them an offer they can’t refuse . In other words, offer them something of value beyond just a commission. For example, in addition to a 50% commission, you can offer to make a video for them that they can use on their blog to offer value to their subscribers. You can can offer to write a series of articles that are free to use on their blog. Or, you can offer a full series of training videos specifically for their subscribers. Everyone has a price, and if you offer enough value, you’d be surprised at who will promote your product. Make your Affiliates VERY Happy If you are going to rely on affiliates to continually drive traffic to your website, you need to continually strive to make them happy. Offer them great support. Treat them like kings and queens. Increase your conversions so that they can make more and more sales. Do whatever you can to let them know that you value everything they do to promote your products and they will be more likely to promote it for you. What I Don’t Like About Instant Internet Lifestyle I have yet to find a perfect Internet Marketing product. Even the most valuable ones I’ve been a part of has had some flaws, but that’s just the nature of the beast. Firstly, I’m not a fan of the name of the program – INSTANT Internet Lifestyle . It gives the impression that if you implement the stuff you learn, you will instantly get rich. The truth is – that is far from the truth for most people. Yes, some people have taken action on the content and have had some remarkable success in a short period of time, but that is far from the norm. Like any other valid strategies, it takes time and effort. Yes, it is hard work growing an online business. But I like that you can work hard now to work less later My other problem with the program is more a personal preference. Lee is big on upsells (part of the whole “strong backend” concept). This is quite common in internet marketing, but it’s something that I don’t like to see too much of. He has some other GREAT programs that he promotes along with it, but they can be quite intimidating – especially to new internet marketers. However, when I compare those two things with the value that you receive in this program, they really don’t measure up. If you only ever buy that one product from him, and implement what he teaches, you will be ahead of the game. So How Did Lee Help Me Make $1,000 In One Week? I’m glad you asked. At the time, I was running a large forum , but was struggling to monetize it effectively. Lee introduced me to the concept of having a continuity program with little to no effort . He showed me HOW I could implement that concept to add a paid feature to my forum that could generate me monthly income. He also showed me how to set it up in an easy, and relatively stress-free way so that my members would thank me for what I was doing. Well – to make a long story short, it worked, and that made me happy . It was a simple concept, but one that I lacked the clarity to see. Lee was able to help me to see beyond what was happening in my business at the time to what needed to be done. In Summary . . . Instant Internet Lifestyle is hands down one of the best Internet Marketing products I’ve found and THE most affordable. At a price point of under $20, there is virtually no risk involved. You get a lot of actionable content from someone who knows what he’s doing and knows how to teach. When you combine those two factors, you get a very powerful combination. In the event that you don’t like it, or didn’t get as much value as you’d like to get for your $20, you can request a refund within 30 days. I highly recommend for anyone interested in learning more about building an online business to get it. Even if you never purchase any of his other programs, it’s one of those investments that you won’t regret. Download The Instant Internet Lifestyle Workshop Here Instantly yours , Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: goals, income, make money online, marketing, nature, online, online-business, opinion, people, personal, price, training, work

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