Fast Online Business Success

I was asked a while back “How Do I Write An Ebook” and have to say I was totally taken aback!

Get your free copy of my ebook “How To Create And Make Money From An Ebook” – scroll down to download link – no opt-in required

I thought I could quickly answer the question but as we got deeper into the conversation (actually it was email correspondence with a member of my Blogging Beginners program) I realised there was no simple answer and everything I said led to more questions.

To give you some idea we first talked about how the ebook should be presented. I favour a pdf format for the simple reason that virtually everyone who uses a computer is now familiar with the format and has Acrobat reader already installed (you do don’t you?)

I know there’s an argument for the “security” of an exe format but there are a number of drawbacks. Firstly you need a program (which costs you money) to produce the ebook and probably more importantly many, many people won’t open the book because of the perceived virus risks. In fact, there are so many Anti Virus programs that flag .exe files as a potential risk that I wouldn’t entertain using that format.

We then started talking about the layout; the concept; the purpose of the book; thecontent; the formatting;  images; links and on and on.

I then found that I had to explain how to create a pdf from the document and how to upload to a server so it could be made available to download. That moved on to using an opt-in box linked to an autoresponder.

What started out as (or so I thought) a quick 2 minute response turned into a project.

The good news for you is that I wrote a full ebook (26 pages) about the whole subject surprisingly entitled:

“How To Create And Make Money From An Ebook”

Nothing if not inventive, that’s me!

Now, in keeping with my rule of not doing what I preach (in other words there no opt-in, no cost, zilch) I’d love you to get your own copy of the book and to let me know if you find it helpful.

As I said, it’s free and there’s no opt-in. Just click the link below and get an immediate download.

There are a few affiliate links in the ebook and if you want to give the book away you can get your own rebranded version so you earn a commission if any of the links are used by the people you give the book to. It’s all explained in the book.

So rather than go into a massive explanation of how to write an ebook here, get your copy now and I think everything will be explained.

“Hey Mark, so what is the number 1 work from home business?”

What seems like a really straightforward question will undoubtedly lead to a heated debate with strong opinions, many of which will be based on personal experience.

You’ll get the supporters of the “you must have your own product” line of thought. In opposition you’ll have the “affiliate marketers”; the “e-bay marketers”; the you must use “Private Label Rights” advocates.

You have the “online surveys” or “Adsense” or “text link Ads” supporters. And that’s just those who prefer to work online. You ‘ll also hear from people who hate the online world and will sell you the benefits of “envelope stuffing” or “multi level marketing” or virtually anything else you can think of that doesn’t require an actual shop, factory or office.

I’ve worked from home for around 15 years – most of that running a consultancy which was really an office at home with visits to clients premises. It was a million miles away from the number 1 work from home business. I didn’t know it at the time and as it was what I was used too I just continued without ever giving more than a passing thought to work out what I really wanted.

I know now what a home based business shouldn’t be (at least in my opinion based of years of the ups and downs of working from home). I’ll cover this more later but first let’s take a look at what happens to most people when they decide they want to start up a business based on the internet.

The Inexperienced Online Marketer

Take the typical (relatively new) online marketer.

They got interested in the idea of making money online. They’ve seen a few websites and then came across their very first “persuasive” sales letter that promised untold riches with little to no work.

What did they do?

First off, they speed read the sales page, jumping around from the glowing testimonials to find the details of what they had to do and how much it was going to cost. Of course, there was little information about exactly what the “work” was but the images of fast cars, yachts, mansions and laying on sun drenched beaches proved that it works.

The sales page gets reasd and re-read. The enthusiasm grows and the dream of all those riches for so little outlay and so little work gets too much to bear.

Maxing out a credit card will be fine – the money will be back in a few weeks – maybe before the bill even arrives!

Let’s do it!

… A few weeks later the bill arrives and yet zero progress has been made with the business.

The book was started, maybe a few videos were watched. It all seems easy enough but for some reason no progress has been made. Maybe you couldn’t figure out what niche to work in; or didn’t quite follow how to register a domian name and get the nameservers to link in with the Hosting account. Or maybe the technical issues about setting up a site or a blog or an autoresponder series were too much to face. Or maybe the time needed was much more than you thought. How about the “unstoppable traffic” that was about to miraculously find its way to your site – what you only had 2 visits and one of those was your mother!

Never mind – it was the program’s fault. On to the next big glossy launch with more promises of sun-drenched beaches and the life of luxury.

Let’s do it!

Get the card out, download the program, read a bit; watch a bit, maybe do a bit. But never enough to make the breakthrough.

It’s hardly surprising that most people give up about now and have a jaded view of “online business”.

So if you asked them what is the number 1 work from home business they’re not likely to mention anything online based on their experience!

Reality or Perception?

But is that reality or is that simply their perception based on their personal experience?

The same can be said of anything you ever try. If it works you think it’s brilliant but if for some reason your results weren’t great your perception is that it’s not such a good idea!

And of course the different types of activity you can be involved n will suit some people and not others. So, to give you a definitive answer that everyone will agree with is impossible. However…

…it will be very difficult to argue with my conclusions if, like me, your real motivation for working from home is to improve your lifestyle. Stick with me and you’ll see exactly what I mean…

Why Do You Want A Work From Home Business Anyway?

So we’ve seen some of the problems in identifying a business “opportunity” that really works and isn’t just a meal ticket for someone else. So let’s take a good look at the positives and what we should be looking at if we are ready to start a home based business.

I really can’t emphasise this enough…

You MUST work out why you want to run a business before you start

Let me explain.

Far, far too many people think they want to run a business from home whereas what they really want is a magic pill. A magic pill that doesn’t exist – at least it doesn’t unless you happen to be a lottery winner.

There is no solution or program that is totally without work. I absolutely 100% guarantee it.

So if you really want to start a work from home business you have to adopt the mindset of a business person and not some part-time suck-it-and-see dream chaser.

The easiest way to highlight the points I’m making is to tell you why I work from home and the type of business that fits in with my needs…

• I have no travelling. No boring, strees filled commute to an office

• I have my own dress code – normally shorts and tee-shirt

• I do what I want when I want (I should stress that within those parameters I have a strict range of activities that I always follow – working from home doesn’t give you a licence to be lazy or avoid your responsibilities!)

• I am not answerable to anyone apart from the most important people in the world – my family and my customers

• I can take time off whenever I need or want to as long as I’ve done the work I need to. I’ve never missed any of my kinds school plays, sports days etc

• I have the flexibility to change direction if I need to. I have no boss or committee to discuss my decisions with or convince of my plans

• I have no financial overhead of an office, warehouse or factory

• I have no obligations to staff or stock to maintain

Now you may see from these points that there is a theme developing. It has nothing to do with the business itself. I’ve made no mention of money.

To me working from home provides the one thing that no other business can…

Freedom to live my life just as I please. Not by somebody else’s rules or to somebody elses clock.

You just cannot underestimate the value of that when you get used to it.

But…

To have that freedom you have to understand exactly what home based business you are getting into.

It’s all too easy to get taken in by the hype and end running an online business that takes over your life.

You can spend all of your time writing articles, creating websites, designing products, trying to get traffic, dealing with customer support issues, replying to emails – and still not generating the money you need or freeing up the time to lead the life you want.

So before you start you need to think very carefully about your motives and what you are prepared to do.

The “gurus” will talk about millionaire lifestyles but what they don’t tell you is that most of them have offices with employees and big wage bills to cover. That’s a lot of headaches!

Most people I talk to don’t want that. Yes, they want to get rid of their boss. They want to get in control of their lives but they don’t want to trade their job for a business that causes nothing but headaches!

When your business is up and running and going in the right direction you may want to look at more complicated business models but if you are just starting (especially if you can only work part-time alongside your day job perhaps)  I strongly recommend you go for the simplest and quickest way to get up and running.

Is Affiliate Marketing The Number 1 Work From Home Business?

Now you won’t be expecting a straight answer will you?

The answer is probably yes but it depends on how you set it up.

If you just send some traffic to an affiliate link I’m afraid the answer is NO.

But if you design your system to collect your visitors email address. To build a relationship with them by providing genuine advice and help. To promote only products you know will be of benefit (because you’ve tried them yourself). To use tactics that most other online marketers can’t be bothered with (in other words doing something that makes you stand out from the crows). Then yes, affiliate marketing is the number 1 work from home business.

But if you are a total newcomer to internet marketing there is an even easier way to see if this is what you really want to do.

You don’t need a website

You don’t need any products

You don’t need a payment processor

You don’t need to know much at all!

What you do need is this:

1) A Paypal Account to receive payments

2) $27 to buy a bundle of Private Label Rights products. For now you can forget them though because with the PLR you get a bonus ebook that contains your affiliate links.

3) Then just giveaway the book.

Maybe you have a Facebook account with say 100 friends. Maybe you’re active in a few forums or have a blog with some traffic. Or maybe you have a band of Twitter followers. Just give the book away and you are very likely to generate a little income.

That will build your confidence and belief that it is possible to make money online. While you are generating that income you can come back here and learn more detailed strategies and systems and build on your knowledge to create the level of income you need to quit your job and run your own work from home business.

Head over to Fast Home Business Success and download the free ebook to read more about this great way to get started online.

I’m going to make an assumption that you would prefer fast online business success rather than to set up something that may take years before you get any real rewards.

My guess is that you’re looking online for a way to make some extra money for one of 3 reasons:

1) You hate your current job / boss

2) You need some extra money to help with bills / buy a car / pay for holiday

3) You really want to change your lifestyle and are looking for a way to generate the income you need

Now it may be that you’ve always wanted to run your own business or you’ve come up with a brilliant idea for a service or product – I’d still argue that you fell in category 3.

“Whatever your motivation for starting to use the internet to generate an income I can think of no good reason why you wouldn’t want your success to be fast!”

But there are a few massive hurdles in your way and some of them are thinly disguised as the very solutions you are looking for.

Let me explain…

Most people new to the idea of using the internet to make some money would not dream of starting a “real world” business of their own. They’ve done a few searches online and read some sales letters that promise the earth:

* Low costs

* No overheads

* No staff

* No stock / inventory

* No premises

* Click a few buttons and everything is set up for you – all you need to do is count your money.

These promises are the BIGGEST OBSTACLE you will face. They are nothing but thinly disguised lies and you must not get taken in.

Now I’m not knocking the products or the people selling / promoting them. There are some excellent programs and many will help you to make a lot of money.

“The problem is that anyone new to the online business world doesn’t yet know what they don’t know.”

And many internet marketing gurus play on this with their promises of gold and riches.

You’ll find much of the puzzle in the “box” but some integral parts will be missing. Maybe there’s an assumption that you know technically how to set up a website and use ftp to upload files to the internet. Possibly it assumes you have a big list of hungry customers or you have a way to drive masses of traffic to your sites. Or maybe you are excpected to know how to break into the “internet marketing guru circle” and land yourself a few tasty Joint Venture (JV) deals and have somebody else do your promoting for you.

Or maybe after deciding to go with a program based on the “everything you need is included” sales pitch you find immediately after payment that it really isn’t everything and you have to have the “one time offer” upsell or you’ll be at a disadvantage to everybody else.

But as somebody new to the online business world how can you possibly know what you need to know, what to avoid, how much it is really likely to cost to become successful and perhaps more importantly how long it’s likely to take to get to that point where you are making money.

According to Clickbank (you can read more about Clickbank at my site Best of Clickbank) only about 10% of their 2.8 million affiliates are actually active. That means some 2.5 million people are either not successful or have given up. Why is that?

Simple. They were under the impression that the internet streets are paved with gold and all you need to do is bend down and pick it up.

I have to dispell 3 myths right here – right now. If it results in you never returning to this site then so be it. But if it helps you to keep some money in your pocket and not wasting it on some uselss program or deciding you don’t want to start working online because it’s not really for you then I’ll be delighted.

MYTH 1 - There is such a thing as an internet business

MYTH 2 – A complete, turn-key, “sit back and enjoy the income” solution exists

MYTH 3 - It’s possible to become a millionaire really fast on the internet

Some people will have already clicked away from this page – disgusted that I should be destroying their dreams. Those guys will go through their entire lives never making it because all they have is a dream and they are seeking the perfect solution that doesn’t exist. They’ll never do anything, they’ll never take action or work towards their goal because they’ve convinced themselves (or have been convinced) that there is a magic pill.

Good, now they’ve gone let’s get back to those myths.

Myth 1

The internet is a place to do business. It is a place to promote a business. It is a place to meet your customers. IT IS NOT A BUSINESS in its own right.

Have you ever heard a radio advert,  watched a TV shopping channel or seen an advertising billboard in the street?

I doubt you said to yourself  “ah, that’s one of those radio businesses, TV businesses or billboard businesses”

Of course not, you know that all three are just methods of promoting whatever the business is.

The internet is exactly the same. For sure it’s lower cost and with the right knowledge easier to get your message in front of the right people but ultimately you have to have a business and product or service that you are promoting.

And that is the basic challenge for many people – what should you be selling.

Myth 2

Over the years I’ve seen countless programs and opportunities that promise “plug and play” / “instant” / “turnkey” / “done for you” solutions.

Yes, many of them do really simplify the process and help you avoid much of the technical requirements of setting up and running a business online but none and I really do mean NONE provide the complete sit-back-and-do-nothing solution they allude to.

Think it through logically. If it really was that simple what possible  reason could there be for the solution to be made public? If somebody was making a mint following a process that was simply turn key why wouldn’t they just replicate it time and time again and make a mint x how ever many times they did it?

Simple. It’s not that easy and they’ve found an easier way to make money. Tell other people how simple it is in return for some hard earned cash!

So that’s myth 2 busted. Whatever you decide to do you have to treat it as a real business. You can simplify things and reduce much of the work but ultimately you will have to do a lot yourself. If you’re not prepared to do the work or employ somebody else to do it I’m afraid it’s time for you to leave too.

So now it’s just us left let’s move on to …

Myth 3

I guess if you got really lucky and chose the winning numbers and played the lottery online you could classify yourself as an overnight internet millionaire but personally I prefer the odds stacked more in my favour!

Now if you’ve bought in to the case made in Myth 2 above you’ll understand that it’s going to take a while for your online bsiness to take off and you’re going to need to do some hard work to make it happen.

You’ll need to learn a great deal about promoting your business and you’ll either have to do a massive amount of work yourself (website creation, sales letters, graphics, setting up processes, traffic generation, article marketing, dealing with affiliates, finding JV partners and on, and on) OR you’ll need to spend a lot of money on outsourcing and getting someone else to do it for you.

So will you become a millionaire overnight? I don’t think so

The Solution

Now you could be forgiven for thinking that I’m just full of bad news, a neg-head who doesn’t believe in success. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I believe anyone can become hugely successful. There are of course some mindset issues for some people but with the right belief and knowledge anybody, regardless of their education and background can be a massive success – especially online.

But, there has to be some fast success or most people don’t have the staying power – the perserverence – to keep on going until success arrives.

So it is essential to get some quick success to prove to yourself that it is possible.  To prove that at first it’s possible to generate a little extra income at first, then enough to cover the mortgage payments and then enough to provide a full time income through to all you will ever need.

But when you are starting out and there is so much to learn how can you do that?

For me it was to find a very simple way to generate a small additional income that kept the belief and motivation high while I learnt all of the more detailed stuff.

Yes, I had to learn some basics very quickly and in particular how to promote something on the internet but all of the complex technical stuff and the “underground” stealth tactics could wait. I wanted some fast online business success and I found the best way to achieve it was to give something away!

As you learn everything you need to build a sustainable online business and get to the point where it’s providing the income you desire you may want to start earning a nice little extra along the way. Read how to create a work from home income, quickly and easily without needing to know how to set up sites and all of the processes up front. You can start in your spare time just by giving away this  free Fast Home Business Success report. Everything you need to know is in the book. If you like it give it a go – if you don’t it hasn’t cost you anything apart from a little time.

IMPORTANT NOTE – If you go ahead with getting your own branded copy of the report, you’ll be given the opportunity to learn more about internet marketing from the author. I cannot vouch for her ability as I’ve not had any experience of her teaching. I have to say I find her site a little confusing and you are, therefore, extremely welcome to ask me any questions and I’ll be pleased to help.

With the right effort you can get enough regular income to enable you to cover the cost of the other tools you’ll need in your business and have some cash to spare.

So although I don’t believe most of the hype on the internet it is undoubtedly possible to get a fast start and some regular income coming in without having to know everything up front.

The basic premise of this site is to help you get a fast start to your online business success and you’ll find ideas and tips together with great resources to help you do just that. Once you’re up and running that’s the time to dig deeper into the dark and mysterious world of internet marketing. Be afraid, be very afraid

Mark